Kent and Mary Ann's 15th Wedding Anniversary

We did it! We reached the 15 year anniversary of our wedding, and are still as happy with each other than the day we married... more, actually. We were so young when we got married, me especially. I was still a teenager, so I tell Kent that he robbed the cradle. We are definitely going to encourage our children to wait until they're a bit older to get married. Our plan was to finish school, get "real" jobs and then buy a house. A few years after that we'd start having kids. 2 or 3, probably. Kent really wanted me to be a stay-at-home mom, and I couldn't imagine doing that. That difference of opinion was probably our first real argument.Obviously our plans changed when I got pregnant. I was taking multiple precautions to prevent pregnancy, but that didn't stop Justin from coming along when I was the ripe old age of 20. He's almost 14 (less than 5 weeks now, I think), and every time I look at him I just imagine him in 5 years, getting ready to leave on his mission. Then I think of myself at that age, never once imagining that I'd be one of those "foolish young women" who would get married, much less pregnant, until she was done or nearly done with school.
My pregnancy with Justin was fraught with problems. I developed pre-eclampsia within the first 8 weeks of pregnancy, started spotting at work so had a miscarriage scare, then I started swelling up like a blimp when my blood pressure spiked. And the horrible 24/7 heartburn. At the time my OB told me to chew Tums or Rolaids. Let me tell you Rolaids does NOT spell relief. False advertising! I couldn't sleep if I lay down so I had to sleep in a sitting position for several months. During that pregnancy I first started having severe back pain, that my OB wrote off as pregnancy related. (After Justin was born and the problems only got worse we found out that L4 and L5 were herniated and disintegrating... not pregnancy related.) Then at about 28 weeks I started having preterm labor so I had to stop working and go on bed rest. I seriously thought I would die of boredom. It wasn't like I could even go window shopping unless I wanted to use a wheelchair. Then when I came off bed rest, my BP went up even higher, and I was not feeling well at all. Then my preterm labor stopped, and I ended up having to be induced when I was overdue. My August baby came in September.
Kent went on to finish his school as I adjusted to life as a new mother. I didn't return to work or school because we couldn't afford to have Justin in day care. We eventually got the new house 2 months before Justin turned 1. I had a miscarriage 6 weeks after Justin's 1st birthday. Then Trevor joined our family when Justin was 2 1/2.
When Trevor was 3, and Justin was 5 we moved to our current home. Natalie joined our family 1 year later, and Drew came along 19 months after that. Life has had its ups and downs, but we've always managed to work through our issues with relatively calm heads. Kent's parents were divorcing when we were dating so I never knew them when they were married, and my parents split up when I was pregnant with Drew. Both of those divorces were incredibly difficult for us even though we were adults, and thought that we'd be immune to the emotional roller coaster rides that those things turned out to be. Kent decided when his parents were divorcing that divorce would not be an option for him unless the circumstances were extreme. I empathized and understood that. When my parents divorced, though, I started to gain the insight that he'd probably gained during that time for him. (Add pregnancy hormones to that, and I'm sure it was a great few months for Kent. Sorry, babe!) Having been through that, and not wanting our children to have to go through it either, has really solidified the need for us to be diligent in caring for and loving each other. We want to respect each other, help each other grow and accomplish our goals. We want to be good parents, who listen to their children and help them learn to grow in faith and righteousness. We want to do all the good things our parents did, teach them the lessons our parents taught us and help them reach their full potential. We want that for each other.Okay... that's gotten a bit heavy so... for our anniversary we went to see Salt. (Girls kicking butt is always a good theme for me!) Then we went to dinner at Cantina Laredo. I think that's one of Kent's favorite restaurants. I was going to get fresh made guacamole until I saw that it was $10.For one small bowl of guac! I'm still my father's daughter. I couldn't bring myself to do it, even on our anniversary. Kent got soft tacos. One flour and one corn tortilla with choice of beef fajita meat. He said it was very good.I got Tampico. It was grilled chicken breast topped with sautéed artichoke hearts, mushrooms, spinach, red bell peppers with sour cream-poblano sauce and monterey jack cheese. I can't eat rice due to the swallowing issue so I took it home for the kids. They loved it. And since we didn't get the appetizer we got dessert. It was hot apple pie served on a hot skillet, topped with cinnamon ice cream (sounded disgusting to me, but was delicious with the cinnamon from the pie). They poured a brandy-butter sauce on top of that, and it sizzled and popped for several minutes while we ate. Seriously so good. I'm going to have to try to try to duplicate it for Thanksgiving. (BTW, that dessert was about40% cheaper than the guac. Seriously?! I'm going to have to make some because now I'm stuck on that. Anyone want to come help me eat it?)I ordered Kent a smoker. For Memorial Day we went to our friends' house for dinner. The husband had smoked ribs in his smoker all day. They were so good. They were so tender the meat was falling off the bone with the slightest touch. I think Justin and Trevor ate at least half of them by themselves. That smoker has been discussed at length since that day. I told Kent that's what I'd ordered for him, but then he had ordered one too so I canceled mine. So he says that's his gift from me. I asked for a couple of different things. I'm not sure what I'm getting yet. He gave me beautiful white and red roses when he came home from work. He also brought home a box of See's chocolates. Since I'm still trying to lose weight I suppose I'll share. (Either that or every time I open the box I'll find that my dear, sweet, innocent children have helped themselves to a sample or 2.)