9 years married!

We celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary on wednesday. It is crazy to be married for 9 years now! I never thought I would still feel like a newlywed after being married 9 years, but I totally still do. I love being married to Ben, and still want to spend every second together that we can. I am definitely looking forward to the rest of our lives together. I got pretty lucky when I snagged my Benniboo!
I gave him a super lame-o gift this year. It was a game and a football shirt, but he liked it. It's hard being married to someone who is too impatient to wait for what he wants. He just buys everything he wants for himself. Lucky for me, he buys me nice gifts like this new set of china. I didn't want to get it all out of the packaging yet, so I just took a picture of one of the salad plates. This is exactly what I've been wanting for YEARS!

He also surprised me with a kindle fire! It has been so nice to have! I love that I can read at the gym without haing to try to keep my book from falling or closing, I can read in bed, or while the girls are in dance class, and I can check my email, etc whenever I want. Ben has seemed to really like using it to play angry birds.

Happy Anniversary to my fabulous husband!

8 long years...

just kidding! the last 8 years have actually seemed to go by so quickly! And I just want to say Happy Anniversary to my Benni-boo! 9 years ago today, he kissed me for the first time. (after 3 months of dating exclusively, sheesh!) and 8 years ago today, we got married in Provo. We met in the fall of 2001 at his apartment. I used to hang out with his roommates, and we met briefly a few times, but didn't really talk until halloween. And we've been together ever since. I just realized a few days ago, that by the end of the year, it will have been 10 years since we met. We'll also both be 30 by the end of the year. so We'll have spent 1/3 of our lives together. Seems kinda strange when I can remember the night we met like it was yesterday. In honor of our anniversary, I want to think of what we have done, or what has happened to us these past 8 years. This is off the top of my head, so sorry, Ben, if I forget something significant.
2003- We got married, moved to salt lake, I got a job working at wal-mart with Ben, I totalled my first car and broke my pelvis in a car wreck, we totalled our other car a month later, our apartment was burned down by our neighbor, we moved across town to holladay.
2004- Ben quit working at wal-mart, and went to work with Prudential Financial, I got a promotion at work when I transferred to the new holladay store, Ben gave me a cat, Daisy, when he had to go on a business trip and didn't want to leave me alone, We discovered Ben had eosinophilic esophagitis because he kept getting food stuck in his throat, and he had his first surgery to enlarge his throat.
2005- We bought our first house, and moved to West Valley, I got invisalign, we decided to stop birth control at the end of february, and hope for a pregnancy by the end of the year, on may 20 we discovered I was 5 weeks pregnant. I was scared to tell Ben because I thought he'd be mad that it happened so fast, as I'd told him it'd probably take 6 months to a year to concieve. He wasn't anything but happy, though! Ben changed jobs again, and went to work with Fidelity investments at their phone site, I bought a crappy car and painted it pink.
2006- Karalee was born jan 24, one week before our 3 year anniversary, I transferred back to the west Jordan Wal-mart to sell cell phones, and then I quit working at wal-mart, and went to work for data 2 logistics processing shipping invoices, we bought a new buick for me to replace the crappy, pink nissan I was driving, Ben got promoted at Fidelity to the non profit investments group.
2007- Ben got a promotion to the Seattle branch with Fidelity, and we moved to Seattle, we quickly sold our house in Utah and bought a new house in spanaway, Wa, Kara and I moved into our new house while Ben was in Florida for training, I became a stay at home mom, in may we decided to stop birth control again, july 13 we found out I was 4 weeks pregnant with our 2nd baby, I finished up with invisalign, and had to get braces, yuck!
2008- Kiersten was born march 12, I got my braces off, yay! We went to Reno and to ocean shores, Kara got a pet fish named Bubbles, We had a big snow storm here in Washington. Ben missed several days of work, and we were snowed in our house for a few days.
2009-We wrecked and totalled our beloved buick, and replaced it with an SUV of all things, definitely a family car, Ben transferred to the Tukwila branch, which really shortened his commute time every day, we went to Disneyland with the kids and Ben's dad, Karalee took ballet lessons, and then she started preschool, in may we decided to stop birth control again, and in july we found out I was pregnant with our thrid child. sadly, the baby died at 8 weeks, and I had to have a d&c on sept. 2. much to my surprise, I found out I was pregnant again on nov 5. I was really nervous, but felt better after my first dr. appointment when I got to see and hear her heartbeat.
2010-Evangeline was born, and had her first road trip at 2 weeks old to attend Grandpa Howard's funeral in utah, Kara was in a ballet performance in Tacoma, and started her 2nd year of preschool, Ben finally got to see the KC Chiefs play live in Seattle.

I obviously left out plenty of things that have happened in the past 8 years, but those are the things that stand out, good and bad. Being together has made the happy times even better, and the sad times easier. I can't imagine that there is anyone out there who loves someone as much as I love Ben! Happy Anniversary!

02/06/09 update

This has been a crazy week. As I already blogged, we wrecked the buick last Saturday. Sunday was the superbowl, of course, so we stayed home to watch it. It was also our 6th anniversary! Hooray for us! It was also the 7 year anniversary of our first kiss, awww... It was different not to have any guests over, or any type of a superbowl "party", but also nice not to be cooking and cleaning like a maniac.
Monday, Ben called me from work and told me that enterprise would be picking me and the girls up at 4 pm to go get our rental car. All 3 of us were sick, so I just stayed at home, and had the girls ready to go by 4. After I had been waiting for half an hour, (with Kiersten all buckled in her carseat) I called Ben to verify that I had gotten it right, but he didn't answer, so I called enterprise. I spoke to a girl who told me that all of our information was put in for the reservation, but no time was scheduled. I told her it was supposed to be at 4, so she said she would see what they could do. When she got back on the line, she said they had another pick up in Spanaway, so they could get us at the same time, but they didn't have any cars, so I would just have to sit around waiting for one to be returned. So I said no thankyou, and that we would reschedule. Then she called me back and said that I could have a mini-van instead of a small car and that I wouldn't have to pay extra since there had been a mistake made. So I said okay. About 5 minutes later, a guy called me back and said he was calling me because that girl was wrong about us not having to pay extra for the mini-van. So I said that it was not our fault that a mistake was made in taking the reservation, and I didn't want to pay extra. He just kept talking over me and repeating that mini-vans cost more, and that we hadn't made a reservation earlier that day. (no explanation as to why they would have all of our information and adress if we hadn't called though) He finally asked if he could reschedule me for tomorrow, and I said okay, but if possible, I would really like to do it that night because I wanted to pick up the dry cleaning since Ben's boss was gonna be in town the next day. So he repeated for the millionth time that I could have the mini-van and pay extra! Then I got angry, and I said I don't care what kind of car it is, as long as it fits 2 adults and 2 carseats, but I will not pay anything over the price we were told for the small car. He just started shout-talking over me again, so I asked if he would stop talking, so I could speak 3 words! I intended to ask to speak to someone else, but he just hung up on me instead! Of course I had to call right back and start explaining the situation, and how furious I was to the guy who answered. I swear it was the same guy, but he wouldn't admit it. He put me on hold and Ben called on the other line, so while I was tattling to him about the situation, the other call got dropped. So Ben said he would take care of it. He called and was also put on hold for over 20 minutes. When he called the corporate #, all of our info was deleted out of the system!! So he called back and got the girl I originally talked to and asked not to be put on hold. She took care of everything again. (as she had in the first place) I couldn't believe all that drama just for them to do what they should have done to begin with! Ben brought home dinner since I had the flu, and was sore from whiplash. that was sweet to not have to cook!
Tuesday morning, our new pickup time was sceduled for 9am. I called at 8:30 to make sure it was still on, and they said they'd be there. so, at 9:40 they showed up. (another half hour of kiersten waiting in her carseat, before I gave up and took her out) So I was annoyed when he got there. He was immediately apologetic for being late, and also, it turned out, he was the guy who ben had first spoken to for the reservation. he accidentally didn't save it. He said he got chewed out in their meeting that morning. I made sure he knew that I can forgive an honest mistake, they happen, but what I got so angry about, was the way the other guy had spoken to me on the phone, and the fact that he was trying to avoid any blame, and mostly, that he hung up on me! He said he was taking me to the puyallup branch, and I wouldn't have to see Cedric, who it turns out is his boss! I can't believe a manager could have such terrible customer service skills. After getting lost twice, we finally made it there, only to find that this same guy, Cedric had screwed something up with the paperwork, so it all had to be re-entered in their system. We did finally make it out of there in a rental car with a free upgrade. By the time we got home, the girls were asleep, and I was sick, so I went to sleep. It was a pretty pathetic day. By the time Ben came home we had all been puking, and I had the worst headache. So he let me go to bed early, while he watched the girls. He even cooked dinner for all of us after he got home.
Wednesday was another sick day. We all stayed in bed pretty late, and moped around the rest of the day. We did finally make it to the dry cleaner, and to wal-mart for Kara's prescription. Ben had dinner at work, so I just fed the girls leftovers so I didn't have to cook again.
Thursday we were finally feeling better. I was glad we didn't need to leave the house though. I should have gone to the gym, but I had too many good excuses to talk myself out of it. We found out the Buick is going to be totalled. The frame is bent, and it's too expensive to have it fixed. Now we have to think about a new car. gggrrrr! Ben finally got everything scheduled and finalized for our trip to disneyland. Yay! It will be so fun for the girls. We go in three weeks. Oh, I almost forgot to say that Ben brought home some gorgeous tulips from pike's market yesterday. That was such a fun surprise to brighten up my not too fun week! Isn't he the best?
Today it's a good thing I was feeling better, because it was a busy one. Kara requested pancakes for breakfast. I should have said no, because we were needing to stick to a schedule, but she hasn't been eating much this week, so I thought I'd better give her what she wants. So we had to do baths before we left. They probably needed them anyway, though. But we still made it out the door on time for Kara's EKG. At her 3 year well visit, the Dr. said he was hearing a slight irregularity in her heartbeat. So he wanted her to have an EKG just to make sure there is no problem. He assured me that maybe one out of every thousand kids he sends for one have a serious problem, and he just wanted to get it out of the way and make sure she's not one of them. The test was really quick, and she liked having the "stickers" all over her chest, arms, and legs. she said it tickled. Then the girl had her count to ten, and it was over. After that, I had to put air in the tires, because both back tires were at 15! yikes! but I didn't have change, so I let Kara pick a treat in the convenience store so I could get cash back. She picked cheetos, but I didn't notice they were the flaming hot kind! So after we were on our way she started screaming that her tongue was burning. Luckily, I had a cup of milk for her, so she recovered. then she told me that those cheetos are for Daddy. We had to go clean all of our stuff out of the Buick, so we drove out to the collision place. There really wasn't too much in there, so that didn't take too long. By this time, Kara was really hungry, and I felt sorry for her about having to get the test done, so I took the girls to McDonald's. It was super busy, but Kara likes that, because it means more friends. After lunch, we needed to stop at Wal-mart to get some whole milk for Kiersten. I have been nursing her until now. She will NOT drink formula, or pumped milk from a bottle. She will drink water or juice, so I know the bottle/sippy cup is not the problem for her. Anyway, my supply of milk has been getting lower and lower. I've had a hard time keeping it up. Luckily, she loves baby food and table food, so I haven't been too worried for her. But with getting sick this week, and throwing up so much, I have very little milk coming in. Because she is sick too, she is wanting to nurse more than usual, so this is a problem. The poor thing. I have felt so badly trying to nurse her, and she just cries and bites, and finally has to drink water or juice. So her pediatrician told me to go ahead and start her on whole milk since she does okay with cheese and yogurt. I have to pick morning or bedtime to nurse each day, and give her cow's milk twice each day. That way, she can get used to the cow's milk, without having to go cold turkey. and by the time she's a year, she'll be ready to switch over the rest of the way. I was going for a year of nursing her, but she's almost 11 months, so I guess that's not too bad. With Kara, I barely made it through 6 months, and she was being supplemented with formula the entire time. So I feel pretty succesful with nursing this time.
I'd better get started thinking about dinner, since I've gotten out of cooking 3 out of 4 days so far this week. Tomorrow we get to go car shopping and carseat shopping, woohoo.

Car wreck! boo!

We took the girls to get pictures taken yesterday at Kiddie Kandids for Kara's 3 year picture and Kiersten's 9 month picture. (even though she's 10 months old now, oh well.) We also got a new family portrait done, it turned out alright. It could have been better, but I didn't want to spend a lot of time trying to get a perfect picture, and then have the girls melting down for their individual ones. Kara got a little impatient, but it worked out pretty well. After pictures, we took the girls to Toys R Us to spend a giftcard they got for Christmas. Kara got a new game for her leapster, and Kiersten got a Mickey Mouse band toy. After that, we were wanting to go out to dinner for our anniversary, since our anniversary is actually today, and we wanted to stay home and watch the superbowl and just chill. On our way to the restaurant, we were driving through a green light, and there was a car stopped across the intersection waiting to turn left. Just as we entered the intersection, he decided to just try to make the turn really quickly. Ben hit the brakes, but we couldn't stop, so we hit him head on. Both girls started crying, but Kiersten went right back to sleep. Kara cried for several minutes, but she seemed to be okay. There happened to be a cop not far behind us, so she turned her lights on and pulled right up. The other driver was trying to blame Ben for the accident, and he kept saying that we didn't stop for him to turn. Luckily, there were witnesses that stopped and had the same story as us. So we didn't get ticketed, even though Ben did get another lecture about needing to get a Washington driver's license. That guy still didn't understand that he didn't have the right of way, and tried to argue his ticket, but they gave it to him anyway. All we care about is that he has insurance. Kara was pretty upset with the police and firemen that kept coming up to the car to talk to us. The tow truck finally got there, and we got to stand in the dirt waiting for the cab to arrive for us. The cab driver was really nice and friendly, but I didn't appreciate having to ride in a cigarette-smelling cab. We should know tomorrow or tuesday if the car is going to be fixed or totalled. Either way, we wont have to pay, but I hope it can be fixed. We just paid the buick off this summer, so I don't want to have to get another car at this point. We wont have a rental car until tuesday evening, so I will be stranded at home with the girls for the next 2 days. I guess that's not too bad, though. We're just glad that none of us were hurt. Our airbags didn't even deploy, so it's good we had our seatbelts on. Ben said he barely moved, but I slammed forward hard into the dash, and when the seatbelt locked, and slammed me back down in my seat, it knocked the wind out of me. So I much prefer that, to hitting the winddsheild that hard! Kara said she bonked her hand, and she complained about it a few times last night. Today she started screaming when Ben picked her up and she was grabbing her hand saying, "OWWIEEEE!" so we might need to take her in to get it looked at. Other than that and some whiplash soreness, we are all okay. I was quite upset when we got home last night, but lucky for me, I have Ben,who is very objective, and he always helps me look at things the right way. None of us were hurt badly, and we don't have to pay for any of the repairs, or the rental car. We have each other, and our 2 sweet, happy, healthy girls. and a nice house to live in and Ben has a good job, so I can't be too upset that we are sore and without an extra car for a few days.