twenty eleven

I'd be lying if I said that I was devastated that 2010 is over.  It was a year that ended brilliantly, but the journey to get to December felt, at times, like a fairly rocky one.  Philip and I went to church this morning and are sitting at Starbucks right now.  I'm relishing the fact that I am CHOOSING to read my textbooks this afternoon rather than being obligated to meet a looming deadline.  I've got one more week before class starts, but I start doing some HR stuff at Children's this coming week so I need to start getting back into a real world routine (as blissful as reading until 2:30 am and waking up at noon has been. . .)

Philip and I rang in New Years in a similar fashion to the manner we did our first two years in England:  w/ Matt & Jana.  We actually were at Matt's parents house with M&J and Matt's older brother + family.  We had a BLAST playing "Apples to Apples" and working our way through Jana's annual New Year's Quiz.  We laughed remembering some of the memories we had from NYE parties past (remember the 2007 movie charades?!?!?). 

As Philip and I were climbing the steps to the house (and when I say house I mean condo but that doesn't sound as natural as house) in the wee hours of the morning of 1 January, 2001, Philip asked, "hmm. . . what were we doing five years ago?"  I reminded him that it was New Years 2005.   He had come to visit me in MN right after Christmas.   At this point, it became official that we were getting married (he hadn't proposed but just as serious he announced that we could pick a date in order to ensure that I could have the reception hall I had been DREAMING OF [it had an 18 month minimum waitlist]).  I remember NYE vividly.  There wasn't anything too exciting going on, so I decided to find all of the candles in the house and set them up downstairs.   On that evening, as the clock struck 12 I revealed a secret that I had been keeping for a few months. . .

Some background. . .  When Philip and I started dating I exaplined to him that while I regretted that I hadn't saved my first kiss for my husband, I was adamant that I only wanted to say "I love you" to one man.    I had been in CO for his Dining Out in Nov 2005.  It was at that time where we really Knew that this was it.  Well, one evening that Nov trip when we were at his parents' house he thought I was alseep and whispered into my ear "I love you."  I didn't stir or flutter, but my heart was POUNDING as he left the room.  Philip Lere loved me.  He just didn't know that I knew that he loved me :) [well, I knew, but now he had said it!]

So, as we sat in the candlelit basement on December 2005, I had the satisfaction of telling him that on that November night I had only been feigning sleep.  I also had the joy of telling him for the first time that I loved him too.

So, that's what we were doing five years ago.  Following the trip down memory lane I posed a question, "five years ago where did you think we would be today?"  He took a few moments to contemplate and then said simply, "In Florida with a one year-old."  I paused and realized that is probably exactly what I had imgained.  The family timing plan we went into marriage with was really thrown askew by my crazy compulsion to continue my education (and bless him, Philip has been very gracious with me about that unfairly broken expectation).  I laughed and then asked, "where do you think we'll be five years from now?"  He paused again and said, "Probably in Florida with a one year-old."  Laughter.  It may not be too far off.  We shall see.  For now, we'll recycle our Five Year Plan.   What's yours?