Celebrating a decade

John and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary on April 9. When I think about A DECADE, it's hard to believe because in some ways it doesn't feel that long ago; however, when I look at our life, our kids, our home, I think, “it should be!”...Maybe it should be even longer!

10 years ago I woke up really early the morning of my wedding. I sat alone on my parent’s couch, one last time and watched the sunrise while eating a bowl of cheerios. I was a 22 year old girl about to enter into a brand new life. 

Now, I swing with my four kids on our swing set in our backyard. I sometimes have to pinch myself that this is my life... Children, a nice home, a swing set…I mean, I feel fully adult. 
..(I think having a swing set in the backyard finally made me feel really really...um, established.)

John and I were able to go out for a nice dinner to celebrate.  As we were in the bathroom getting ready to leave, there was a random child’s sock in our sink. We both looked at each other and laughed because yes, this stray sock totally sums up our life right now. 

Literally, socks of all colors, sizes and shapes are strewn around our house, cars, garage and even our neighborhood. I have bins and bins of miscellaneous, unmatched, random socks. There is literally never a load of laundry containing two of the same sock. 
I'll never understand it. 
It's impossible trying to keep 40 toes properly covered.  My boys strongly dislike socks. Evie is not too fond of them either. Sometimes the struggle is just not worth it and nicely groomed bare toes will do. 

A few days ago I had the boys out on a walk on a beautiful spring afternoon.  They were all cheerfully cooing in the stroller looking around. As I walked down the neighborhood street where I often venture, I turned my head to the left and noticed some very muddy tire marks on the side of the road. What caught my eye though was a very dirty, run over orange and green striped sock. OUR sock! It must have been tossed off days, or even weeks ago and then been sitting there on the side of the road. 

I wonder how many Patton socks are lost, lying in gutters, never to be found or remembered again?! 

John and I have both changed in our ten years together. However, one way in which John has stayed the same is that he still plans surprises for me and makes celebrations special. He took me to Laurelhurst Market for dinner that night, and we dined on blue cheese wedge salads, perfectly seared steaks and crispy rosemary battered onion rings. We shared a bottle of red wine that we kept since our fifth anniversary celebration in Sonoma. It was such a fun dinner; it went way too fast. 

We reminisced about our years, Our "younger years", before kids... of dinner parties, traveling and working a lot. 

We even shed some tears when we talked about certain events, like finding out we were first pregnant with Evie. 

We talked about our life now...with the boys, this new house and our family life that is developing.

 We thanked each other for never giving up on us. We recognized positive qualities in the other person that often times go unmentioned. 
We dreamed about the future years, of raising our kids together, of surviving, and thriving, of making sure that we are always ok. 

Feelings come and feelings go. But it is a good feeling to know that regardless of our emotions in a certain season of life, we are committed to us and to our family. 

In other news, April is nearly half way done, and we've been spending it in a variety of ways...

Painting Easter Eggs...

Egg hunting with the cousins

Posing for cute pictures with the cousins...

and with Grammie and Grandpa...

....swinging

.....having private picnics

and being very sick...

 

Alas, I wasn't able to escape the germs either and I find myself sharing in the germ fest now too. I really hope things return to normal soon.

Whatever normal is...normal keeps changing around here and I have to say I am so so blessed by the friends and family who continue to bless our socks off with helping us stay sane. (hey, maybe that is the answer to our sock mystery!)

Until next time....