2nd Anniversary

I was so excited to celebrate this years anniversary.  I knew that we wouldn't be able to do much because Christian's family was vacationing in Hawaii (yes, on our anniversary :), but I thought I would make him the best dinner ever and we could spend a few hours together that evening gazing into eachothers eyes or something like that. 

I decided to include Christians remaining siblings in our dinner because they didn't have a lot of time to cook either.  It would be really fun to all spend some relaxing time together after a crazy week! 

I spent several days planning out this dinner.  I decided to have bbq ribs because we never eat bbq ribs, and I spent hours searching for the perfect recipe that I could make.  I also googled a perfect twice baked potato recipe and spent hours the night before making a delicious white chocolate raspberry cheesecake from scratch in a springfoam pan and everything.  I was thorough!  I even bought real parmesan cheese for the asparagus.  It would be a night worthy of our anniversary, I was sure.  I mean, what could go wrong?

Well, Ashley, Elysha and I had been visiting family for the week while Christian worked crazy hours.  We got back Saturday morning, and almost immediately went over to Christian's family's house.  Ashley has a really hard time with change at this point in her little life.  She likes her consistency and was very onery by the time we got there.  I'm talking tantrums and throwing things.  I have never seen her like this before!  Elysha was a little frightened.  Nevertheless, I wasn't going to let this stop me.  I cooked and tried to play and entertain and let them sleep as much as they wanted.  By the time I was ready to start cooking the ribs, I was just ready for it all to be over.

Abigail, my sister in law, helped me figure out how to start the grill.  I placed the meat on the grill and went inside for a moment to help change diapers and check on the potatoes.  Four minutes later I opened the door to a cloud of smoke.  All of the ribs had caught fire.  Shad, my 10 year old brother in law, asked me if this was normal?

We extinguished the fire and Christian arrived.  I asked him if he would rather me order a pizza?  But everyone claimed they would much rather have these ribs than pizza.  Shad had never tried ribs before, and he was so excited for the new experience.  I begged him not to base his opinion of ribs off of tonight. 

I had been feeling sick for a short while, but I thought it was just pregnancy.  However, I soon found out I had the flu.  A few minutes later, I also realized I had entirely forgotten about our perfect twice baked potatoes. 

Everyone sat at the table eating bones covered in charcoal and crispy potatoes.  Despite their great attitudes and gratitude, I laid on the couch and vowed never to put that much effort into a dinner again!  No one dared to venture to the cheesecake, so it sat uneaten in the fridge. 

John, my brother in law, thanked me and offered to clean up, which I gratefully accepted.  Then he and Christian were off to the farm on some emergency pipe line problem.  I laid on the couch and tried to figure out what to do.  I was more sick than I can ever remember being before.  Throughout that evening, I lost 5 pounds.  I think it was a mix of pregnancy and just a normal flu.  Needless to say, I was exhausted and not in the mood to chase my girls around or run to save them from falling down the stairs (which I did).  By the time we got home 2 hours later, I was in tears.

After the initial shock reaction to me being upset, Christian was able to help me calm down and we talked about our week and everything that had happened for hours.  I decided it may have been the craziest and (hopefully) worst anniversary we will ever have, but at least we have every day to spend together and make up for it.