We’ve been busy around these parts. Mostly with really good things, but busy none the less. It was Ben’s birthday last week, and I’ve been wanting to post all about him, and the occasion of a birthday….but I haven’t yet. Which is kind of why this blog has sat untouched for a while. Since his birthday, there’s been lots of good stuff to talk about, but if you’re like me, you get caught in this desire to want to post things in chronological order (can we say anal?), so it’s held me up from writing anything else.
So, I’m compromising. This won’t be the meaningful, contemplative, sappy post about how much I looooove Ben, but at least we’ll get caught up here, and you can see some pictures of the sweet part-ay we had for him.
Ben and I are blessed with an incredible network of friends, and so we spent some time with some of them Monday night celebrating the fact that Ben is now 27. Secretly, I was celebrating the fact that I am no longer robbing the cradle. We ate well, we laughed, we played games and we followed Ben’s orders, since in his words “This is my party – you’ll do what I say”.
The spread:
Thanks to Rachel for helping me put it all together!
And since you’ve all been DYING to see the dirty moustache that has plagued me for the entire month of November – here you go you rubber neckers.
The hat is courtesy of Neil and Karen, as a birthday gift. It’s actually a pretty sweet hat, but Ben kind of tarnished it for me when he decided that it made his moustache look even sweeter. (That’s Neil in the picture…he’s usually Ben’s partner in crime when we get together. Those 2 can cause a lot of ruckus…)
One of Ben’s orders was that he wanted to watch the girls play Dutch Blitz. So, we did. I think he was hoping it would turn into an all out catfight, since we’re all pretty competitive, but we stayed pretty civil.
We played Guesstures, which always produces several good pictures:
For Ben’s actual birthday, we were working opposite hours, so we didn’t get to see too much of each other, but managed to squeeze in an hour around dinner to open presents, play a game and just be together.
Ok, now I know I said I wasn’t gonna get sappy – but as I write this, a few thoughts come to mind about Ben that I really want to share. I know not everyone that reads this blog knows Ben personally, and I just want to say that someday, I really hope you get the chance to.
People LOVE Ben. And one of my favourite things to do is to sit back and just watch people admire him. I often get told how much Ben cares for other people. He asks great questions that really show how much he cares. He will often ask people if he can pray for them. He is SO intentional about calling people up and checking in on them.
He is silly and that encourages me to lighten up sometimes. Yes, sometimes it’s embarassing, but in a “oh gosh, I have to roll my eyes because my husband is making a really loud siren noise in public”. And it’s ok. His silliness ultimately ends up bringing a smile to my face and I realize just how much I love him for his ridiculousness.
He pushes me to be a better person on SO many levels. There really isn’t enough space to list all the ways.
Lately, we have been having such a rich season of marriage. We’ve laughed A LOT, we’ve grown deeper spiritually, and we’ve been feeling the love that we commited to each other when we got married. I know a large reason for this is that Ben works so hard at our relationship. He loves me deeply and in tangible ways. He is SO patient with me and my selfishness. He acknowledges when I know better, and gently helps me to see when it’s him who is right. It brought me such joy to celebrate another year of his life with him and really, for one of the first times since being together, I think I got really excited for us to grow old together. I know that sounds funny right? Like, shouldn’t I have always been picturing us being together forever? And yeah, of course I have. I wouldn’t have married him if I didn’t think this was a forever thing. But I think that up until just recently, I never really imagined what that could look like. But when I thought about the joy that he brings me, and the ways that he loves me, it just made me excited for the next 60 years.
So, happy birthday Benjy. Gosh, am I ever glad you were born.















