Tom rocked, the cakes turned out fabulous (although I kept making boob comments cuz I’m 12). He copies the designs from 2 of Cassie’s favorite bakugan ball things.

Here’s the party crew checking out the cakes

Cassie, of course, blew out the candles

She opened gifts

The all posed for a silly picture

I kinda got told to go away during the sleepover. Oops.

… and Daddy made pink heart-shaped waffles for breakfast the next morning. Yes, he is awesome.

Jamie’s Class

Cassie’s Class (that’s one her BFFs)

And one of the cows at the arboretum. Heh. Just cuz.

Watching Tom try to make the Xbox 360 work on mom’s TV was HILARIOUS. We did bring all the right parts, but he couldn’t get it to turn on. I think he came close to just throwing the whole thing out the front door.

Even more funny was watching Marcy try to figure out how the heck to make Penbo (the peguin robot) do what Cassie wanted it to do. I think they are trying to make her give up her egg here.

Anyway, the holiday party is always a lot of fun, fishing, bean toss, etc for little prizes, there’s usually free food, face painting, crafts, sack races… and Santa goes around in a classic old firetruck throwing candy through the streets. Yes, I’m serious. It’s a lot of fun. We, of course, went, had a great time and came back with photos.

Fishin’ for prizes

Cassie and the girl next door are very serious about their crafts

I had to convince Jamie to do it, but he loved the sack race!

What party would be complete without face painting?

Tom explained that the Christians believe that on Easter, Jesus rose from the dead and etc etc. He thought it was going pretty well until…

Jamie looked at him and said, “Dad, that’s nasty, so he’s like a zombie, right?”

LOL LOL. I swear, we didn’t say anything around him, but I always proclaim today to be Happy Zombie Day.

Awesome, as if the religious family members don’t already think we’re weird enough. And zombies are really big at school now. That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it.

I think it’s safe to say that we’ve been through the best and the worst of times, but we’ve always managed to do it together. Someone asked me last month how we manage to stay happy together and it’s not an easy question to answer. I think the big thing is that we laugh together – a lot. We laugh at ourselves, each other and at our own inside stupid jokes. If we are angry, we usually say what we have to say and move on – agreeing to disagree. We argue, but usually about stupid stuff.

More importantly, he lets me win a good bit. Hey, he’s not stupid, right?

Happy anniversary, Tom. Love you, babe!

It says:

February 12, 2010

Dear mom,

Happy valentines!!!!! I love you so much. You help me make my lunch. You are my hero always.

Love,
Cassie

I won’t tell the whole sorted story (no, I wasn’t pregnant, that came 7 years later) but we got married the day after I turned 18 and a few days later got on a plane and moved from South Carolina to Hawaii. How my mother didn’t smack me and tell me I was the stupidest child on the face of the planet… well… I don’t know. Obviously, it wasn’t a mistake, but I think back to how badly it could have turned out. I mean, I was a kid, he is just a few years older than me. WHAT were we thinking? Oh yeah, we were in looovvvveeee… *laugh* And yes, we were. Yes, we are. But still… I wonder…

I am the luckiest woman I know though. All these years later, and we’re still together, still in love – moreso I think, still write silly little notes (although instead of paging 143, I text it to him now and then), we still argue (never about big stuff like, always little stuff – like brands of mustard – you’d think we would have figured this out by now, right?), we still laugh, we still cry…

But I also look back over the past 17 years in awe. How much our lives have changed, how things morphed several times over the years. We went from being nearly dirt poor living in Hawaii, to being pretty well DINKs living in Hawaii, to being happily living DINKs living in Austin, to having two of the most beautiful and wonderful children in the entire world, to… well, where we are today. And everything in between. I remember his face when I told him I was pregnant (no screaming “but you were on the pill!”) the first time. I remember supporting him through the closure of his business and him supporting me through the treacherous growth of mine.

I remember my mom telling me when I was kid that I am so darn independent. She’s right, but I’m also very dependent on my husband, who really has been through everything with me. In some weird way, we kind of grew up together. I mean, I was 18, he was 21 when we got hitched. We made some really stupid mistakes, but we managed to get out of them together. We made some really wise decisions (and let me take credit for them) *laughing*

My point? I do look back all those years ago and wonder… what would be different if I hadn’t decided to get married? Would we still be together? Would we have grown apart? Can you even have a relationship that spans 6000 miles? I honestly don’t know. We were probably too immature to have made it work, if I’m being honest. I don’t regret even a second of it though. Tom is the love of my life and I don’t know what I’d do without him.

To you, Tom, thank you. Thank you for being persistent (3 months just to get a date!). Thank you for making me feel special, for making me feel like I am the most important thing in your world, and for making me laugh (gosh, I hate this part!). Thank you for sharing in our own little weird private jokes, for always being there when I need a shoulder, for always chipping in when I think I may be on my last ounce of sanity, and for always supporting my weird “yeah, let’s do this!” ideas. Thank you for picking up the slack when I drop it, for fixing things when I break them, and for laughing with me when we both screw up. Thank you for being you, for who you were, for who you are and for who you will become. I promise I’ll be right there with you for the rest of our lives.

(okay and to make a sappy post even more sappy, I thought about tacking on Have I Told You Lately That I Love You by Rod Stewart since that was closer to 1993, but Stand By Me… well, always makes me think of my hubby)

(Oh, and this is a good version of Stand By Me too. Love John Lennon’s version and this video is so well put together, check it out)

(thanks, Jamie, for being such a good sport)