10 years today

I am astounded that the past 10 years have already flown by so quickly. Seriously, I can't be 10 years older, can I? In celebration of our special day, we took a trip to Papa's work for a picnic. The boys love picnics with Papa and it is always so relaxing spending an hour or so with him. I love the people he works with and it's always so fun to just camp out in his office for a little bit. When the weather is nice we enjoy going outside, but it was brisk today so we stayed inside.

There are many thought that have been running thru my mind as I have thought back on the last 10 years. In all reality marriage is a whole lot harder than I ever thought it would be. Most of that is my personality. I am seriously a slave to the word "wife" and "mother". Brandon jokingly calls me his 60's wife and he isn't far off. I spend my days cooking meals from scratch, doing all the laundry, teaching the kids, working in the yard (I even mow the lawn), and I take out all the garbage cans to each week. For me, all the that is the way that I show my love to the hubby and kids. In a lot of ways I derive my own self worth from being productive with all those things.

Another things I've been shocked to discover is how marriage is all about forgiveness and self sacrifice. A day rarely goes by where I have don't have to let something the hubby says or does just slide right off my back. I've decided that just naturally happens when you have such different personality and ways of thinking about things.

In the end, it's all been worth it. Brandon still makes me laugh, and I still prefer to spend a quiet night at home with him instead of doing anything else.  Before meeting each other and dating we were both pretty sure we would both be single for the rest of our lives. I'm so thankful that God had other plans for us that we could accomplish together. I'm pretty sure our boys will also both be similarly thankful some day.  I also have to say that I'm pretty thankful that we had a good photographer who took a zillion photos on our special day. We also had a wedding videographer and I'm so thankful to have that treasure DVD. I watch it every year around our anniversary. Brandon admits that he only remembers two things from our wedding day - that we were super late to our wedding lunch because of all the pictures we were taking, how after the luncheon we just sat in our new apartment completely exhausted and overwhelmed. Silly man, most days I wonder if he even notices I am around - LOL.