13 years ago today

Thirteen years ago today I had a date with a boy from institute. I was 20 years old, far from home, and just trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life. I had my eye on this guy who sat behind me. He was funny and smart and insightful. There was just something about him that drew me to him. The few minutes we had to talk before we had to run off to our next class never seemed like enough time.

Then he finally did it. He told me he wanted to ask me to go out with him to see the Easter pageant but I had been running off so fast lately that he didn't have a chance. So stumbling awkwardly over my words I told him well, we should definitely still go out and do something. We exchanged numbers and went on our way. I ended up calling him 2 hours later and asking him to go out the very next day. I was so worried about how desperate this must have made me seem. I felt like I wasn't playing the game correctly.

But 13 years ago was that very first date. We went out with my roommate and her boyfriend. Dinner, then a movie. But we had a couple of hours to kill before the movie started so we walked around and got to know each other better. The conversation flowing just as easily as I had always imagined it would. And then when the movie was over and Aaron was bringing me home, it still didn't seem like enough time. I made a comment about how many stars there were out here in Arizona. He told me that sometime we should go to Sauguaro Lake and then I'd really see some stars. It was probably close to 11 at this point but I wasn't tired. "Lets go!"   "Now?" "Yes!" I grabbed his hand and started towards his truck with him looking at me like I was crazy. That absolutely has not changed in 13 years. And off we went, to look at the stars and continue talking. I remember it just felt so comfortable.  That also hasn't changed.

Now here we are, 5 biological kids, 3 foster kids, 6 moves (twice across the country) one career change, and countless other happy and occassional sad, frequently overwhelmed moments later. Thirteen years sounds like a long time, but also not. I remember the summer before my 13th birthday, I was walking with my best friend Cathy. We were talking about how weird it was that we were both about to become teenagers. We dramatically talked about how we felt like we were leaving our childhoods behind. I mean, we knew we weren't grown ups, but we definitely the change. The shift from being a kid, to the beginning of womanhood. We would laugh at this conversation for years later. When we were 18, laughing as we again said, "Well now we really are leaving our childhood behind." But as I've gotten even older I feel more impressed than embarrassed at our young 12 year old selves. Yes 13 is still a child, but we were right. Things were changing. The changes didn't seem to happen so fast when we were 18, but looking back now, it really was all in a blink of an eye.
        So as my relationship with my husband becomes a teenager, I wonder what lies ahead for us. We are done having babies, so we really are entering a new stage of life together. The kids are growing up, and before long it will no longer be diaper changes and story times, but curfews and college applications. On one hand that is scary as heck, but on the other I can not wait. I long for the days that it's just Aaron and I again. I know I'll miss this, and I don't want to rush it, but I am also so grateful for the effort Aaron and I make to stay connected. So that when we do reach that stage we don't look at each other one day and ask, "Who are you?" 
       Well I am not sure how to end this. I'm trying to write more just for the sake of writing. Do you listen to the podcast, A Way With Words? I was inspired by last week's episode to just write. And an anniversary post seemed fitting.

Our first set of stitches and Mexico

So I really used to be so good at keeping track and writing stuff here. And then I've added more and more and kids and this has become less and less of a priority. But I LOVE being able to win an argument with Aaron about when or how something happened. So I need catch up because who knows when we'll be arguing about how old Abigail was when she busted her lip. Or whatever. 

So 5 minutes into our first softball practice of the season, Abigail got hit in the face with a ball. They were just playing catch! The girl must have rifled it at her. I didn't see, because I was still filling out the contact information for the coach. We had literally just started. Abigail comes running to me, blood just absolutely everywhere and it is split just right in half. The coach confirmed what I already knew, stitches. So I call urgent care and they tell me because of her age and the location I needed to go to the hospital. So I try to think clearly. Of course Aaron is at work. I have 6 kids, the oldest is 10, the youngest is 7 months, and one of them is bleeding profusely from the mouth. Not exactly my happy place. And of course my bestie is out of town. So I start wracking my brain of people I can call. And I am so grateful for a wonderful ward and amazing people who will literally drop everything and come to my rescue. A good friend Rachel came with her family and watched my littles while Abigail and I ran off to get stitched up. By this point Abigail isn't crying anymore, she's just begging me to not take her the hospital. She's terrified of the emergency room. We call uncle Douger to help calm her down and talk her through what to expect. She was feeling a bit better as we entered the ER. In triage she told the nurse her pain was a 4, on a scale of 1-10. A 4! She is tough as nails, this kid. Then the nurse told us it would be upwards to 4-5 hours to wait. FOUR TO FIVE HOURS in the ER during flu season, with my child bleeding. Needless to say, I was not all too thrilled with this situation. So I started wracking my brain about who I knew who could possibly help us. I decided to text our dentist. I felt bad because I know he's really busy, and another dentist friend had told me it was probably best to stay at the ER, but I am SO SO SO grateful I texted him. He met me at the office 30 minutes later, and Abigail was so excited because she loves her dentist. She got to play on the Nintendo Switch, and watch a movie, and Dr. Kempton is so skilled with that novacaine that she really thought he was just putting a "bubble" in her mouth. He had done about 5 stitches when she asked, "When are you going to start the stitches?" He laughed and told her he was almost done.  He was so impressed with her injury that he recorded it with his personal cell phone. Her lip tore right in half, so you could see her labial artery. He said it was nothing shy of a miracle that that artery was still intact. It was split all around it, but somehow it stayed put. So he sewed us up and sent us on our way. He is seriously amazing. And Abigail was not scarred for life by some scary PA at the hospital stitching her up. 

Then the very next day, not even 24 hours later we were in the car for Mexico. And the picture of me and Nora pretty much sum up how the trip was for me. Thought I did get a few moments of solitude here and there. I feel so alive and connected at the beach. It is good for my soul to return often. However, maybe not with so many kids. But I do love my in-laws beach house and how secluded it is. It's just a haven for kids to run and play. They were able to spend hours each morning hunting for sea creatures, and we only saw one other family on the entire beach. It is amazing. Even if it was absolutely exhausting for me.