ten

It's our tenth anniversary today. And ten years can fly by in a flash, just in case you didn't know. It has been a pretty radical decade. We've grown and changed in a million ways, as everyone does. Yet some things remain the same.

We met in the year 2000 (in the year two thouuuusaaaaand) after mutual friends gave Bo my phone number. I had just graduated from college, moved to Des Moines and was finding my way in the world. This, my friends, was before internet dating, before iPhones, before Facebook ... even before MySpace. I couldn't 'look him up' anywhere. We didn't know each other at all. And one night, he called me up on my land line and asked me if I wanted to go out for coffee. And I said 'sure.' It was basically a blind date, and I was basically freaked out.

Secretly, I hoped I wouldn't like him. I was getting ready to move to Minneapolis. Job interviews lined up, roommate and apartment ready to go. But one coffee date couldn't hurt.

Bo showed up at my apartment wearing a J. Crew sweater, jeans and a leather jacket and we drove to a coffee house called the Chat Noir in his Land Rover. (Did I do a good job painting that picture? ;) We started chatting instantly and effortlessly and found that we had tons of things in common. We had similar if not exactly the same taste in punk, rock and metal. We were both graphic designers who play guitar. Went to ISU? That too. We had coffee and talked for hours. He was cute, kind, funny as hell and I knew I liked him a lot. Right away.

I ditched my Minneapolis plans. I wanted to take a chance on this guy.

We'd hang out on the couch and watch movies, but we were both a little hesitant about relationships so we'd sit really far apart. I remember Bo slugged me on the arm while saying 'goodbye' one night and I wondered if we were just going to be friends. But there's nothing wrong with taking it slow. After a couple of months, we started dating. Three years later, he took me back to the Chat Noir and proposed.

And boom. Here we are. It's surreal to think about life back then. Super weird. Things were so different. We never could have imagined life ten years later. On the other hand, maybe we did. I might have forgotten. We're dreamers. I bet we were right on.

Marriage is no joke. Do we have days that are less than perfect? Of course. But we carry on. I don't take our relationship for granted – it's a rare and splendid thing to find your person. I'm lucky as hell to have found a dude who gets me; he makes home a fun place to be. He's an incredible father to our kids and a good friend to the people around him. We make a super solid team and I like where life is taking us.

I count my lucky stars to have a lifetime of coffee dates with Bo to look forward to. 

Happy anniversary, dude.

  (You can find this print here.)

nine

Nine years ago today, this was us. Who were we? A couple of kids, it seems. We had just bought a house. We didn't have children. We were fun; so happy and carefree. Little did we know that we were putting down roots in good old Des Moines, right then and there. We probably guessed where we'd be living and what we'd be doing in ten years, but we didn't have a clue. We didn't know how good it would be. We're still here. Us. Plus two children. In the same house, in the same city. And life is a new kind of fun. Happy and carefree. Happy nine years of marriage, my friend.

back to school

Last week, Lo became a first grader. Things are going swimmingly, as you can see.

Last year, she begged me to walk with her into the building and all the way to her classroom every morning for the first couple of months. Now she begs me not to. She's got this!

Her teachers are wonderful and she sits next to her best friend in class. She's excited to do homework and she's stoked about her new backpack. I'm stoked for a little bit more freedom/time with Bowie during the day and getting everyone back on a normal schedule. Summer is fun but back to school time is fun, too. (There she goes.)

weekend visitors

My dear friend Kristi, her boyfriend Ahn-Tuan and their little American hairless terrier Chloe stopped in Des Moines for an overnight visit in the middle of their cross-country drive from NYC to LA. (That's quite the roadtrip.) Their stay with us went all too fast but it made my heart burst at the seams with love and happiness to see my friend.

 

It was the very best way to spend part of our weekend and I only wish it could have lasted longer. We gave our friends a quick and dirty tour of Des Moines and stayed up super late talking and catching up. It was wonderful and looking back at these pics make me smile. Safe travels, my friends! Thanks for stopping by to see us.

summer art camp

We made a list of fun things to do on summer break, but now that school is almost here I feel like we're kind of running low on new ideas. So one hot and sunny morning this week, I packed Lo's backpack with pencils a blank sketchbook and didn't tell her where we were going. We drove to the sculpture park downtown in our beautiful city and drew pictures. Still life.

We talked a little bit about shape, texture, depth and perspective. (See my kid sitting under that tree?) ;)

 I wanted it to be fun so I just set her loose and let her pick what she wanted to draw.

 While Bowie and I strolled up and down the sidewalk.

She looked at this Keith Haring for a long time.

 And then decided to draw buildings.

And after she was done, it was really starting to get hot so we stopped for refreshments. It was a surprisingly fun day that I'll remember for a long time, and it didn't cost us a penny. (Well, except for the Starbucks.) I think we will do this again soon.