Letters From Me, To You: Life and Anniversary Shenanigans

Hi.

I must beg your pardon for a letter that is going to be a dumping of life updates that I'm sure you are dying to hear.

Shall we start with confession? Ok.

Hi, my name is Aimee, and I am a negligent stretcher.

I went running last night and topped it off with a couple weight exercises for the first time in a couple weeks because I'm a pro at making [valid] excuses for not going. Although the voice in my head told me to stretch out afterward, all I could think about was a shower and food. Oh, the pain.

Anyway, I hope you had a nice weekend. Maybe that's a late wish since we're already halfway through the week, but I still hope you did. I did. I went home for a family reunion.

(Photos taken by Lori Goforth)

Katie and I basically played with little kids the whole time. You know, because we have similar maturity levels and senses of humor.

I already posted these on Instragram, but I have to share them again.

Charlie is warming up to me- I think I am moving up in the cousin ranks. This time she did not try to push me off the seat to make room for Katie, but actually motioned for me to come sit by her. Win! Maybe because I let her share my plate of fruit? I'll take it. Also- she told us to peace out when she went home. Haha.

One little girl told me everything she knew about animals. Mostly owls. And dinosaurs: they are estinct. What is estinct? Dinosaurs are estinct. Hopefully that cleared things up for any of you who were wondering.

The little P.I.T.- that's Princess in Training in case you were curious, carried that chocolate cupcake around for two hours before reaching the bottom. She savored that frosting for a long time.

And the little guy giving Katie the stink eye? Well, he is our same little friend from last year's Halloween party. And he still makes scary faces, pops up behind you to scare you, bends his fingers in weird ways, and growls/screeches at you. He was a dinosaur. I don't think I've ever met anyone like him before, and I'm looking forward to some more laughs at this year's Halloween party. (He is supposed to be able to hold his breath for five minutes by then.)

On Sunday Katie and I sat right up front next to the kids during the juggling act at the church picnic. Katie says to me, "He won't pick on us to be volunteers, will he?" I assured her that he would certainly rather have the little kids help. Ha- I was wrong. Please see the right photo:

(Apparently a little kid wasn't going to cut it when
it came to helping him get on the unicycle.)

(The face paintings were spectacular.)

Finally, I had planned on sitting down to write some thoughtful, maybe profound, or at least sentimental letter about our second anniversary. Maybe when I have more time later this week I'll get to that.

I made an executive decision that Jered and I would start exchanging the traditional anniversary gifts. Year two is cotton.

Jered: Cotton? What am I supposed to do with cotton?!

Aimee: Clothes...

Jered: Oh yeah... I was thinking, like, cotton balls.

Aimee: Don't even think about it.

I instantly knew that I wanted to get Jered some nice, new t-shirts. I found some perfect KU shirts for him. Jered decided to chuck the $25 limit I set for us, and booked a special date for us.

Aimee: Does it have anything to do with cotton?

Jered: Well... very... very distantly.

I would share photos with you, but I didn't take any this year as it would have been entirely inappropriate.

He booked us a couple's massage. (He was thinking cotton robes.) I was so impressed because I never would have expected him to do that. Although as a first-timer I had some trouble relaxing and keeping a straight face part of the time, it was quite nice. We're thinking that maybe it needs to be a monthly occurrence.

And now, how 'bout I share a slew of wedding photos? Yes? I was hoping you'd agree.