Seven years

July 20, 2001

Seven years ago today a gorgeous young couple made their marriage vows before God, family, and a few friends. Actually, I believe there were about 550 friends in attendance, Lord bless them, because the blushing young bride might still be buying the basics from her registry at Bed, Bath, and Beyond.

Yes, my friends, it's true. Seven years. We're pretty much professional married people. I have to say that I am genuinely more in love with my husband than the day we were married, and I think he'd say the same. About loving me. Not about me loving him. You get it, I'll move on.

I've heard the term "7 year itch" and it makes me sad. Seven years of marriage and people realize it's not what it's cracked up to be, or they're too tired from being dad and mom to be husband and wife anymore. Unfulfilled expectations. The lure of greener pastures.
Frankly, I don't get it. I mean, I can understand how it happens, but I thank God it's not happening to us. We're in it for the long haul. And it ain't half bad. All joking aside, I'm so proud of our marriage, and thrilled to be able to say that I'm truly married to my best friend. Honest to goodness. I love being with him. He makes me laugh so hard that I cry. He makes me want to be a better wife and mom. He challenges me, and encourages me. It's not that we've never had problems, or never will again, it's that we believe our love is stronger than anything the world could ever throw at us. That may sound naive, but it's not our strength, it's God's that will hold us together.

God's strength, and the incredible people we have around us, encouraging us every day. We are blessed to have many amazing examples of marriage in our lives. Our parents were (and are) wonderful moms and dads, but they were first and foremost husbands and wives. Thank you, John and Ann, and Randy and Nanci for showing us how awesome marriage can really be.
Happy anniversary, dude. Can't wait for 7 more.

Fun in the sun

We're back from the beach! It was such a great time. Family, yummy food, sunny days, and plenty of entertainment from our borderline ADHD children. Here's some great quotes from the weekend:

On our way to the beach, traffic is moving slowly and I tell Dan a story about how a few days ago I missed a light in a left turn lane because of an idiot in front of me who decided he didn't want to turn and tried to merge into traffic going straight except their light was red and no one could let him in. My story was quite long and full of a lot of emotion. No, me telling a long story? It's true, my friends. Anyway, Jake says "Mom, I'm going to find those bad guys in their car and I'll be the pirate and get'em with my sword and throw them in the garbage because they can't be mean to you like that." My night in shining armor.

When we got to the beach Jake proudly showed everyone his hot wheels, including a semi-truck that says "Farm Fresh Milk" on the side. Uncle Dan: "How do you think they get the milk inside that truck?" Jake: "Well, first they take the milk out of the cow's bottom, then they put it in a bucket..." I think I told him once that milk comes from a cow's body. Evidently I need to enunciate.

On a complete side note Ty just crawled underneath me while I'm typing and bit my left big toe. Hard. I said, "OUCH. Did you seriously just bite me?" Yes. "Why?" Because I want to. Hmm, sounds about right. Here's some other Ty specials. First of all, I need to clarify that Ty uses the word "because" approximately 28 times in each sentence. I don't know why. Just go with it. "No uncle Marc, because you can't play football because you're too older." Then, while looking at a very distant relative he's never met, "Is he a mean guy?" No, he's a very nice guy. "Oh...can I hit 'im?"
This next direct quotation didn't happen at the beach, but I forgot to post this earlier and it IS my blog, so...here you go. A few weeks ago we're sitting upstairs watching TV and I realize I haven't seen Ty in a while. "Ty?" Silence. "TY??" Silence. "TYLER??!!" I hear the pitter patter of tiny feet walking toward me and a faint "Yeah?" "What are you doing?" He comes around the corner with wet hands, and I'm pretty sure I didn't just hear water running, so I'm really starting to wonder. I repeated my question and he proceeded to tell me just what he had been doing. "Because my hands are wet, because I had a booger and because my booger was on my hands, because I needed to get my booger off, because I put my booger and my hands in the toilet--DON'T spank me--because I wiped my hands and because my booger in the toilet..." Dan and I were in tears. I wish you could have seen him. He stopped dramatically and pointed his little index finger right at me when he said "don't spank me" and then didn't miss another beat with his booger/toilet/because story. That about sums up child #2.

Speaking of summing things up...the beach was fantastic. Dan's family is so much fun, and the weather was pretty perfect, and Ty didn't vomit in the car like our last beach trip (gotta love Dramamine). We were surprised that Jake didn't actually like the bumper cars in Seaside. I believe his words were "I hate those things" after the white-knuckled 3 minutes that Ty thoroughly enjoyed. Who knows. They both loved the carousel at the mall (I use the term mall very loosely. I'm pretty sure the Seaside "Mall" houses the carousel and the crazy hat store and the "Old Tyme" photo studio, and...that's about it.)

Why no pictures of the vacation? Because I've tried really hard to paint a beautiful picture for you already. You don't really need actual photos do you? Actually, the truth is that I'm probably going to have to commit myself to an institution because I haven't been able to get my pictures to upload to blogger despite 385 attempts to do so. "Internal error," it keeps saying to me, over and over and over...I'll show you internal error. Maybe I'll have better luck tomorrow. Unless my institution doesn't have internet access. Then you're just out of luck.

The 6th of July

Happy 6th of July! This is funny because I seem to be a little behind these days, get it? Hope everybody had a great 4th, and nobody permanently injured themselves with fireworks. Non-permanent injuries...that's just fine by me, it gives me job security. Please don't be horrified, I'm just kidding. Sort of. ANYWAY...

We had a glorious day. I'm trying out some new adjectives, do you approve? It was marvelous, stupendous in fact. And delicious. Dan smoked some ribs that were finger lickin' good and we got to share them with our friends Vergil and Kelsey. Their adorable baby girl Olive didn't get to taste the ribs, but I saw her eying them. They were superb. Outstanding. Top notch.

We bought a few fireworks, but would have had to take out a second mortgage to buy anything decent. But the boys didn't know what they were missing, and had a fabulous time stomping on pop-its on our back patio. On a side note, whenever I say the word "fabulous" I always picture myself owning a summer home in the Hamptons and kissing all my friends on each cheek when they come over for a cocktail party. Fabulous.

Hmm, what else is mildly interesting about our lives right now? We get to go to the Oregon coast with Dan's family next weekend. We're planning on taking the boys to Seaside on our way there and riding in the bumper cars and teaching them to play arcade games. Ah, the memories! I'm pretty sure Jake will want to ride the bumper cars approximately 82 times, so hopefully the ticket prices are the same as they were in 1990 when I was last there.

I'll be sure to bring my camera so you'll get the full experience of the Stump Family Vacation. I'll be inviting each of you over to watch the un-edited slide show when we return, so clear your calendars.
Keep enjoying this magnificent, splendid summer, alright? Fabulous.