Our South Weber family...

Yesterday was our 11th anniversary...seems hard to believe it's been that long.  So crazy!!!  We had lots of offers from my sis-in-law to watch our kids while we went and did something fun together, but with his other job, and Zerin's baseball game, I had to turn her down because the timing was just too tight.  (Don't worry, Danelle, I promise I will call you again! :))

Enter in Bryan's school.  One of the secretaries called me just after that and informed me that they would be coming over by 5 to feed and watch the kids and to do a few things around the yard and house, so to have a list ready.  That way, she told me, we could have a few minutes together, kid-free.  I don't know how she did it, but I really didn't have a choice in the matter (btw, Heidi...I need to learn that trick, that was AMAZING!).

They were doing it for our anniversary, but knowing what is coming in the next couple of weeks, and how crazy busy Bryan has been with his jobs, they wanted to do something lessen his load so he wouldn't feel so pulled in so many directions.  They are incredible people.  He seldom (if ever) talks about himself, so for them to pick up on this, and then pull this off without him really knowing, AND for SO many of them to be willing to drive that far (it was a 35+ minute drive each way for most of them), I just had no words.

Anyways, Bryan's work meeting was changed last minute, so we thought it might be fun to watch Zerin's game together.  He has been working for the other games so far, and even though I have gone, I have decided that chasing 4 other kids detracts from the whole little league experience :)

Five o'clock rolled around, and Bryan's principal comes to the door, and then the recess duty, and the secretary and her husband and daughter, and another recess duty and her son, and on and on and on and on...I think there ended up being close to 20 adults and 2 or 3 teenagers or so before we left...I was so overwhelmed, and completely grateful!!!  They brought the kids dinner and treats...not to mention bringing US treats!  They washed windows.  They weeded (and weeded, and weeded, and weeded!).  They got my weed wacker running (which is something that has totally intimidated me for some crazy reason).  They mopped.  They vacuummed.  They dusted.  They rehung my towel hanger.  They fixed two of our closet bars that were never hung right...the list goes on and on.  AND my kids were fed, accounted for, and had so much fun :)  Not to mention that two little neighbor kids showed up right after we left and stayed the whole time (they even fed THEM dinner).

I tried like CRAZY all day to have mostly everything done by the time they got here (because I'm dumb, I know), but it was just one of those days that I did good, but not great in that category :)  Bryan, being the master cleaner of our house, would have had it all done, with dessert made, and kids all bathed with stories read to them WITH time to spare by 10:30am I'm sure, but sadly, I do not have that gift.  He's amazing.

I would be lying if I didn't admit to feeling quite guilty while we were gone, but that gave way to feelings of complete and total gratitude and humility that Bryan has so many people there that love him enough to identify that need.   Our family has been so blessed that he has been able to work in that community and to develop those friendships.  They are wonderful, wonderful people.

We're one of those weird couples that know we knew and loved each each other long before this life, so I allow myself to rationalize that we did a lot of nurturing of our relationship  then, which helps carry us through our occasional formal dateless spells during these crazy little kid years.  Over time, I think I've become too practical in a lot of ways to feel the need to "date" like we used to, but one thing I have gained is an appreciation for how precious that time is when we do get it.  We may not conventionally date like other people, but those 20-60 minutes every night after the kids are all asleep and before I pass out are where we try to make up for it.   So to have nearly 3 hours of uninterrupted us time ON TOP of our normal brownie date time was just so so nice.

We had fun watching Zerin's game and being together.  I think we even had 2 or 3 conversations that had nothing to do with the kids...shocking! :)

So thank you, once again to our South Weber Elementary family.  We love you all, and everything looked BEAUTIFUL!!!!!  I'm going to have to come up with a new list of things to do, because you pretty much did everything I had planned on accomplishing today...who knows, maybe I'll even take a nap!!! :)