two whole years

April 4th.  That's our anniversary! It's been two loooooooong years.

Ha, Kidding.  It's been two amazing years!  It's really flown by.  I remember counting days and then weeks of being married.  And now it's in years.  I love thinking back to dating and engagement and even last year and laugh at all we did!

Walking to dinner in front of Lake Calhoun around sunset

We started out the day with a staff meeting, and while Andrew was doing a traning session for some staff, I met with a few girls, and worked out.  A pretty light day :)

Then Hubs picked me up and drove me down through Uptown to "the lakes," a fun area with big beautiful homes and lots of runners.  He took me to this restaurant on Lake Calhoun, which is where he took me the first night I ever visited him while we dated.  I felt so raw flying across the country with him as my only reason! But he put me at ease and I loved every minute with him!  It was fun to go back to this place.  Except this time the lake was frozen over (but starting to melt, thank you!) and the wind was whipping some cold air! We got shrimp and grits and fish and chips.  Both of which were tasty.

at dinner (sporting a new haircut too!)

Just like that date a few years ago we went to get ice cream! I was craving some Cold Stone birthday cake ice cream.  Yum!  And proof that my husband knows and loves me: he ordered my ice cream with extra sprinkles :)

we clearly didn't like it.

We also asked each other the questions about our favorite and least favorite parts of marriage:

Mine:

• favorite things: having someone who's always there for me, a best friend, leader, and person to cuddle with/wake up next to!
• least favorite: getting into arguments and being frustrated, and seeing so much of my sin all the time (really that's so good though!)

Andrew's:

• favorite things: having someone stand by his side, a partner to do things with him, and having me on his team!
• least favorite: having to remind me to do stuff all the time (ex. finish something I said I would take care of...thank you cards, sending emails, etc)- ha.  so true.  

It's been so tender to see God's faithfulness to us.  We both realized how gracious God has been.  He's given us more grace toward one another, more humility (taking responsibility in conflict, and genuinely saying sorry sooner), and generally seeking to understand the other (vs. being understood) more and more.  Really, it's all the Holy Spirit!  If our first year's theme was learning more about another, this year's was really understanding the other more.  So sweet.

Then, last night, I was determined to make Andrew a fabulous meal that his Southern roots would love!  Country fried steak, fried okra and cornbread.  And tiramisu for dessert because he loves it.

...Enter dose of humility.

None of it was good!  You can't buy breaded okra up here or really any fresh okra this time of year.  So I tried to bread frozen okra and get it done.  Massive fail.  I've never really fried anything and I've got a lot to learn.  Country fried steak? Yep, never made it before and it wasn't crunchy.  And with all the work, I couldn't get the cornbread done in time.  I'd made the tiramisu with a new recipe and the marscapone added a tangy flavor I wasn't a fan of.  As it was all about to hit the table, I started to kind of lash out because I was so frustrated nothing turned out right, but thankfully Andrew was so sweet.  So much for a wonderful meal, smooth cooking, and easy anniversary gift :).  Praise God for my husband!  He was so gracious, loving, forgiving, and will eat just about anything!