it's a wonderful life

I'm behind.

As usual, lately.

It's one of those habits that's hard to keep up and even harder to start over again.  But heaven knows if I don't write everything here, it'll never get written down anywhere.

Our third anniversary was August 5th, 2014.  I have a million mushy things to say about Tim, and I've written a lot of them before, but today, I'll just tell you that our life is beautiful.

It's a beautiful, wonderful life.

The day of our anniversary, we left Ellie with a sweet family in our ward.  We got some KFC and drove over to a park, where we spread out our picnic blanket and ate a romantic dinner under an ever-darkening sky.

[It was the same picnic blanket that we used the day I thought he was going to propose to me and then didn't.  I was relieved.  And disappointed.  I think it was the day I knew part of me wanted him to.]

"Wouldn't it be funny if it rained right now?"

It had taken Tim at least 10 minutes to get down the hill with his crutches, and we knew it would be even harder for him to get back up that hill in a hurry.  The wind was starting to pick up, but we ate and laughed and listened to the creek humming along behind us.  It wasn't supposed to rain today.  Was it?

The few minutes we got before it started raining were filled with such peace.  We talked about everything and nothing.  And when it finally did start raining, we laughed, picked up our things, and ran back to the car.

[I say "ran," but I think we both know that's quite the stretch for a man on crutches going up a wet, grassy hill.]

It's funny, because I definitely wouldn't have planned it that way, but it turned out perfectly.  Isn't that the way things always end up?  Eventually?

A few days later, we drove down to Provo to see Matt Walsh.

[I feel here that I must insert a caveat that we in no way agree with everything Matt Walsh says.  We agree with a lot of things he says, but certainly not all.  But what we appreciate the most is his willingness to say unpopular things.  So often I have an unpopular opinion but am too afraid to express it.]

We both felt so motivated that night.  Essentially, his message was that we need to be willing to share our opinions, especially when they are unpopular.  Otherwise, the vocal minority wins because the majority is too afraid to say something.  It was definitely a message that I needed to hear.

Our sweet sister-in-law Alison drove 30 minutes to come watch Ellie for six hours while Tim and I went to Provo together.  Ellie absolutely loooved her, and even let Alison put her to bed seamlessly that night.  We were so grateful - most especially that we could leave without an ounce of worry.

We missed our baby girl, but it was so fun to have so much uninterrupted time together.  It's the longest I've ever left Ellie, which subsequently meant that it was the longest conversation we've been able to have in 1.5 years.  It felt like we were dating again.  We even got to hold hands.  Steamy!

Those two days were the perfect, low-key anniversary celebration.

I have so much love for that man.