I am going to take a break from Egypt right now and write about my anniversary weekend! So, for the next three days, I will not answer any questions about my other blogs, but keep the questions coming and I’ll get back to them!

Today was the first day of our anniversary weekend! We will be married for a year on Sunday! Today we went to the zoo and had time to make it to the mall. We actually didn’t but a lot at the zoo besides lunch (including the souvenir cup, with a picture of the baby giraffe on it. Expensive, but it’s our weekend!) and gave money to help animals out! Though we did get plenty of pictures and some video (especially of the baby polar bear). We are planning on putting those on youtube and then getting them onto our facebook page! Or, at least I am. I couldn’t tell you if Tony is going to or not. But while at the zoo, we found three dead animals! Ugh!!! 🙁 Though shortly after the first one, everyone was kicked out of the reptile house, so I think they were taking care of that one. The other two were in the amphibians exhibit and the aquarium. And then, we went into the Rain Forest exhibit to hunt for the sloth only to find out that the sloth died in January! She was 27 years old and that is long lived for a sloth, but still, I always loved searching for her!

At the mall, we looked through plenty of stores without buying anything! And then we stopped by the bookstore and Godiva! I bought a huge over 500 page Egypt book! It talks about the treasure of the Great Pharaohs, Tutankhamen and Rameses II. I got it for a great price too! Tony bought a film making book, which I hope helps him out.
Oh, I forgot we also went to Goodwill this morning and bought a book about the Lost Tomb. It’s about KV5, the tomb of many of Rameses II’s sons.
With the pictures from the zoo, I plan on making a scrapbook to remind us of our first anniversary together, since we still haven’t figured out what to get as a reminder of our very first year as a married couple. I thought a scrapbook would be nice at least. Well, I think it’s time to head to bed. We’re busy tomorrow also!

This past Saturday, April 10, 2010, marked 11 years of marriage for my husband and I.  Since it was a weekend, and we treasure that as family time, we didn’t think about calling the babysitter to get some alone time.  A generous friend stepped up and offered to watch the little ones for a few hours for Hubby and I to have some alone time, and we contemplated our options that morning.  I love the zoo, but it seemed like too big of an endeavor to travel all the way to Toledo after staying up until 3 the night before for game night.  We had an awesome time Friday night, but note to self – no more game nights the day before our anniversary!  Boy, were we tired on Saturday!  So anyway, we ditched the Toledo idea, and we thought about just staying home since Zambrano was scheduled to pitch for the Cubs, and he is always entertaining.  Finally, my husband came up with a great idea – we’d go to Buffalo Wild Wings, and our friend could take the kids across the street to Menards to play while we sat and watched the Cubs game at Wild Wings.  Before you think I’m nuts, I should mention that Menards (at least our location, anyway) has a hugely awesome indoor play area for the kids – they have many of their playground sets, play houses, and sandboxes on display for people to see and for kids to play in while parents shop – our kids love it and always have a blast, plus it’s free!

So Hubby and I sat at Buffalo Wild Wings and watched the entire Cubs game on Saturday!  And, as a special Anniversary present to us, Zambrano led them to victory!  They started out playing terribly, but turned themselves around (which is rare for the Cubs!), and actually looked pretty good by the end of the game – I’m talking diving catches, great plays, homeruns, and most importantly, turning a 3-0 deficit into a 4-3 victory!  YES!!

And I have to add that Buffalo Wild Wings was actually a great, albeit non-traditional place to celebrate an anniversary.  Not only did they not mind us sitting there for hours watching the game, but they were happy to accomodate us in letting us choose which channel we wanted, AND they gave us a hat with 4 balloons attached to take home for our four children.  AND a free anniversary dessert!

After watching the Cubs win, we got the kids and took them over for some go-carting.  Always fun, and this is the first time in a long time no one had to sit out with a baby!  Our son is old enough to ride this year, and although he was apprehensive at first, it only took him until the first turn when he began squealing with joy!  First time he rode with Dad (because everything is less scary with Dad), and I was able to snap this pic before we took off:

Then I got to take him on the second time, and he was such a wonderful little passenger; he had so much fun!  As I was riding in the beautiful weather with my little guy next to me, I had the thought, “It doesn’t get much better than this!”

Happy Anniversary, Honey, it was a great one, as always!  And thank you for eleven wonderful years of marriage and for four beautiful children!  I love you!

It may be cold and rainy outside, but the weather has not affected my emotional state inside!  I’ve had an awesome day!  It is our ninth wedding anniversary today, and so far, the day has been just short of perfect.  The only thing that could make it better is if we could be together all day, but of course with 3.5 kids to support, it’s unrealistic on a weekday to take off work.  Besides, we were able to have a fun family day together yesterday in between the dental work and the tantrums of our 3-year-old.

Today, my husband has left love-note post-its all around the house for me to find.  He sent me a sweet e-card, and I really love the church sign he put on tangents.org of our wedding day.  My almost 18-month-old daughter even let me have a peaceful lunch today – I didn’t even have to interrupt my own lunch once to get her anything and usually I have to get up between 5-15 times!  Oh, wait, I did have 1 lunch “interruption”, but I wouldn’t even call it that.  The doorbell rang with the delivery of a gorgeous vase of flowers my husband sent me for our anniversary!  And lately, the smell of fresh flowers has been completely relaxing for me…  it must be the pregnancy.  I’ve always loved flowers, but lately they’re almost like a drug when I smell them!  So, walking past the eye and nose candy on the dining room table is also keeping my spirits high.  We were going to celebrate with a nice dinner and a night out, then come home and watch the first new Office episode in MONTHS, but the other day, we found out tonight is the monthly meeting for the board of a community agency with which we volunteer – wouldn’t you know April’s meeting had to be tonight!  But no matter…  we can still go out around the meeting, go to the meeting together, and in the age of VCR’s, computers, and all of that, we will find a way to catch the Office later.  So thanks to all the well-wishers who’ve written and called – we’ve had a wonderful day and we will see you next year at the big 10-year anniversary BASH!