Ten Years

Today's an emotional day for us. We're moving out of the house we've lived in for ten years, four and a half months. It's the longest period of time in my life that I've ever lived in one place.

Mikey was only ten months old when we moved into this house in East Tulsa in February of 2001. Cathy had wanted to live in this area since she was a little girl and much of it was brand new; 30 years later it wasn't quite as new and sparkly, but we loved it anyway. We've celebrated many important events in this house: we made a baby and celebrated a birth. We've celebrated many birthdays, including the first birthdays of both of our children. Ten Christmases and ten Easters. Ten anniversaries. Four full-time jobs for myself, not counting the flurry of short consulting gigs during the second year we lived here, when I had been laid off by an ailing company right after the dot-com bust + the WTC attacks. Four deaths of people we were very close to happened while we lived in this house, and two more of relatives who were much-loved but a little more distant. Lots of potty training. Five years of Cub Scouts. Three years of Christian School in two different schools, two years of home schooling and one year of public school. Several seasons of soccer. Brutal heat and crazy amounts of snow. Out of electricity once (or was it twice?) for a week or two at a time because of ice. Two different churches. Two different dogs and two pet frogs. Three different cars. Lots of movies and music. Lots of laughing, lots of crying. Lots of friends.

It's been a good run. I'm looking forward to the next ten years in Bixby!

Nine Great Years

Today is anniversary number nine for me and Cathy. Nine great years! Not every minute was great, but there were definitely enough great minutes to call it good.

Evidence that we're apparently doing a good job as a couple came to light last night as we were having an anniversary dinner at Charleston's. I use the word "light" in a metaphorical sense, of course; dinner at Charleston's is a candlelight thing, so don't drop anything black on the floor or you'll never see it again! Anyway... we had finished our meals and the waitress asked us if we were going to have dessert. Usually Cathy orders a dessert she wants and we share it, so she ordered her dessert, and there was a rather awkward silence... and then the waitress (rather awkwardly) asked Cathy if we were on the same ticket.

"Well, yes, we're married!" Cathy said.

The waitress apparently saw us enjoying being together, talking and visiting, and thought we were a not-married couple on a date! Now, what better commentary could you have on your marriage than to have a stranger assume that you were enjoying each other's company far too much to actually be married? It made Cathy and me feel pretty good to have that kind of thing happen to us after nine years of marriage. (To be fair, that particular waitress, though attentive and friendly, was a bit dingy. She forgot to bring dressing with my salad, brought Cathy the wrong dessert—which we kept anyway and enjoyed immensely—and then she actually gave us someone else's receipt and credit card. Good thing we're honest!)

As I was giving thanks for our meal before we started our salads, I also thanked God for nine great years. After I got done praying, Cathy remarked that she thought for a second that I was going to pray for God to give us "nine more!" hehe okay that's not QUITE as many as I had in mind!

Then we went to see Expelled, the new Ben Stein movie which is sort of documentary-ish, and we really liked it. We were still talking about it when we got to my mom's house to pick up Hannah. There wasn't too much in it that I haven't been at least vaguely aware of for some time (except the actual evidence that scientists and journalists that mention Intelligent Design as an alternative to the Theory of Evolution have been severely punished by the establishment) but I think Cathy learned a thing or two. And actually, although I was already aware of the issues, they were presented in such a way that I was able to kind of connect and ground some things that had been floating around free in my head for a while. Check my "Christian Life" blog tomorrow for some commentary inspired by the movie and the whole evolution vs. creation debate.

The reason we couldn't go out tonight, our actual anniversary and a Friday night, was that Cathy and Mikey are going on the Cub Scouts "Mom & Me" campout tomorrow. So Cathy needs all the rest she can get! I'll try to remember to send the camera with her and see if she can get some good pictures. So all day Saturday and then Sunday morning it's just me & Hannah! Yay! Daddy time!!!!