24 November 2009

Six married years old

Matt and I celebrated our six year anniversary this past weekend.

When I was little, I remember hearing my parents talk about "so-and-so have been married six years!" and I would think that sounded so old.

Annnndddd, here we are.

We actually had a fantastic weekend. We went into Springfield on Saturday to see Twilight (sigh...so good.) and finished up some Christmas shopping. Matt surprised me for dinner by taking me to Zio's - my favorite restaurant on the face of the earth. Mmmm, noodles.

Sunday night (our actual anniversary), we watched Hotel Rwanda since it was on TV, which lead to a spirited discussion about genocide and how people can be so stupid and cruel to ignore mass killings like that. It happened only 15 years ago...it amazes me that the world can just turn away and allow things like that to happen. When the movie was over, Matt said that there are probably ignorant people out there who think the genocide never happened - just like how some people think that the Holocaust never happened.

Ridiculous.

It makes me feel so sick for trying to plan vacations and spend money on silly Christmas presents that people won't even use a month from now - do you know how far a couple hundred dollars would go in the lives of the Rwandan orphans? And we think we need the latest iPods and running shoes.

Totally preaching to myself here.

I ask for $150 Asics for my birthday and buy myself a $100 iPhone while kids in war-torn countries have to sleep out in dirty streets with disintegrating clothing and no food or clean water. How completely selfish am I? I get so sick of myself sometimes.

Sigh.

On the bright side of things, we're leaving tomorrow after Matt gets out of school for the Smokey Mountains and a wonderfully long Thanksgiving trip to see all of Matt's extended family.

Tonight's goal: pack, bake two apple pies and wrap Christmas presents for the Alabama folk.

More important goal: to be thankful for all opportunities that come my way, gifts that are generously given to me and the circumstances I'm in. I have a roof over my head, food on the table, a paying job and clothes on my back.

And that is enough.

"I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances." Philippians 4:11

03 November 2009

And basketball starts...now.

Junior High basketball is officially under way. I didn't get to go to the game because of class, and it was a nice surprise to see Matt's truck in the driveway when I got home. I honestly thought I wouldn't see him until 11pm or later.

A girl could get used to this.

Well, at least until March 1 when baseball starts all over again.

Anyway, Matt is the 8th grade basketball coach, but he ended up having to coach both the 7th and 8th grade games because the 7th grade coach has a nasty case of pinkeye. Ick. And I'm happy to report that both teams won! 7th grade won by five points and 8th grade won by 15. Not a bad way to start the season.

As super-exciting as junior high ball is to watch, it's actually a terrific season. It only lasts two months, which means Matt and I get to spend holidays together - something we never got to really enjoy when he was an assistant varsity basketball coach.

You'd think that's all I think about, spending time with my husband.

We actually managed to sneak out of town for a fabulous three-day weekend over Halloween. This is the second time we've been gone over Halloween, and I get really, really scared every time we pull out of the driveway.

Not because I'm scared of ghosts and goblins.

Not because all things Halloween make me freak out.

Not even because I know I'll lose sleep due to nightmares from the scary movies Matt checks out.

Nope, I get scared because we won't be home to make sure the baseball team doesn't do anything stupid like fork our yard or toilet paper our trees or let the dogs loose or burn down our house. Which I know they want to do very badly...they just don't want to face the Wrath of Coach which could entail hideous things such as millions of laps around the field and/or mowing our yard and washing our cars. Ha.

We ended up having a great weekend, especially with the time change. There's just nothing more relaxing than having a cup of coffee while watching the sun rise over the water...then waking your husband up a couple hours later to take you to the outlet mall. And Target. And Half-Sauced BBQ.

And, apparently, a haunted house.

Ugh. I'm the world's biggest chicken when it comes to scary things - you'd think that growing up in a funeral home would have gotten all the goosebumps out of me. I actually used to not be scared of much...until I met Matt. I think it's his life's goal to make me release blood-curling screams every chance he gets.

For instance, we're walking up to the haunted house, and all of a sudden a guy with a chainsaw starts chasing us. I let out my trademark shriek, and what does Matt do? He starts laughing and tells me he heard the guy coming towards us. I punched him in the arm.

So we're going through the haunted house, and while I'll admit it wasn't tooooo scary, it still had scary moments. Matt laughed his way through the entire thing, grabbed me and tried to scare me on his own, and then the minute we get in the truck he turns to look at me and says,

"Ok, now let's go find something that will scare the pee out of me."

Um, no. Really, really, no.

We drove around for a little bit and the scariest thing we could find was a Trunk or Treat at the First Baptist Church of Camdenton. That seemed right up my alley, but Matt said it was time to go back to the condo and watch scary movies. We did, and I'm still having nightmares.

He made it up to me though - November 1st officially marks my Birthday Month. That's right, a whole month. From the moment of birth, my parents have instilled in me and my sister an expectancy of all things wonderful and brilliant and sparkly and magical for our birthdays, and in turn we have always made everything a HUGE deal make our day special and unique. Sure enough, at 7am on Sunday morning I get a text from my sister saying "Happy Birthday Month Sissy!!!" Matt even indulged me by taking me to Petco (but a salesman made me furious and I will never go into another Petco as long as I live...PetSmart reigns supreme!!).

And Target. For the third time that weekend. Just because we could.

Then we came home and my relaxing, fun weekend with my husband was quickly dashed to bits when I remembered I had three pages of chemistry homework to finish, as well as a chemistry test to study for.

Happy Birthday Month to me, indeed.