43rd Monthiversary

Happy Fourth of July to those of you here in the States! Hope you're able to enjoy a nice long weekend!

Ryan and I hit another marital milestone over the weekend: 43 months of wedded bliss! The past couple of weeks have made me so weary, as we are powering through some unexpected home projects, and I won't lie: I am so over the home projects. I'm in writing and speaking mode and it's really hard to stay in that mode all day every day while surrounded by projects! I wanted to be a supportive and helpful wife, but I fear I did not always accomplish that objective. But even when I was stressed and tired and beating myself up for wife failure, Ryan was so good to encourage me and make me laugh. These are the things that make me grateful for this life we share!

Ryan worked most of Saturday, which was our monthiversary, and when he got home, we went on our standard monthiversary date: Starbucks and Lowe's. LOL! I am afraid to tell you just how many of our monthiversaries have included that very combo!

And then...we had an extra special treat!

You see pictures on here a lot of our fun times with Ryan's family, but my family is scattered all over {and there are not that many of us - quite the opposite from Ryan's family-for-days crowd!}, so we rarely see each other!

But one of my cousins recently graduated from high school {she lives out of state} and her parents threw a party for her at my aunt's house, here in Indiana, so the family could celebrate together. I was so excited because some of my cousins had never even MET Ryan. That's how rarely we see each other.

And I have to tell you that these cousins are ALL ABOUT hospitality. I knew it would be a fun night with good food!

The party was out on the lawn, with a little tent for the food and chairs covered in quilts that the guest of honor had made herself. Summer projects, they told us. I couldn't have made ONE of them if I worked on it every day for the rest of my life. Her talent is incredible!!

They had pictures and scrapbooks and all kinds of things to honor her, and then there was the FOOD. Homemade breaded tenderloins, fried pickles, pretzel breadsticks with cheese sauce, Caesar salad, macaroni and cheese, carrot cake, and a couple of pies. Not much on the clean eating list, but it was a delicious treat meal! OH! And the pop! They had these throwback bottled sodas in all kinds of flavors. I had root beer, and Ryan had a black cherry and some Shirley Temple drink. I'm sure it all looked questionable form a distance, but I promise it was all strictly POP! {Soda - whatever you call it.}

My parents were there, so of course we had to get pictures of them, too, and our official 43rd monthiversary photo!

We stayed until dark so we could watch the fireworks {because you know...I LOVE FIREWORKS} and it was the perfect end to the day! It was a shockingly cold day, so we were all wrapped up in the quilts, but it was still fun!

Oh! And the sunset was STUNNING!

 It was a good little fireworks show!

So that's not a bad way to celebrate another month of marriage, is it?

Thanks, family, for throwing such a great party and for including us! It was so good to see you!