10 Years Ago

Ten years ago today...

I was sitting at home wondering why Nate hadn't called me to do something that night. He said he would!

Ten years ago today...

Zack was at home deciding whether or not he wanted to branch out of his comfort zone and go to a West High game with Nate...in the rain.

Ten years ago today...

Nate called at 9:30 PM wondering if I wanted to come play games with him and a couple of friends.

Ten years ago today...

Zack decided to listen to his Mission President's advice to look for opportunities to meet new people and accepted Nate's invitation to come play games. "You never know when you might meet your future wife," he begrudgingly thought. :)

Ten years ago today...

I walked into the Burgess's home and saw a cute, skinny guy sitting on their couch.

Ten years ago today...

Zack saw a girl with long blond hair, wearing a red fleece jacket that was too big for her, walk into the Burgess home.

Ten years ago today...

I said, "You look familiar."

Ten years ago today...

He said, "I have a familiar face."

Ten years ago today...

Sitting around a table, playing games and quoting "Tommy Boy", I realized this new Zack fellow was really fun to talk to and he laughed at all the right times.

Ten years ago today...

Sitting around a table, playing games and also quoting "Tommy Boy", Zack realized this new Carrie girl was incredibly funny. ;)

Ten years ago today...

It took me 2 years to realize it, but my best friend had just entered my life and it would never be the same again.

Ten years ago today...

Zack decided he should start hanging out with Nate more often.

Happy Ten Years of Us!

32 Is The New Black

I turned 32 on Tuesday. Did you know that 32 is where it's at now? Well, it is.

29's got nuthin' on it.

Zack has decided to make it my birthday week so he started the birthday festivities on Monday. I think he was just trying to find an excuse to give me my present early. He has a hard time keeping secrets from me, even if those secrets are birthday presents...or Christmas presents, or Valentine's Day presents, or Flag Day or, you get the idea.

So Monday night he gave me my gift: The last three years of my blog all nice and bound up in book form! It makes me feel like an author, kind of. It's really fun to see all my writing in a nice, polished book.

He also gave me my birthday cake. He knows Dick's chocolate sheet cake is, by far, my favorite dessert.

A cake wreck it is not.

When you don't have kids old enough to eat, let alone know what a cake is, you don't need to go through the pretense of cutting it into pieces and using plates. You start at one end and stop when you feel like it.

So that was Monday night. Tuesday morning Zack let me sleep in while he got the boy up, fed him and then made me breakfast: French toast with bananas, strawberries and Nutella. On a side note, has anyone seen how Nutella is marketing their product? They're touting it's ability to make your kids eat healthier foods. Yeah. By putting CHOCOLATE on them. And they're not even using foods that kids don't usually like to eat, like veggies. They're using bread as their "tough to get kids to eat" food. What kid won't eat bread?

So our breakfast conversation was full of snarky statements like "I sure love Nutella. It helps my kids eat healthy foods like pasta, peanut butter and candy. Normally they wouldn't touch the stuff, but after I slather chocolate all over it they just eat it up!"

It was a nice birthday breakfast.

For lunch Caleb and I and the puppies all went up to Zack's work for the first picnic lunch of the year. There's a nice lawn area with picnic tables set up outside his building.

Zack and the crew getting ready to walk up the hill to the picnic table.

Sitting at the picnic table.

After lunch Zack went back to work and I took the crew home, put Caleb down for his nap, and read a book for two hours. *sigh*

When Caleb's nap was over we went for our daily walk around the neighborhood.

Zack came home early to watch Caleb so my mom could take me to get a pedicure with her. Ah, nothing says birthday quite like an Asian lady rubbing your feet and speaking unintelligible English. All kidding aside, it was a fun way to be pampered and my fingernails and toenails have never looked better. Thanks, Mom!

Now I can wear my strappy shoes in style!

Mom even watched Caleb for us so we could go out to dinner. We went to the Cheesecake Factory. I've only been there a few times, but everything I've tried there has been pretty tasty and they did not disappoint that night.

When we first got there and were seated Zack asked me if I was okay with our table. He felt a little too close to the people on either side of us. I said I was fine, but we could move if he wanted to. He decided not to bother. A few minutes later one of the managers came and asked us if we wouldn't mind moving to another table as they had mistakenly seated us at that table and they would be needing it for a bigger party that was coming. And, for our trouble, would we accept free desserts? Well, okay. If we have to. And only since you're throwing in free dessert. That's what we said.

Okay, we might not have said those specific words to them, but we might have said it to each other in very sarcastic tones.

We weren't planning on getting dessert at all, for a few reasons. First, we had birthday cake at home. And second, who would pay $7.50 for one piece of cake?! Well, after getting the red velvet cheesecake, I might now be one of those people.

After we picked up our baby boy from his doting grandparents we went home and put him to bed. And then we watched two episodes of "Modern Family" on Hulu. Awe.Some.

We would have watched more but it was past 11:00 and, did I mention that we're both 32 now?

Awwwwwwww

This is a picture I snuck of Zack while he was washing my car windshield tonight.

He does that often. When he does it I feel really taken care of and loved.

Yeah, he's sweet like that.

And no, he's not mad. He's just concentrating.

He Built Me a Cake

My cold is not gone. You think it's gone? It's NEVER gone!
Seriously, this is literally the longest cold I've ever had in my life.

This is the cold that never ends. Yes it goes on and on my friend. Some little kid gave it to me, I don't know who it was, but he'll continue giving it to me forever just because....

Anyway, this blog isn't about my cold. It's about how my hubby has been taking care of me throughout the cold. Even when he's been feeling sick.

Here are two excellent examples of what he's done for me the past few weeks. (17 days and counting...)

He built me a cake.
I was at the stage of my sickness where my throat felt dry all the time. The only thing that made it feel better was if I was constantly swallowing something. But that something couldn't be all hard and salty like chips. It had to be soft and snacky...like a cake.

(Yes, this is how we eat cake at our house.)

He surprised me with Comfort after a long day at school.

I got home and found this waiting for me:

The instructions were for me to push start on the microwave (he had some honey/lemon drink ready to heat up), put on the comfy clothes, take a Comtrex and a cough drop, and watch T.V., play on the computer, or read the paper while I lounged on the couch and waited for him to come home.

He arrived 15 minutes later with movies and a pizza.

If this doesn't make me the luckiest girl around, I don't know what does.

In My Dreams

Zack and I "talk" to each other at work via AIM Express. In other words, AOL. It's the only thing the school district's computer system will allow. It blocks every other form of instant messaging. MSN, Google Chat, you name it. But not AOL. That little demon somehow makes it's way onto every computer and then infests itself deep inside the recesses of the computer's mind, never to be deleted. Which is why we don't have AOL installed on our home computers. But demon virus-like software that allows me to communicate with my hubby is quite nice on my computer at work.

Anyway, that's how we communicate because I do not have a cell phone, nor do I have a phone in my classroom. (That's a whole 'nother issue.)

It's nice to chat with Zack when the kids are at recess, or when they're at computers or music or P. E. and such. It's also nice to type in messages at random times of the day, knowing Zack will get them the next time he's around his computer. It's also nice to get random messages from him while the kids are practicing their hand-writing or doing some other thing they can do without constant teacher surveillance (which is not much).

This afternoon, as I was getting ready to go home, I typed a message to Zack that went something like this:

"i'm going home now. i don't know what to have for dinner. my current thoughts are: strawberry and whipped cream crepes (in my dreams), breakfast for dinner, tuna casserole....um, i can't think of anything else. my mind is blank."

Then, after writing the traditional "kso kso's" I logged off and went home. Zack got home about 5 minutes after I did...with strawberries and whipped cream.

I really didn't expect him to go get that stuff for dinner. It was just wishful thinking.

What a sweetheart. In his words, "If I have the chance to make your dreams come true, I'm going to jump at it."

The crepes were delicious.

(By the way, this is not a really nutritious meal. If we had kids I'd totally throw a plate of broccoli in there...or something. )

Little Reminders

Today I cleaned out the cars. This gets done, roughly, once a year, usually right after school gets out. While I was cleaning out my car I found two reminders: a piece of plastic that broke off my car and a piece of an old pink balloon.

I'll start with the balloon. I've rediscovered this piece of balloon in my car for the past 5 years. I keep it as a reminder.

Five years ago Zack and I were happy-go-lucky newlyweds. We lived in an apartment that we thought was fabulous. Zack was finishing his senior year of college and I was in my 3rd year of teaching. At the time, I was carpooling to work. Every morning I would drive over to Behhhcca's apartment and we (and another girl) would drive up to Clearfield. We traded off driving every week. The week of Valentine's Day it was not my turn to drive. So my car sat in Behhhcca's parking lot every day that week.

Enter clever Zack!
He spent Valentine's Day writing little notes and blowing up balloons, enough to fill my car. When I got to Behhcca's apartment after school I found a car full of balloons. I had no choice but to pop the balloons right then because I couldn't drive home otherwise. Zack had thoughtfully left a pin for just that very purpose. I spent the next 15 to 20 minutes popping balloons and reading little notes.

Months later, as I was cleaning out my car, I found part of a balloon that didn't get cleaned up with the rest of the balloons. It made me smile and remember how sweet my husband is. So, instead of throwing it away, I decided to keep it in the car.

So, today as I was cleaning out my car, I got to stop, smile and remember how sweet my husband is again.

And now the plastic...
The piece of plastic from my car reminds me of how much I have learned and how much I still need to learn.

Years ago Zack had to have some minor surgery. We were engaged at the time. I, being an incredibly naive and selfish girl, wasn't sure if I was going to go be with him at the hospital the day of the surgery. In my mind we weren't yet married, he had a mom, and mom's were supposed to take care of their kids, right? I'd take care of him once we were married, right?
I didn't yet realize my "role" as the fiance or wife. I do now, thank goodness. (My role is now to protect and do everything for my husband. Nobody better hurt him (including me), try to tell him what to do, or undermine MY authority as the wife...)

Zack seemed hurt that I wasn't sure if I was coming to the hospital. (DUH.) Thankfully, I talked to my mom about it and she, in not so many words, said "Of COURSE you should be at the hospital!!!" Sooo, I went. In fact, I picked him up at his house to take him to the hospital. I had him drive. (I know, I know. I was a jerk.) He was so nervous driving there that as he was trying to pull the sun-visor down he broke a piece off of it. I keep that piece. It reminds me of how much I didn't understand then.
When Zack came out of the anethesia later that day, he wanted to see me. Me! I guess I didn't realize until then how I fit into his life. I came before everyone.

That piece reminds me how much my husband loves me. It reminds me how insensitive I was before we got married and reminds me to not be that way anymore. It reminds me of how sweet Zack is to put up with me and all the dumb, insensitive things I do. It reminds me to be a better wife.