18 down, lots more to go

I have some dang good friends. Good friends who read my blog, have pity on me and offer to drive my daughter to a volleyball tournament early on a Saturday morning, allowing me to sleep past 5:30 am on the weekend of my 18th wedding anniversary.

Oh, Bonnie! Thank you so much! It was lovely to sleep till 8 and then take a leisurely drive to Flint (Flint, I know, can you believe it?) to spend the rest of the day watching Amy’s volleyball team play game after game after game. I was exhausted just watching; I don’t know how those girls played all those games.

It certainly wasn’t how Sean and I had planned to spend our anniversary weekend, but it turned out to be a great day. We were surrounded by Amy and her friends and her friends’ parents – all fabulous folks who are just tons of fun. We even got a quick visit with Molly, who lives close and came by to watch a few games. We cheered until our throats hurt and clapped until our hands burned. The team played well and I’m so glad I didn’t miss it. Well, I’m glad I missed the 6:30 – 10:00 am part, but I’m glad I was there for the rest.

Sean showed his team spirit by doing the pre-game warm-up with the girls. The stretches didn’t stretch him at all. He got a little balled up with the cross-the-leg-put-the-opposite-arm-over-and-stretch stretch, but all the others were cake for him:

When the tourney finally ended we drove Amy to meet Michael and Rebecca at a babysitting job. And then we were alone. We went out for dinner, bragged to the young waitress about our many years of wedded bliss, went home and collapsed on the couch.**

Eighteen years ago I would never have predicted I’d spend my anniversary weekend at my 14 year old daughter’s volleyball game while my 16 year old son and ten year old daughter hung out at home, finishing up some schoolwork. I certainly wouldn’t have predicted we’d be homeschooling them! I wouldn’t have predicted I’d be living in Michigan. I wouldn’t have predicted I’d enjoy being a wife and mom as much as I do. So many things have happened in 18 years – my 22 year old self couldn’t have imagined it all.

So it wasn’t the day we’d planned, but thanks to Bonnie it didn’t start as early as it could have. And even though it wasn’t a weekend in Chicago, we were with good friends and our sweet children. It doesn’t get much better that that.

Plus, Sean got me tickets to see Wait, Wait Don’t Tell Me in October. Pretty sure that more than makes up for spending our anniversary weekend in Flint.


**Other stuff happened too, but this is a family blog, you know.