Happy Anniversary + 2 days!

Right this minute, I'm listening to my new MP3 player. Not too exciting you might think, but I'd beg to differ. You see, here's what you don't know about me (or maybe, after I accidentally posted the same video twice, you do?): I am not technologically advanced. Some might even say I'm about 20 years behind the curve.

I love to write things out - I rarely go anywhere without pen, pencil and pad. I don't care if I have a car with automatic windows (although "child locks" on the windows ROCK). We don't have cable (mostly at my insistance; Mike would love to have all of the sports packages).
In fact, a couple of weeks ago, as we were getting geared up to do some yardwork (if you know us, you know that what I mean by "geared up" is really us complaining about having a yard and how dare the grass grow) ... but I digress ... I was going to cut grass and I said to Mike, "Hey, do you have a walkman I can use while I'm cutting grass?". Well, as it turns out, there is a walkman somewhere in our house, but the real question is where. So I gave up and called my sweet neighbor, Amanda, who has two daughters (ages 14 & 12),

"surely", I thought, "one of the girls will have a walkman I can borrow".

Carley, who is 14, answered the phone and the conversation went something like this:
Me: Hey Carley, do you have a walkman I can borrow?
Carley: A what?
Me: A walkman.
Carley: A walkman?
Me: Yes, a walkman.
Carley: What's a walkman?
Me: You know, a little tape-player or CD player that you can walk around with ... like an iPod but for tapes or CDs.
(let me say here that at this point I could hear Amanda laughing hysterically over Carley's end of the conversation).

Carley: Oh. I've read about those. No, I don't have one.

How old did that conversation make me feel? Ancient. Older than dirt. It was akin to me trying to relate to my Dad's stories of growing up (picking tobacco, driving school buses, bikes with no pedals). In other words, totally foreign.

Finally, Amanda took pity on me and took the phone away from Carley.
"Brooke, why don't you just borrow my iPod?". So I did. And it was wonderful.

After cutting grass that afternoon, I said to Mike, "I think I want an iPod shuffle - you know just something I can have some up-beat music on that I can sing along to while I'm cutting grass or laying out" (because there aren't many other instances when it would be o.k. for me to tune out totally to both of our kids and my husband and other duties). Well, we did talk about it a little more, but honestly, Mike is generally the grass-cutter and I'm generally the kitchen-cleaner/task-master, so my desires for my iPod shuffle were forgotten.

Which brings us to Monday ...
Our anniversary. Seven years. Two (amazing, unbelieveable, beautiful, smart) kids, 2 dogs, 1 cat. One '95 Ford Taurus, 1 '93 Jeep Wrangler, 1 '01 Volvo, 1 '06 Durango; 2 lawn mowers; 2 severe cases of poison ivy; camping & beach trips; countless lunches & dinners; car trips & leisurely drives; music (lots & lots & lots of music of all kinds); books (enough to start our own library); student loans (& paying off other debt - together); old friends & new friends ... How do we tally the moments that combined to give us seven years of marriage? Of loving each other more as we know each other more, of knowing the answers before we ask the questions?

If you know Mike, then this makes perfect sense. He's the perfect gift-buyer, searching out the thing that will be impactful & practical. On Monday night he gave me an MP3 player to block out the world and sing-along to "brooke radio".

So far, I've uploaded 35 songs out of my alotted 900. I offered Mike half for when he cuts grass, but he said they're all mine. I've got some Buffet, Sugarland, OCMS, Josh Ridings, Lynard Skynard ... I'm saving room for some Chris Tomlin (& the like), Simon & Garfunkel, Dixie Chicks & others to be named at a later date. 900 songs seems like a lot, but it's really not - I have to be careful with my use of space ... and the songs should mean something (which is sort of another post, later).

855 more songs.
Countless memories to be made.
25 years, here we come ...