10 Years of "Maw-wej" (Almost)

This weekend, I was surprised. I'm never surprised. Take that back, when I was 16, my parents threw me a surprise birthday party, of which I knew nothing about, and as I blindly walked up to door of my own party, I asked fellow party goers, "Hey! What are YOU doing here??" Lots of weird looks that night.

Anyway, this weekend, my hubs whisked me away "pack your bags, no questions asked" for a two night, kids free weekend, celebrating our 10 year anniversary a little early. We'd been talking about our 10 year anniversary for about 9 years. We both knew that since we hadn't taken any "couples" vacation since our honeymoon, that we'd do just that on our 10 year. Somewhere breezy. Oceany. Where the salty air hits your nostrils the moment you wake up. Nice.

Then came Africa. Since all our extra funds are headed that way these days, we decided we'd just go out to eat or something whenever that 10 year day rolled around. That was cool. No biggee......but nope. My hubs is my hubs. He will not just leave it at that.

We had a wonderful weekend in Dallas. We decided to try new restaurants - like Parigi's and Breadwinners (a new fave) and made sure to stop at the old regulars like Eatzi's and Cheesecake Factory. We went for a 3 mile run around the Turtle Creek mansions - oogling and oohing at the gi-normous homes of the lawyers, doctors, and hedgefund managers. And yes, my hubs even set me up with a morning at a spa.....heaven.

With Africa so heavily on our minds, alot of this weekend was spent in thought - the kinds of thought that burden you once you've had your eyes opened by that kind of poverty. It is truly hard to enjoy, really enjoy those moments without having to stuff back the ugly truth that our self-indulgences are just that ....self.....indulgences.

The main thing I focused on this weekend was knowing that in 10 years, many things have changed in our marriage. And many things have stayed the same. We both still love each other dearly. We hold our marriage high - a proud accomplishment each day. We both are still each other's favorite person to spend time with, and our children are our heartbeat. But we've changed, too. 10 years ago, we were living in Dallas chasing after that Turtle Creek life. The McMansions, the fancy cars, the great job.

Our heartbeat has changed, and we continue to try to make our life resemble that heartbeat each day - failing more often that succeeding, but trying nonetheless. One weekend celebrating our marriage was wonderful - but getting back to our 'real' life is even better.

Love you, babe. Thanks for being mine.