12 years!

Chris & I went on our anniversary date last night and it was great! Our anniversary isn't until the 13th, but we had plans for tonight and with tomorrow being Sunday, Friday ended up being the best night to celebrate.

We went to The Melting Pot and had a great meal. We were so, so stuffed! Shrimp~YUM, salmon~YUM, sirloin, chicken, tenderloin, cheese, chocolate~DOUBLE YUM, etc. Some of my girlfriends had kind of been teasing me because I'd been there with some of them and had admitted that it wasn't my favorite place to go. Last night was really great though! The food was good and it was a nice atmosphere. Maybe it was just because I was there on a romantic, anniversary date that made the difference. Not that I don't enjoy my "Girl's Night Out" times, but last night was definitely my best Melting Pot experience. We were seriously so full!

It's hard to believe we've been married 12 years (well, tomorrow). 12 years! I feel soooooo old!

Chris is an amazing husband who treats me with such respect & love. He truly puts the girls & me above himself on a daily basis. God is before us all which is why he is able to treat the rest of us so well. The multiple times he tells me he loves me, kisses me, tells me I look beautiful, tells me that I did a good job at something are too many to count. The multiple times he plays with the girls, does practical "around the house" kinds of things, teaches the girls something are too many to count. I consider myself the most blessed of all when it comes to having "picked" a good daddy for my girls. I don't ever have cause to complain that he ignores me, that he doesn't consider my feelings, that he doesn't allow me time to do things "just for me," that he's selfish. He is truly the epitome of a wonderful, Christian husband and I'm thankful to God for him!

We had a teenager from church come watch the girls and they had fun! She's really the only teen from church we have to ask so we were lucky she wasn't working at her "real" job last night. Sometimes we'll ask friends to watch them, but as far as a "real" babysitter, we really only have 1 option. We don't go out often without the girls to be honest, so last night was a real treat! I asked him if he had rented a fancy car for us to ride in. He said, "No. We're minvan kind of people!" Which is true, so true.

We had a funny thing happen on our date last night. We're notorious for having wacky things happen! We stopped and got gas at this exit on the Interstate. The gas station/truck stop was truly the only thing around and I asked Chris if he was sure it was open. He laughed and said, "yes." There were some interesting people hanging around that's for sure. When he got out I locked the door as I'll often do at gas stations, "just in case." While he was pumping gas, I chose a cd that I wanted to put in. I didn't think it would go in since the car wasn't on but I tried it anyway. Sure enough, it wouldn't go in and it kind of pushed back at me as I tried to put it in. When Chris was finished, he pulled on the door to open it and it was locked. I unlocked it from inside and he opened the door and got in. As he did, the horn started honking....over & over & over! It was the car alarm! We didn't even know we had an alarm! We were both kind of freaking out and embarrassed because it wouldn't stop and we didn't know how to stop it! Chris kept starting the car which would make it sound weird and I was afraid it was going to kill the battery or something. We drove away from the pump (still honking!) and I'm thinking, "Okay, I am going to eat at The Melting Pot tonight even if we have to drive another 20 minutes down the interstate with our horn honking!" We parked over away from the station and I grabbed the car manual and started flipping through it. Finally, Chris got out and stuck the key in the door and it stopped! Thing is, he didn't even stick the van key in....he stuck his truck key in! Not even the right key! We both just looked at each other in relief and Chris said, "What was that?!!? What was that?!?!" (He had previously asked repeatedly, "What did you do?!? What did you do?!?" to which I replied, "NOTHING! Stop asking me that!" )

We drove off, still laughing at the fact that this could only happen to us! We knew we'd seen red lights blinking in the car when it was off and it had something to do with anti-theft, but we just figured it was some kind of decoy because we didn't know anything about it. I finally found the section in the car manual that we think explains it. Apparently, if someone tries to remove the radio while the car is locked (and it must have thought I was trying to do that when I tried to push the cd in) and then the door is opened without the key then the alarm will go off. Since I unlocked the door for Chris (and he didn't use his key) it must have set it off! It said the alarm will sound for 2 minutes or until the door is unlocked with the key. We're not sure if it had been 2 minutes or if it was Chris using the key that got it to stop. Probably the 2 minutes since he didn't even use the right key! I'm telling you, this could only happen to the 2 of us! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I just got the email that book #5, The Yada Yada Prayer Group Gets Caught, is in stores! I can't wait to read it. The other ones have been fantastic!

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A group of us from church are renting a roller skating rink tonight. Should be hilarious!