6 Years of (mostly) Wedded Bliss

Saturday, July 23rd, 2011.

The Boy and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary. It's absolutely mind-blowing to think that we've been married for 6yr now. Heck, come Sept, we'll have been together for 10! Complete craziness.

I got to open my gift on Thursday night. They/it arrived that day, he prettied them up in a bag, and had it waiting on the table for me. You maay be asking why he didn't wait until our actual anniversary. See, he's really bad (really, really bad) at keeping things a secret for too long. Plus, he likes to spoil me. All week long, he gave me hints and clues as to what he got me. I couldn't figure it out to save my life. Let's see if any of you can guess it!

1 - You'll really like it, but will probably want to give it to someone else.
2 - One of them you really don't want, but you'll like it.
3 - One of them is something that you really need.

Anyone figure it out? I know I sure didn't. They made a lot of sense though when I opened the gift and saw these:


Yay! Giant Microbes! I love these things, but have never bitten the bullet and splurged to buy any for myself. The cute thing is I actually do some work with leukocytes. Well, I use to as I can't really work with some of the chemicals we use in processing them now that I'm all knocked-up. The dogs were pretty excited about them too, until they realized they weren't new toys for them.

Our actual anniversary day was great, low key, and full of yummy food. We started Saturday off with Boy letting me sleep in. All that really means these days is that I get to be lazy and just lay in bed a bit longer without the pups bothering me to take them out, play with them, etc. But hey, I like just being lazy and staying in bed, so it was nice! He came back to bed, we cuddle and talked about our life these last 6 years and how we feel about things, what we've enjoyed the most, what we love about one another. Reminiscing and being sappy and mushy, really. At some point, I found myself looking up at his face, and felt this unbelievable amount of happiness and love right then that I started crying. Not sure if I can blame it on the hormones or not, but we both got a kick out of that!

Boy suggested we treat ourselves to breakfast out, and suggested IHOP. Apparently, he'd been craving it for a few days. Another instance where I could swear that he was the one that was pregnant in this relationship! I can't say that it didn't sound mighty tasty, so off we went up the road to our local IHOP. Apple juice, fried eggs, bacon, hashbrowns, and a few bites of his pancakes with some butter pecan syrup. YUM! To be honest, I only ate the yolks of the eggs really. The whites have just tasted off to me since, well, you all know why. We had left over hashbrowns that we took home (and I ate this morning for breakfast - yum again!) and left full and happy.

We were off to Targe't, where I was letting him pick out his anniversary gift. I know that is super uncreative, but I was completely caught off-guard and not expecting to do presents this year. Surprise. He picked out a movie (127 Hours - really good) and the 1st season of the Walking Dead (also really good if you like zombie stuff - which he loves).

I was about to keel over at this point, so we came home and napped. Mmmm, sleep...

Then around 6/6:30, it was time to start getting ready for dinner. The Hubs had made reservations for us at the Melting Pot (for 8:30!! but we thought we try to squeeze in early). We'd been there for our 4th anniversary, and OMG! was it delicious! It's a bit $$$, but this is probably the last anniversary for a while that we can go out to such a nice restaurant and just enjoy each other and our food for hours. So, I went and shaved my legs, etc in the hopes that I'd be wearing this dress to dinner:

Sadly, the top of the dress was not nearly as flattering of my fuller bosom as I had hoped. My now larger bra stuck out in the neckline and the empire waist was actually on my boobs. *Big sad face* I tried on another pretty dress I liked, but it strained too mightily across my midsection to be comfortable or presentable even. So, I fell back to a recently purchased, jersey skirt. Not as fancy, but better than any pants I own, none of which can be completely buttoned.

Serious picture

Not serious picture

Awesome arm placement for concealment there! Off we went for a nice, romantic dinner! One thing I love about the Melting Pot is how easily you can do substitutions! We had a nice cheddar-cheesy app fondue followed by Caesar salads. The Boy ordered Filet mignon, steak, salmon and extra salmon in place of shrimp. I was able to just order the chicken platter, but had them add on some spinach ravioli (which they did for free!). The only wine I had this time was in the cooking broth (sad face), and it made everything delicious, regardless of the fact that the alcohol cooked off! We finally started our chocolate dessert course just shy of 10pm. This baby has totally screwed up my sweet tooth! The thing I enjoyed the most with the chocolate were the apples we held onto from the cheese course, followed by the bananas. The cheesecake, strawberries and rice krispy treats were all just "eh" rather than the "YUM" they usually are. It was ridiculous that I wasn't all over the cheesecake! More for the Hubs, which he was more than happy have.


After eating for about 3hrs, we navigated our way back home. I was sooo fully, ridiculously happy, and probably looked like I gained 10lbs in that amount of time. All in all, it was a great anniversary. As much as I enjoyed this year's low-key celebration, I can not begin to describe how excited I am for next year's!

Widening the circle, a bit.

There are now 10 people outside of myself, the Boy (and ya'll) that know that we've been TTC and miscarried. Both parents (4), my boss, his boss, the therapist, Boy's co-worker, and now, the B & SIL. Yes, them.

I got tired of making excuses and lame back stories to why we can go to this or that and pretending to be super happy for every little thing they inform us on about their very soon to be arriving baby. The BIL was stopping by on Tuesday around 5pm to drop off a "special care package" of samples his little lab puppy was donating to my lab. As I gave him the go ahead, the Boy used that opportunity to fill him in on all our goings-ons.

At first, the BIL thought he had done something wrong, because Boy never has serious conversations. Then, he felt bad for some of the things he's said without knowing what we were going through at the time. He was caring and understanding from what hubby said. Even told us to keep trying no matter what, it will happen. And then, he suggested exactly what I knew he would. "She should talk to SIL about this. She knows about this stuff."

I knew that would come up and even had the Boy make sure to tell anyone he informs about this that it is different that SIL's situation. I feel really bad and kinda guilty about how anti-talking to her I am. Having "talks" with her in general is one-sided, and I don't think I can handle her dominating the conversation about my miscarriage and my feelings about it. And to make myself feel even more selfish, I don't want to talk to her about it because I don't want mine compared to hers. A miscarriage is a miscarriage, is never pleasant, and emotionally straining to say the least. I just don't want MY m/c to be lost in the sea of all the other (unfortunate) m/cs. I want mine to stay special.

It's just so hard now to connect with people that got pregnant easily. Or those that stayed that way with minimal assistance. I can barely stand to be in the same room as the maternity leave co-worker this past week. She spends half her time looking at pics of her son or talking about him and the other half talking about how hard it is to have to pump or breastfeed or sleep. I think I will have to bring her into the circle at least if I value my sanity at work.

Does it ever get easier?

Picture Participation

There's a thing going round. Participate if you feel so inclined. I am. What is it you ask?

Post photos of you and your Significant Other (ideally on your wedding day, but post what you want!) and how ya'll meet.

The Boy and I meet online the 1st semester of my freshman year of undergrad, way back in the fall of 2001. Via Aol Instant Messenger. It was like the Facebook of the early 2000s. He messaged that he thought he knew me, and I'm horrible with names. So we chatted, and chatted. And chatted away. One month later, I had a "friend" drive me down to see him. We met face to face and clicked. I'm not saying it was love at 1st site, but that 1st weekend together definitely sealed the deal. 4 yrs later, we got hitched.

 

Our 1st dance as Mr & Mrs. Aren't we just adorable?

There were great times, and hard times. Really really rough times, and good times. Through it all, he's been my best friend and the one person I could always count on to be there for me.

Still in love at BIL's wedding several years later.

We've been married for over 5yrs now, together for almost 10yrs. This past year has probably brought us closer together than ever before. With all we've been through and have had to endure, we could find strength in one another. I was completely head-over-heals for him when we first met. I'm so in love with him now that I don't even know how it is possible.

4th anniversary. Disgustingly sweet, isn't?

So Happy Valentine's Day, boy. I love ya and so glad that it is you that I have in good times and bad. There is no one else I'd rather come home to and curl up with at night. To another 10 more years together and more, and hopefully a baby or 2!


Valentine’s Photo List:
1. Christina at 2's Company. 3's a Family
2.  Elphaba at Yolk
3. Mo at Mommyodyssey
4. Heather at Survive and Thrive
5. Bridget at Our Stork Got Lost
6. Aramelle at One Wheeler’s World
7. jjraffe at Too Many Fish to Fry