let me count the ways...

us

summer 2000

a dear friend sent me this picture via email the other day. thanks carly!  it made me laugh for a number of reasons. firstly because we look so stinking delirious and carefree. i wish i could be that carefree again. i feel like this summer is just scraping along and dragging me with it. things are so stressful and hard that i find myself not letting the girls and i do anything fun whatsoever. the park? too hot. a trip? too stressful and expensive. heck, i won't even consider driving down the road to crash at a friends for a few hours. which makes me think i'm being a teensy weensy bit uptight. so i'll try to start and loosen up a bit and have some fun. who cares that our front room looks like a homeless bomb went off? we're going swimming!  the reason i've felt this remorse is we had on our list of fun things to do: go swimming at the big house. and now, it's gone. how's that for a reality check?

but at the same time, i love our pace of life. it's slow. very slow. we make breakfast, we eat breakfast, we clean up breakfast. we play. phoebe naps. we make lunch. we eat lunch. we read books. we have naps (everyone but me). i clean up lunch. we play. we make dinner. we eat dinner. we play. we bathe. we read books. we pray. the girls go to bed. i clean up dinner. we talk. we watch some seinfeld or king of the hill. we pray. we sleep. simple. boring. reliable.

the second reason i laughed at this photo was the fact that the night before i got this ty and i probably had one of our worst fights yet. oh the irony. whaaaat? i know, shocker. yes we have our arguments.  recently i've read a lot of love stories on people's blogs. i'll admit, i grab a big bag of popcorn and plop down to read those like a harlequin romance novel. if i ever had read a harlequin romance novel.  they're entertaining, they're steamy and they always end happy. is that what harlequin romance novels do? can you tell i'm intrigued with this notion?  but all in all, i could write our love story on here. how we met, how i felt, first holding hands, first kiss, first i love you's, first argument, first i'm sorry's. but is that our story? i just don't think i'm ready to write it. it would be pioneer woman style and like, 60 posts long.

but i will say this:

 one of my good friend's father told me this rule of thumb: "you know it's true love when you can sit in a room together for an hour and not have to touch one another". boy, how many lusty relationships would that pop the bubble on?

but is it true? in my opinion: YES. because that would chalk up ty and i in a nutshell. in public we probably act more like brother and sister than steamy lovers. there's a good chance our wedding day was the first time a large majority of our families and friends saw us kiss. yes, we kiss! and it's awesome! and we do more than that too! i'm serious! look at our kids!

we just like to be intimate in private. weird no? we've never had the inclination to mack it out in public. why you ask? let me ask you this, how many times have you felt comfortable when someone starts kissing right in front of you? maybe it's just me, but i'm going to think a big fat zero would be in line here. i'm not talking about a peck. nothing wrong with a  peck. i'm talking, kissing. or long pecks. or pecks with a little bit of sound to them. or walking around with your hands in each other's pants.

so know this world. even though i haven't documented our story. and even though we don't slobber or lay all over each other in public. and even though i don't whisper sweet nothings into his ear. and even though i don't call him hunny buns and he doesn't call me sweet cakes. i love him. and he loves me. and we have made a beautiful, semi-disfuntional, loving family.