10 years of wedded bliss

10 years ago today,

in the little town of Dent, MN,

two young college grads made a vow to each other:

to love, honor and cherish each other

'til death do us part.

I won't speak for Ryan,

but I love my husband more today than the day I married him.

And although I'm not sure I fully understood the

seriousness of marital vows at the time,

I understand them now.

I am truly blessed to have a husband

that is completely devoted

to his wife and little boys.

Here's to a lifetime together!

The reason why...

Since I've been home , my days certainly are just as full as when I was "working." Some days are very smooth. Others are full of fighting, whining and tantrums...and then the boys act up too! But, every afternoon, the bedroom door rattles and a little voice calls "Mommy...I can't get out." Most days he'll come sit on my lap for quite a while and just rock. On this day, he fell asleep for almost another hour and a half...and I didn't move.

THIS is the reason I get to be home.

"I think I can...I think I can..."

I have recently taken up jogging. Why? To get back in shape, of course. Honestly, I don't know that I've ever been "IN" shape...but I do know that I am currently "OUT" of shape, indeed. I could blame it on school, marriage, kids, weather, fear of bear maulings and a hangnail, but the truth is I don't like to push myself...therefore, I don't (not physically, anyway). However, with being home with the boys more, I don't have the cloud of guilt looming overhead like I did before whenever I had considered taking a little time to work out. So, after completing day 2:

My butt hurts...

My shins hurt...

...and I now believe my surgeon when he told me I have "very little elasticity" and I "scar well". I think I can feel that scar all the way through.

So, I have vowed to do this 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week and we'll see if this ol' body can gain a little tone. If you happen to be driving around Nikiski and see a pathetic heap of blonde in the ditch, please pick her up and bring her home. Her boys miss her.

Volcanic activity in Alaska!

For my birthday, I received a gift certificate at Cornerstone Books and Supply (a store that has lots of "school" stuff). I had spent several different afternoons in there trying to decide what treasure to select with my certificate. After sifting through all the math books, phonics CDs, educational games, I made the perfect selection: a book and CD entitled "Gross and Annoying Songs for all ages". The book includes the lyrics to the songs such as "Greasy, Grimy Gopher Guts" and "Road Kill Stew" (these are sure to be number 1 hits someday). It also has science experiments, jokes and pranks, recipes and lots of other disgusting things little boys enjoy. So, after leafing through the pages, I decided to use up the modeling clay Logan had gotten a while ago by making a volcano. After much anticipation over baking the fluorescent blue, pink, purple, yellow and green volcano, we were ready to put it to the test. A little baking soda, dish soap, food coloring and vinegar later, we had a few successful eruptions. Lets hope I don't pull out any recipe that calls for baking soda before I make another trip to the store!