Sweet Sixteen

Last Friday was our 16th wedding anniversary and we got away! We had not done this since our 10th anniversary. That was so much fun then that we vowed we would go away every 5 years from then on. Well, last year was #15. I was still nursing Sam and hated the thought of foisting the other boys on grandparents or friends, so Paul suggested we just take them all with us. We went back to Minneapolis where we had honeymooned and spent the extra money and got a suite so we would have our own bedroom. But while it was a nice family trip, it just wasn't all that romantic. I was still pretty much a walking zombie at that point from the stroke and getting up multiple times a night with Sam. And just having the kids there really lessened the romance factor. So anyway, I had thrown out the idea to Paul awhile ago about getting away - just the two of us - this year, to kind of make up for last year. He just laughed so I figured that was the end of it. But then, about a month ago he said he'd like for us to go away.

Paul made most of the childcare arrangements (thank you Tammy and Melissa!) and decided what it was we would do. We got tickets to the Boone Scenic Valley and Railroad dinner train. We dropped the kids off Friday afternoon and got up to the station in Boone. Oh, that was fun, seeing people come in, all dressed up as we waited. Although some wore jeans - apparently they didn't read the part of the confirmation letter that specified "business casual" for dress. But there were some couples in suits and high heels, as well (not us!). We boarded and found that our table companions were fellow Christians and involved in a local camp ministry. I thought, "Oh, isn't God good! Now we have someone we can really talk to!" Well, they weren't all that talkative. We had to keep trying to think of things to keep the conversation going and I finally gave up. They spent most of their time murmuring to each other about their new campground (they didn't know I can read lips!) and Paul and I just sat. I was very much enjoying the steady rhythm of the train, as well as the darkness. And our food was wonderful! We noticed Hy-Vee catering trucks at the depot, but that's fine. Hy-Vee catering is always good! I couldn't even finish all my dinner.

Afterwards we went to our hotel and never left our room that night. It was SO wonderful to not have boys fighting over the remote and which cable channel they were going to watch - sports or cartoons - or to have demands that we accompany them to the pool! We could just do what we wanted! I even got to watch Lifetime, which is a treat for me because I'm too cheap and too poor to get cable service at home! We found an hour long special on wedding videos - funny ones, interesting ones, disastrous ones - and it was really appropriate because it was our anniversary.

I figured we'd sleep in the next morning but we were up by 7:15! What is wrong with us?! We ate a wonderful breakfast at the hotel and went in the hot tub for awhile. Then we went back to the room for awhile. I had a survey on intimate issues that I had clipped out of a magazine awhile back and I had asked Paul to fill out his half in anticipation of this weekend. I had too, and we spent some time on Sat. comparing our answers and discovering things about each other that we still didn't know, after all this time. That was really special.

We eventually checked out and then we went and bought a couch. Wha -a-a-at?!? I'll back up about 24 hours here. Friday morning Paul took a nap in our lazy boy chair in the living room. When he woke up, he looked around the room, and declared, "We need to rearrange the furniture in here." Never mind that things have been exactly the same for four years and have worked that way! No, actually, his ideas made sense and soon we were all moving things around. Then, once we were done, Paul commented, "You know, what we really need to do is get rid of some of these chairs in here and get a couch with a recliner in it." I thought that was a really good idea and said so, adding that well, maybe we could start looking around, but we probably wouldn't be able to buy until this summer. And we left it at that. When we dropped Will off at Melissa's, I was admiring her new couch cover and ended up telling her what Paul had just said, about us needing to get a new couch. She told me we ought to check out Redekers, a furniture store, that is located right there in Boone. To my surprise, Paul brought that up later and said he really wanted to go there. He has heard their ads on the radio and was curious.

Now, we have only ever had hand me down furniture, with the exception of our beds and my glider rocker. It just hasn't been in the budget to afford new stuff. So, we have never even priced anything. But we went to Redekers and found several couches - with recliners! - on clearance. It didn't take long to realize that we probably could afford to do this now instead of later. So we thought and thought and asked some questions of the salesman. Then, we went to lunch and talked it over some more. And then we went back and bought a really, really nice couch! It's tan and looks great with my new brown curtains behind it. It's made out of the microfiber material, so it actually kind of looks like leather (which has been a secret desire of mine for some time - leather furniture - very elegant, I think!). We actually hauled it home on the roof of our minivan. The salesman was dubious when Paul told him what he wanted to do, but it worked. We bought some straps and periodically pulled over to make sure it wasn't about to fall off. We took the back roads home so we could go more slowly and we got it home, all in one piece! Our neighbor helped us bring in it Sat. night. We got the kids to bed, sat on our new couch together, and asked each other, "Did we really do this?!"

So that was my wonderful, short, weekend get-away with my Sweetheart of Sixteen plus years. Oh, and then yesterday morning in SS we wrapped up our video series on marriage. This last video was excellent and dealt with seriousness of the vows we took. Coming off the little excursion we had just had, it seemed extra applicable to us. There was a time when I didn't know if we'd make it to five years, let alone sixteen! But I have complete confidence now that these 16 years we have just celebrated are only the beginning of a lifetime of loving and living together.