Thanks so much for going along as I look back at some of the life-shaping (and fun!) moments we've shared in our almost 100 months of marriage. Ryan and I have been having a blast looking through scrapbooks as we remember this stuff! Today we're looking at months 21-30!
Month 21.
We had some fun during this month, visiting Spencer County in southern Indiana and finally going to Holiday World! (Ryan had wanted to take me there since we started dating, and BOOM - almost three years later, we made it!) I rode one ride...the log ride...before determining that I actually hated rides as an adult as much as I did as a kid. I happily spent the rest of the day on the observation decks watching Ryan zoom through water on tubes! But the big event of month 21 was my oral surgery. Oh my. What an ordeal. Ryan was so sweet to me...taking the day off work to drive me to the dentist, hanging out in Fort Wayne for 5 hours while they worked on me, and then driving my zonked self home. I requested "all the caffeines" upon waking up. What a sweet man he is.
Remember that whitewater rafting trip I'd gotten Ryan for his birthday when he turned 35? Month 22 was when the trip took place, and I had to drop him off to leave. It was our first time apart, and though he had a blast with the guys, we did decided being apart is NOT our favorite. (And we've not done it very many times since!) They ziplined and went whitewater rafting and had the best time! My favorite moment was when he came HOME and I zoomed into the parking lot to pick him up! One of our other favorite memories from that month was when I hosted Mid-Morning for a week and Ryan actually came with me one day to be my special guest on BLT!! And after that was over, we toured Wells County and hiked a state park!
Month 23.
We celebrated our engagementversary, as we always do, and that included a trip to an apple orchard for coffee and apple dumplings. They were good dumplings, but not nearly good enough for the amount of time we had to wait and the very poor service we had over them! We had our annual card photos taken and got a new roof put on our house! (And every time we drove down the road after that, we made a point to comment on that good-looking roof!) But silly as it sounds, one of our favorite memories of that month came on Halloween. We hadn't been out on a date in a while, and we decided to go out to eat and do some furniture shopping that night. We learned that Halloween is the BEST time to go to a sit-down restaurant and furniture shopping, because everyone is out with their kids, trick-or-treating! It was a fun night, where we felt like we had private tours of each place we went!
This month was filled with scrambling to do final winter prep on our home, prepping for Christmas (by decorating our house early and doing our Christmas shopping together) and taking on more divide-and-conquer when our work schedules weren't in sync. But probably the most memorable day of that month was when we served together at the Feed My Starving Children mobile pack that came to town. Our Sunday School class (which was huge) all volunteered together, and we ended up having a lot of fun serving with our friends. But Ryan shook his head that morning when he came in and found me drawing my wedding ring in Sharpie under my actual wedding ring, because I'd been told I might have to take off my actual wedding ring. (I don't take off that ring. EVER. If they were going to require it, I needed a backup plan.)
And just like that, we reached our second anniversary. We took a weekend trip to Chicago, Illinois and had such a fun time together! We ate chicken at Dell Rhea's on Route 66. (We have a bucket list dream of traveling Route 66 one day.) We toured Lincoln Park Zoo at night to see all the beautiful lights. (And bonus: saw a marriage proposal!) We also set foot in IKEA for the first time ever, and that particular IKEA, in Schaumburg, Illinois, remains our favorite one to this very day. On our actual anniversary, we toured downtown Chicago, visiting Willis Tower and the Magnificent Mile before going to our very special anniversary dinner that Ryan planned. You remember it, right? We were right next to the building and our GPS told us it was a mile away, so we walked a mile and then RAN a mile back to make our reservations? But oh, that view....
Month 25.
This month was full of all things Christmas and the traditions surrounding it, but it also included one of the best surprises we've ever been part of: Ryan's mom's surprise 60th birthday party. Ryan and I were responsible for delaying her until party time and then delivering her ON time. Much sweating was involved. But I think our two favorite memories from this month were these: first, Ryan's Greentown house finally SOLD! 141 days had passed between the buyers' offer and the closing date, and we did a lot of praying and crying out to the Lord in that season. We were THRILLED to only own one house! And then on Christmas day that year, my dad came down sick, so we all wore masks. We thought it was cute then. Little did we know!
Month 26.
When we'd gone to IKEA for our anniversary, we fell in love with a little brown couch we named Mo. And when Month 26 rolled around we headed to the IKEA just outside of Cincinnati to pick up our very own Mo! Ryan's mom went with us and it was quite the field trip! That month also brought another week of Share at WBCL, and I didn't know at the time it would be my last one. But the REALLY memorable event that month was our first ER visit. It was for me. I started having extreme abdominal pain, which was something I had battled on and off for the past fifteen years, and it had always been a mystery to doctors. I had to leave work because the pain was so bad, and Ryan ended up leaving work to take me to an ER, where we could once again leave without answers. A few days later I had an ultrasound to see if I had gallstones, and indeed I did. An abundance of them. I found out on the last day of Share that I'd have to have surgery "immediately." (In quotes because their version of immediately and my version of immediately were weeks apart.)
Much of this month was taken up by all things gallbladder, and that will be reflected in more news and photos below, but ALSO...we were part of the "World's Largest Date" - held at Starbucks locations across the country right before Valentine's Day. We even won a prize at ours! We toured Huntington County in the snow and enjoyed pizza at Pizza Junction, which is an old train station! Then there was the great gallbladder eviction of 2015, which was my first non-oral surgery. I was absolutely terrified, and God sent a sweet nurse to pray over me in the OR as I lay trembling on the bed. Ryan took such good care of me during my subsequent gallternity leave!
We started the month with more gallternity leave. (It seems excessive, I know, but the anesthesia did NOT leave forever!) But eventually I felt stronger and we resumed regular life and date nights. We got to work our last Winter Jam at the Fort Wayne Coliseum - and we toured Howard County, the county where we grew up! It was fun seeing our home turf through new eyes! I think one of our favorite things this month was enjoying a couple of double dates with our friends Mike and Angie. We went on tons of double dates with them...and then they moved far away, and we were so sad!
Month 29.
It had been entirely too long since we had a proper house project, so we kicked off the month by repainting our master bedroom in our Marion house. Ryan wasn't crying about kissing goodbye a master bedroom that was three shades of purple! We also celebrated Easter and Ryan's birthday that month - but the biggest news of all was a major life change for us: I turned in my resignation to WBCL. After wrestling in prayer for weeks, and grieving the loss of a job we both loved (for me) so much, we felt led by the Lord to say goodbye to this job and the constant physical and financial strain of commuting.
And rounding out this day's recap, we entered the month of May...birthdays everywhere! Braeya turned 9 that year and I turned 37. We hosted another Mommapalooza, and even though we had to bring the party indoors, it was a fun day. Our big event that month was heading out on our annual birthday trip! We remembered the frigid temps of the Tulipless Tulip Time Festival the year before and headed straight for the mountains of Tennessee this time. We hung out in Gatlinburg and hiked in Cades Cove (to Abram Falls) and loved it! We did all the touristy stuff too, including the aquarium and all the little shops in Gatlinburg. We decided we wouldn't hate living in Tennessee someday. ;)
That's it for today! I'll be back next week with some more memories!
2 comments:
These memories are so fun!!
Except for the gallternity leave, these were some fun memories! And I still remember how exciting it was to SELL THE HOUSE!!!
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