Our 5 Year Anniversary

Like always, I should have posted this a long time ago. But, you know, life got in the way. We got busy. Kate got sick. I got sick. And I'm dealing with first trimester pregnancy stuff. Ugh!!

All that aside, we celebrated our fifth anniversary on July 10th. Kate spent the night with my family since my aunt from Texas was in town. That gave them all some quality "Kate time".

Mark and I took the evening to ourselves and had dinner at The Macaroni Grill and went to The Lumiere Place Casino in downtown St. Louis. We had a blast and ended up winning about $120 on penny slots of all things!!

We spent the night at The Hyatt and had a wonderful view.

Downtown was CRAZY because of the All Star Game hype. But, it was exciting to see all of that! We took a cab back and forth to the casino just because the traffic was insane and we didn't want to deal with parking.

It was such a nice change of pace to have time all to ourselves... and a date night which hasn't happened in a very long time!!

Unbelievably, in five days, Mark and I will have been together for TEN YEARS!!! We dated for almost five years before getting married. It's crazy to think that we have spent such a huge chunk of our lives together... and crazy that it's actually worked... ha!

Seriously, though, I can't imagine my life without Mark. We learn A LOT from each other, our patience is tested, we roll our eyes (well, I do, which is a habit I am trying to break!), we laugh, we cry, we fight, we make up, we make decisions together, we parent together, and we do it all knowing that we are with the one that God hand picked for one other.

And, I know that to be true, because if you knew us when we first got together, we were the very LAST two people you thought would ever end up together. We just didn't make sense. But, for some reason, we work. Where I'm weak, he's strong. And vice versa. He's introverted to the max, and I'm just as much extraverted. He's super smart, and I'm... well... I teach first graders. I know first grade stuff. He reads philosophy books and I read US Weekly. He likes The Discovery Channel and I could watch E! News all day. And, that's Mark and Jen.

One of our friends was talking about our lives and told us that you don't just think of "Mark" or "Jen". It's "Mark & Jen", that we are a team, that we are so much more together than on our own. One of the best compliments I've ever received. And, of course, he said it way better than I could write.

Mark and Jen. We're like peanut butter and jelly. (I think Mark and Megan are the only ones that will remember that line.) :)

Date Night

We had babysitters last night. Steph and Kelly, two girls from the youth group, wanted Mark and I to go out on a date so they could babysit. Who could turn down that offer?

Here was the plan:

A quick shopping trip to Old Navy to use a great "friends and family" coupon my friend Jen gave me to use before the 3rd.

Dinner at Mimi's Cafe

Taking in a movie

Good conversation at Barnes & Noble while enjoying Starbucks

A quick stop at Wal-mart on the way home


Here's what actually happened:

We spent too long at Old Navy, then went to Gap Kids where we could also use the coupon. And, I might add, that all of our shopping was done for Kate (we bought stuff for next summer at amazing prices!).

Dinner at Mimi's Cafe.

I guess we shopped and dined for too long, because after that, all we had time for was our "quick stop" at Wal-mart. We did hold hands while we shopped, though. Does that still count for a date night?

Then, we made the 40 minute trip back home to a sweet little sleeping baby girl. Who, by the way, has learned the "so big" trick (lifting both arms up when asked, "How big's Kate?") and is saying "da-da" now.