Oh, How the Years Go By....

Scott and I celebrated our 11th anniversary yesterday! We went to our favorite spot to dine in Nashville-- Fleming's. We have commemorated all the major events of our life there for the past several years.... anniversaries, pregnancies, Valentine's Day...

I pulled out our wedding and honeymoon videos and made Luke watch! He wasn't too interested! :) The one thing that made me cringe was when it hit me that I have officially become one of "those people" who remark about how skinny I looked in my dress and how I would never be able to fit into it again! YIKES! We looked SO young and naive! It is hard to accept that we are OLD now!!! :)

Last night was very special... We had a great discussion over dinner about our marriage and our relationship. It has changed so much since the arrival of our kids. That is inevitable, I'm sure. Scott and I were blessed to spend the first nine years of marriage "playing" and traveling around the world. Nobody had more fun than we did! It truly was a perfect life! We were best friends and couldn't have asked for anything more.

I always used to marvel when people would talk about marriage being "work"-- I could never relate, because the relationship Scott and I had was far from work. Well-- I think I have reached a point after 11 years where I am beginning to understand what it means. "Work" might not be the exact word I would use-- maybe "effort" would be better. It takes effort to stay on track now.

I never thought twice before kids about making the time to talk to Scott about my thoughts and dreams and feelings. Now I find myself thinking that I should, but then I get too busy, or I'm too tired to bring things up. He is still my best friend-- no doubt-- but, it is so easy to fall into the trap of two people living under the same roof if you aren't constantly aware of communicating with one another.

We talked about that and many other things. It was nice to reconnect and recommit to one another. We feel very blessed to still be so in love and genuinely happy after 14 years together-- dating and marriage. God has been faithful to us, and we look forward to many years ahead.

Mile-High Ministry

The ZOE Girls!! Emily, Karin, Me, & Melissa.

Emily is officially one of the gang now! She's so fun! She sang with us at Pepperdine, too.

What a great weekend in Denver! I learned that I can pull off soprano reasonably well, but it isn't half as fun as harmonizing! Altos rule! Melissa was great putting up with me though!

The people at Arvada church couldn't have been nicer. That is the best thing about being blessed to a part of ZOE-- meeting Christian brothers and sisters from coast to coast. It gives you a much bigger sense of the "church of Christ."

Caroline was an angel. She slept on both legs of the flight. She was happy and amenable the whole weekend and was passed around to anyone who wanted to hold her. I don't think she fussed more than 5 minutes all weekend. She is so good-natured! Another blessing! Scott was great, too, and spent much of the time holding her-- which I think he enjoyed. Another blessing!

On the way to Denver...

On the way to Denver in the morning for a ZOE conference at the Arvada Church. It should be a fun weekend! I am actually singing soprano this weekend! YIKES! That should be fun, too! I am still getting over my sinus issues that I've had for over two weeks, so I am praying that my voice will hold up and sound decent! Good thing Brandon is still on hiatus-- he'd probably have a heart attack! :)

We shipped Luke back to my parents today to stay while we're gone. He has so much fun at Pa Bob and Ma Betz's house. We had been to visit them last weekend along with both my sisters and the cousins, Camille and Austin. Luke had a blast with them, and they are still up there, so I'm sure he won't even notice we're gone.

Ran into my high school boyfriend-- Lance-- while we were at my parents. I dated him all through high school and the first semester of college at Lipscomb. I even attended his wedding after we broke up. Well, he got divorced in December after 13 years of marriage! So sad to see him act as if it was the best thing that ever happened to him-- especially right in front of his 7 year-old daughter! She even commented at one point that "mom and dad fought a lot!" She seemed so nonchalant about it all. It just struck me as such a tragic situation. I asked him what had happened, and he said they had just grown apart. He said he had been traveling a good deal. Lord, please protect our marriages! They are so precious and fragile in so many ways!

Our friends Kevin and Lana had their baby boy yesterday, and we went to visit them tonight. Caroline looked like she was fixing to graduate high school compared to him! Which is funny since she was the same size as he was just 3 months ago. Boy does time fly by--- they just grow up way too fast! She is just perfect! Thank you, Lord, for our little miracle!