6 years -- and many more to come

Saturday, July 17th, 2010 was the day SIX years ago that we got married. We had decided to take the kids to Toy Story 3 and have a fun day in Spokane. We started at the farmers market since I had $20 worth of gift certificates (essentially) from WIC, and got cherries, carrots, peas, and apricots for our lunch.


This pea pod was just so perfect to represent our little day that I had to take a picture of it. Four peas in a pod. :] Youssef took some of my art to a bookstore (where we've sold some others before) while the girls and I were at Franklin park eating lunch and playing.

It was really hot and the water felt quite good. The girls did a good job of not getting *too* wet also, since I hadn't brought their swimsuits.
After that we went to the movie. My parents and little bro met us there as well and we all watched it together. I don't have a picture to represent Toy Story 3, BUT I have to write a little something anyway. First, both girls were wonderful and sat really still and enjoyed the show. Renna sat on my lap and when some more intense parts came she squealed a little too loudly and was too into it to be quiet so she held MY HAND over HER MOUTH (totally hilarious) while she screamed at the tense parts. While Renna was into it like that there was a little girl (probably around 5) behind us sitting on her mother's lap who was just crying and crying at the part where everyone thinks the toys are going to get burned up. And after they were saved this little girl couldn't stop crying for a while. So sad and adorable at the same time. ;]
After the movie we did a couple more errands (mailing a custom order of my cards, and getting dish soap at the dollar store) and then went to the mall because I REALLY wanted to buy a scrapbooking magazine. Well, can't afford that, so we went to the bookstore at the Northtown Mall so that I could at least *look* at some of them (the good ones are in plastic and you can't see inside.. but there were a few other scrapbook magazines that were unwrapped and gave me a few ideas.) Youssef rubbed my back a little bit while the girls played with the trains.
Renna doesn't seem to care at all that we didn't buy anything, but Lily always asks if we can buy something. They both had fun though and we went to the kid play area for a while too. Youssef and I took turns taking funny, purposefully blurry, pictures of the girls. We were trying to capture the *feeling* of the play area. And.. of course, the feeling is that the kids are just racing around in a blur.
When we got back home the girls were REALLY worn out. Renna was seriously losing it, but I wanted to help some friends alter something last minute, so they came over and I did a quick sew job while Youssef held a screaming two year old (once she starts crying it's really hard for her to calm down) until I was done working on it. She took a little longer going to sleep than she would have since she was overly tired, but we were still able to get our dinner and game in.
We listened to a radio program about the persistent widow and the unjust judge. It was encouraging and the food was SO good. Perhaps food tastes better when you haven't had much all day and eat dinner at 9, or maybe it really was just that good..
We had humus and GF crackers, Cornish hens, and sauteed carrots, sugar-snap peas, red peppers, and green onions. Oh, oh so good. The hens were so tiny though that I sort of felt sorry for them. I know it's silly, but they could easily fit in the palm of my hand and were just so little and cute (I generally roast turkeys so they seemed REALLY tiny) But.. here's the thing (I told myself) I bought them for a discounted price at a grocery outlet... that is to say they were on their way out. If I hadn't bought them they'd have ended up in the garbage... and that tiny little hen would have died for nothing. Yes, it's true, so I also made SURE we had eaten ALL the meat off those tiny little birds because if I were an animal that was raised for food I sure wouldn't want to have died for nothing. No, they were roasted in all their glory and enjoyed fully on a most special of special days.

We used the glasses that we'd used at our wedding. Oh, and this is really significant to me (though Youssef doesn't see why) ... but I asked him to pick the glass that he wanted to use. Now, they are different. One is thin and one is rounder. I picked them out before we were married so that we could use at the wedding and I thought at the time that it was neat to have them match, but be slightly different. I originally thought Youssef should have the bigger one (I guess because the thin one looked more feminine perhaps...) Well, when I pulled them out of a box a few months ago I remembered back to when I got them. He didn't like the round one. He wanted the thin one... he had this thing about how much better the thin glass was.... well.. he DID use the larger one for our wedding and maybe it was only my perception, but it seemed like he didn't like the glass. I know, I know.. I probably thought it was a bigger deal than it was, but I'd even thought about trying to find the place that I ordered them from so that I could get a matching thin glass to make Youssef happier about them (I'd had that thought just a few months ago), but of course, even if I did decided to do that... we don't have the money for a frivolous thing like that anyway.

Okay, so back to last night when I asked him to pick the glass that he wanted to use... I thought for sure that he'd take the thin one, but he chose the big one! The one that he'd actually used at our wedding!!! You see.. I remember him saying things about glasses (before we were married) That THAT size is too big, too round, too whatever. And YET, he picked the big one. He LIKED the big one... the very one that he used in our wedding and I thought he didn't like. This is such a silly little thing, and he didn't get why I kept asking if he really DID want to use that glass,

"Yes," he said, "It's bigger. I like that."
... "You aren't just saying that?"
*confused look*

Yeah, he didn't remember those little things that he'd said 6 and 7 years ago, but I had... I sort of unintentionally collect random things that certain people say they like or don't like. I suppose this is just another place where we've grown and changed. It's not a big thing of course by any means, but to see how we change slightly as the years go by.. as we slowly fit together even better in our preferences or hobbies is just always neat to see.
And, to top of our lovely day we played a competitive game of "Carcassonne"... of course, the game was full of much teasing and strategizing to try and beat the other person. It was neck and neck the whole way. He had the longest road, but I had the biggest city tile (that I got completing HIS city and that he got completing MY road... yes.. we are deceptively nice to each other in games) I got my barn down and squeaked in a few extra farmers as did his barn and farmers.. the barrels, cloth, and wheat were another aspect of the competition of course. Adding up the points at the end threw the balance back and forth still... and yet, when it was all said and done and counted up.. guess who won? Amazingly, we ended up in the exact same place. Such a profound metaphor for our lives and exactly how it all seems to work out. We go through trials or seasons in our lives together or as individuals and yet.. in the end and at certain points along the way it's obvious to me that God is leading us. Just as unlikely as it seems that a game with hundreds of points counted up in dozens of different areas of play can somehow (unlikely as it should be) give us the exact same points at the end... how much more amazing is it that two different people-- any man and woman (no matter how alike their personalities are) are going to start out being pretty different-- can be brought to a place of unity.

Only by the grace of God working in and through our lives and all along the way can this unity be possible.

To God be the glory.