my little secret and our big change

So I'm dying to blog about samantha's birthday, which was (cue flushed cheeks) almost a week ago. The secret I refer to is that I actually only write blogs on monday nights. Blogger has decided to start adding great new features like post-dating your blogs, so now I post on monday nights and then ride the wave for the next week to 10 days. If I have crushed your image of me as a fab blogger, I'm sorry. But post-dating is the only way for me now.

Except that today is monday. I have loads of pictures (is 20 too many for a birthday post? I mean, for a normal post, I'd agree that 20 is overboard. But it's birthday. Can I get an exception??), funny stories, I've got some serious goods for you. But, I'm being told that I cannot connect to the internet, that perhaps there's a problem with the webpage I requested.

If I can't get these fun pictures of my brand-new two year old up tonight, I might break my tradition and blog tomorrow night.

In other unrelated-to-picture news, june 17, that charming date where samantha blessed this world with her bubbly little self, also happens to be our anniversary. Until this year. As we lay in bed last tuesday night, exhausted from full day (sneak peek: we went to the zoo!) of celebrating a fun birthday, we decided we're going to change our anniversary date.

I was afraid this would happen when I was in the hospital, dilated 8 centimeters at 5:45am.

I wondered if our anniversary would ever be the same.

We gave it a good run. Last year, we tried our best (though last year, if you remember, I was triply blessed with father's day, our anniv, and mantha's bday all on the same busy day. All I had to say about that was, phew! Glad it's over!) But it never really has been the same, and I always feel like I'm shortchanging josh of my emotions, planning, and time trying to celebrate our anniversary on its real date.

Neither one of us are terribly sentimental, so we decided it would be switched. We have not yet determined our new anniverary date, but it will be forthcoming soon. I think it will be at least one week after the initial date - in the rare event that my husband decides to take me on an exotic vacation for a grand anniversary, at least a week after samantha will give us a chance to get things organized and etc.

I'm seeing the positive in this. We could do a little ceremony thing just to make it feel official. Not that my wedding dress would fit me anymore. Not that any cake here would match my wedding cake then. Not that any of you would be around this time. But still, it would be fun.

It's funny, you know, getting married. You date someone for a relatively short period of time (in our case, about two years). You think you have a pretty good idea of who they are and about your future with them, but the reality is that you don't really know. You aren't sure about the degree of their morning breath. They tell you they like kids, but what happens when the first one is born? I marvel at the things I know about josh now that I didn't know about him when we got married eight years ago.

And yet, I would happily say my vows all over again with these past eight years of knowing more josh behind me. I'm amazed at how he loves and dedicates himself to our children, I soak up the way he loves me and respects my opinion, his pursuit of the lord challenges and motivates me. I love how we laugh at different things when we watch seinfeld, and even how he compliments me when I lose at Settlers.

So the idea of "getting married" again doesn't seem so bad.

So, I will save you all the trouble by telling you - you dont' need to ask what we did for our anniversary this year, because it hasn't happened yet. I'll be sure to let you know, though, so you can change it on your calendar.