April 28

On April 28, 2001, I finally married the former commitment-phobe with the quick wit, crooked smile and gorgeous blue eyes. It's been TEN YEARS and I love him more each day. I'd get way too sentimental and sappy if I wrote all the ways that I love, respect, admire and appreciate him, so instead I'm posting some pictures of our 14.75 years together (including dating). I could not have dreamed up a more amazing and blessed life than the two of us are living right now. He is a wonderful husband, an amazing father and such a hard worker. Happy anniversary, Babe! I love you always.

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This was taken just weeks after we started dating. I can tell because of my eyebrows and his hair cut. Did I mention 4.75 years of dating?!

That meant quite a few school dances...

Our engagement picture.

The big day! Can't believe it's been 10 years.

He looks exactly the same!

Honeymoon in Hawaii.

Grad school for Dr. Tompkins. He said on this day that I should call him Doctor. That joke lasted for 11 months, at which time I graduated and insisted he call me Master.

Christmases with just the 2 of us.Europe.

New York City.

Then the real adventure began...

Baby #1

Baby #2

Imperfect and happy...ever after.

Expressions

We have a cute book (that you probably have too) about Ladybug Girl. I noticed after the first 10 readings or so that Sydney had started to try to copy the facial expressions of the main character as we were reading (which are drawn really well, I think). I pointed it out and when she realized that it amused me, she continued and hammed it up and now we can't read it without her stopping at each page to show me how she's making the same look with her eyes, hands, tongue, etc. On a whim this afternoon, I decided to try to capture it. Sorry some of the pics are a little fuzzy.

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First, I'll show you the illustration... ...then the copycat!
This one is her fave:

Pointing= see? Open mouth smile like Lulu.

Hello, Crazy Eyes!

Carson saw what we were doing and decided to get in on the action...

So I guess he's Bumblebee Boy!

Too cute

During "Less Screen" week, Carson was snooping around in our bedroom and found two HUGE three-ring-binders under our bed. One was full of baseball cards, the other full of basketball cards. They are from Trent's childhood and part of the traditional, coming of age "you finally have your own house so now you have to take your childhood junk out of mine" booty that we were given by my in laws several years ago. Hence--it's valued under-the-bed location.

Well, within one of the notebooks, Carson came across a memento of Trent's trip to the Washington DC area with his grandparents in 1989. He was eleven years old: Carson was extremely taken with this old ID tag. He decided to make himself look as much like little Daddy as possible. In fact, I had no idea he had discovered any of this stuff until he came out in an entirely new outfit. He had located the only white, collared shirt he owns (though slightly too small) and put it on. He also changed from jeans to khakis, because "I think that's what he's wearing on bottom." He asked me to put a ribbon on the tag to make it a lanyard, and even tried to pose himself to look like Trent in the picture. The whole exercise was just TOO CUTE! It was a good reminder of the importance of a father/son relationship and just how much this little guy looks up to his Daddy.

I'm back!

Well, I successfully avoided all blogs (including mine) and facebook for an entire week. guess what? It wasn't earth-shattering. I did not have more energy, more patience, more time on my hands. I still struggled to keep the house even remotely clean from day to day. And since I started an on-line continuing ed class, I was still at the computer a lot. But still, it was a good exercise in balance, self-control and techno-dependency. :) The kids and I both cut down our screen time a lot, and it turns out cutting it out of MY life is way easier than cutting it out of theirs!

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We had a wonderful Easter, including attending the Good Friday service as a family for the first time. Easter, though, is a whirlwind holiday for those of us involved in music or children's ministry (which is Trent and me) that starts REALLY early and doesn't stop until you literally CRASH on the couch at 3:30pm. So I didn't even get any good pics of our family. I'll have to post some that my mom took. I kept telling myself that next year we'll be a family of 5 and I'll be very purposeful about capturing every second on film!

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But probably the highlight of the week was Carson's first ever t-ball game! It was hilarious. I had no idea how t-ball leagues have adjusted the rules over the years to make things more age-appropriate. First, every single player plays in the outfield when your team is not batting. Two shortstops? Yep. Two pitchers who fight over the ball a LOT, since that's usually how far the ball goes? Yep. A sea of green uniforms hovering around the bases? Yep! Then, EVERY kid on the roster gets an at-bat in every inning. There are no strikes, no outs, and you stay there until the kid makes contact with the ball in some form. They each proceed only one base for every player at-bat. But the way this is all tolerable? There are only two innings! Here are some pics from the memorable evening:

Well...almost.

I've been feeling lately that I need to take a little internet hiatus. To be honest, even though I'm not Catholic, I thought about giving up Facebook for lent, but with the chance of a referral in March, I knew I would not follow through with it! Then I found out that this week (starting tomorrow, Monday) is National Screen Free Week. I'm kind of chicken, and will not be going totally screen free, but I'm going to abstain from my biggest time-suckers, blogging and FB--including reading other blogs. I'll still check my email and do my online banking, etc. My plan is to use the time more purposefully, not just for spiritual things (but I did just start an awesome new study with the moms group!), but also for spending time on the face to face with the kids and getting a few overdue tasks done around here. I'll let you know how it goes and how bad my withdrawals were--when I check back in next Monday! Have a great week.