For the bread recipe, see the next post- and let me know if you try it and how it turns out!!!!
On Wednesday Ben walked through the door and I knew our health problems were not resolved. He looked and sounded horrible! He only went to work for half days on both Thursday and Friday, and Friday he came home with PINK EYE- yes, you read that correctly- Ben has pink eye! UGHHHH!!! I am so incredibly frustrated and mad at this sickness- it just will not go away! So, not only was I completely out of it for well over a week (and I still have a runny nose and sore throat), now I have to be a single parent taking care of Audra and Ben and trying to get everything that needs to get done accomplished, etc. Tomorrow I will go to Easter Sunday without my husband and hope that Audra has a good day at church- if she doesn't, I am certain I will break down and cry all through the services. I know all of you have felt overwhelmed and ready to throw in the towel, and that is how I am feeling now. When will this end?????
OK, enough complaining. Some day this will all be over. I just don't know when. In other news, yesterday was the 5th anniversary of me and Ben's first date. Ben reminded me and I thought, "what a sweet husband to remember!" But, then I realized that I had written it on the calendar I gave him for Christmas and that is how he remembered! It was still sweet, though. We celebrated by giving each other a very, very short hug because I didn't want any of his germs. (And, right now I don't even want to look at him because his eye is so gross- fun times!)
So, in memory of our first date, and to get me to think of something besides illnesses, here's a recap of our lives leading up to and going into our first date. (I won't be offended if you don't want to read this and you skip down to the recipe!!!)
In about Feb. of 2004 I was asked to chair a committee at church organizing a camp-out. One of our leaders told me, "Now, you can choose to have anybody on your committee you want"- obviously indicating that I could ask any guys I was interested in. I had met Ben the month before at an ice-skating activity and thought he was cute, so I asked to have him on the committee. Ben was already on 4 or 5 other committees and he had only been camping once in his entire life, but he was like, "well, Christina's kind-of cute so I'll do it." There were about 5 of us on the committee, and we all got to work. Ben was awesome to work with, not surprisingly, and that is how we initially met.
In March he called me to see if I wanted to carpool with him to another church activity. I was like, "OK- should I drive or should you?" I thought it was very strange, but oh, well. Even though it seemed completely out of his way, he said he would pick me up. At this point I really didn't know Ben at all. But, he was easy to talk to and we seemed to have a lot to talk about. I had just gotten back from a trip to Paris, so as he dropped me off I invited him in for some hot chocolate and to look at my pictures. So, he came in and we talked for a couple of hours and seemed to hit it off.
It took him about 2-3 weeks to finally call and ask me out on a date (he insists that the carpooling was a date- which I adamently refuse to acknowledge as a date, and that he tried to call me several times but I never was home- which is probably true because I was coaching track at the time and working 14-16 hour days).
There were 2 things that really impressed me about Ben in regards to the first date:
1. He called and said, "I would like to know if you would like to go to the movies with me on Saturday night." I was very used to guys being like, "hey, there's a party on Friday, and I was planning on going, and maybe if you go we could see each other" or want to do some group activity or something and acting wishy-washy. I LOVED that he was assertive and just asked me like a man! I was impressed. Then, we decided on a movie- Hidalgo- but when he picked me up on Saturday he gave me a second great impression.
2. He came in and he said, "I know we decided to go see Hidalgo, but it's only playing at the cheap theatre, and I don't want to take you to the cheap theatre, so I thought we could go see 'The Prince and Me' instead." Now, I would not have minded going to the cheap theatre, but I LOVED that he wanted to take me someplace nice- that made me feel special to him, and I liked that. Plus, he chose a chick flick so that was a plus. (Never mind that now he hates chick flicks and going to the theatre- this was still in the 'impress me' stage:))
So, we went to the movie and we had a great time, and then he took me to one of his least favorite places in the world- Cold Stone- because we didn't want the date to end, and then we even went back to his house (i.e., his parent's house) because we didn't want the date to end and the rest is history. Pretty much after that we were inseperable, I was able to get over my committment-phobia (almost a deal breaker for us, but that's another story!), and now here we are five years later- still happy in love, with a second baby girl on the way! A lot happens in 5 years, and we couldn't be happier or feel more blessed! I'm sure glad I asked him to be on the campout committee!
(On a funny side note, apparently Ben says- and I vaguely remember-
that we didn't meet at the ice-rink like I thought, but we actually met in Sunday School about 8 months earlier. He apparently came and sat by me to talk to me, but I was pretty stand-offish and as he says, 'obviously not interested' so he didn't give me a second thought after that. Looking back, I had just broken up with a guy from Utah I had been dating and was certainly in an "I'm soooo not into guys right now mood"- hence my being standoffish. Just goes to show the Lord's timing is often much better then our own- I don't think either one of us were in the right place at that time for a serious relationship to work out. Ben was still in school and school was #1 in his life, not girls, and I was still pretty committment phobic, so I don't think I was quite ready yet- but, it still makes for a funny story!)
Cautiously checking out the snow!
Here's a cute video of Audra helping Daddy move the snow. Once she started playing in it, she actually really enjoyed the snow and didn't want to go back inside. I guess she is a true Coloradan!
They divided the kids up by age and we went to our room and Audra pretty much stood there looking like this the entire time.
My friend gave us all of her sons empty plastic eggs, and Audra enjoyed playing with those.
I know, I am amazing. (OK, let's be honest- I am also very surprised I haven't killed the herb garden yet. And, I didn't grow it from the beginning- they were pre-grown and all I had to do was put them in this pot and water them once a week. I have had the plants for a week, and so far nothing has died so I guess I am doing alright so far).
The chicken never had a chance! (Ok, yes it did- if you look closely, there is still a lot of chicken left on the bones that I couldn't get. Oh, well). Then, I made homemade noodles, and voila:
Homemade chicken noodle soup!!!
Unfortunately, they were kicked off last week (yes, the miraculous event occurred and the stuntmen were spared one more week- well, actually 2 more weeks because next week will most certainly be a non-elimination round. Ughh, something else that annoys me- this show is SOOOO predictable). Anyway, I liked these guys for one main reason. Two weeks ago Mel yelled at the cab driver, and then he said, "Oh, I'm going to feel bad about that all day- 1 million dollars is not worth dehumanizing another person." WHAT???? A reality TV person admitted that their integrity was worth more than money?!? I couldn't believe it- what a breath of fresh air!
