An Anniversary to Remember

Sorry, we have to take an even longer break from the Graham Saga to introduce the best story you'll ever hear.

Yesterday was our 3-year Anniversary. Yay us! We've been trading years, so this year was Richard's. He had all these crazy plans that he wouldn't tell me so it would be a surprise. He eventually gave me a rough outline, and I was so excited. All I knew was Wednesday was going to be a super busy day. Not only did I have work and Richard had school, but it was the only day possible for family pictures and we only had an hour to do it in. I had to leave school early to get home by 3 so we could start at that time, and Richard had to go get Rachel early. Then Richard had German Choir at 5, so it was a mad dash. Then I had to get ready for dinner in like half an hour so we could be gone by 6:30 to enjoy dinner and get to a movie and home before 1 am. So that was the plan. Now here's what happened:

2:15 - My school got out. I had exactly 10 minutes to pack everything up and leave so I could get home by 3. Richard should have Rachel and be home by now, but I have no idea where he is. He called me while I was driving and let me know that he was able to find a dress for me after all (that's another story, but he got me a pretty dress for an Anniversary gift and had many complications therewith) but that he was going to be late coming home because of it. I figured that would be fine, and it would have to be.

2:45 - I got ahold of my dad to let him know Richard and I would both be home around 3.

2:55 - I was in Springville on Main Street, just as planned. Main Street in Springville is kind of a mess. The area has grown a lot in the past few years, and most of the people in Mapleton and Springville work in Provo. Just avoid Main during rush hour, basically. Plus they've been working on the road for the busiest on-ramp, so it's even worse. The speed limit is 30 in town, but you usually have to drive slower because of all the cars and there's always a hold up in the right lane for some reason. As I approached 4th South I entered one such hold up. I was on the phone with Richard at the time, so I didn't mind the slow/stopped traffic, so I didn't bother changing lanes or anything, I just stopped as traffic forced me to. A minute or so after I came to a stop I was rear-ended. Ouch! The last time that happened I don't remember getting hurt at all, but this time man! I had a headache for about an hour afterwards. I didn't expect it to hurt like that.

My Accident: 3rd South and Main in Springville. Some punk kid with gauges in his ears hit the back of my car because he "didn't see me slam on my brakes". Pretty sure I was stopped, so whatever. Once I finally got back on the road after insurance exchanges and everything I called my dad, who was pretty annoyed that it was 3:15 and no Jill and no Richard for pictures. Once he found out about my accident he was okay with life, and I hurried home.

3:30 - I arrive home to find the entire house in an uproar. I don't think we've had family pictures since I was 12 except for weddings, so this was a huge deal and everyone was freaking out. Except Beau, he was just watching TV. Richard showed up soon after, and we then heard from Trevor who "didn't know about family pictures but was on his way". So we were coming close to having less than an hour of pictures.

3:45 - Commence pictures. We went up the canyon where there was snow, and it was pretty cold. But it was fun, and they went super fast. I think we got done just before 4:30, giving Richard just enough time to go to choir.

4:30 - Back home, Richard tells me I'm not allowed to go in the room because he has to get my present set up before leaving. He came back upstairs 20 minutes later and announced he was skipping choir to get the car vacuumed out for our hot date, and that once he leaves I could go downstairs and get ready. I was all bubbly :D

5:00 - I went into our room to put Rachel down for a nap (didn't happen. We have since dispensed with the early evening nap.) to find a GORGEOUS purple dress and shrug on the bed. So pretty!! I'll have to take pictures sometime when I have an occasion to wear it again. I fell in love. It's so pretty. And my husband found it all by himself and it was the perfect size and the perfect fit and everything. So wonderful! I have the best husband :D

5-6:00 - Rachel hung out with Grandma while I got ready. My hair and makeup have always haunted me, but somehow they agreed with me and I ended up looking pretty darn good in my brand new pretty dress. I was also able to lower Rachel's crib (she can sit herself up now) and give my mom some last minute babysitting instructions all before 6. I was pretty impressed with myself. I was expecting Richard back any minute, so I hung out upstairs waiting for him.

6:15 - I started wandering around the house, trying to find productive things to do, while wondering where Richard was. He said he'd only be 30 minutes and it's been 45, so I'm worried of course. All these bad thoughts about accidents and my poor husband with roses smashed on the side of the road somewhere. I'm just waiting for the phone call saying he's been in an accident when I realize my phone is downstairs so I'd miss that call. I'd better go grab it.

6:25 - I find my phone and notice I've missed a call from Richard. I call him back and our conversation ensues thus:

Richard: Guess what!
Jill: What?
Richard: I got in an accident! (he's using an excited voice so I can pretty much tell he's joking but decide to play along)
Jill: Really?
Richard: Ya.
Jill: Really? (I'm starting to actually believe him)
Richard: Ya. I hit a cow.
Jill: You hit a cow?
Richard: Ya.
...
Jill: Richard are you serious?
Richard: Yeah the car's completely smashed.

Great. Not only does that make 2 accidents in the same day, the day of our freaking Anniversary, but I'm pretty sure that one isn't going to be covered by the cow's insurance. Oh well, we'll figure it out.

6:30 - I went upstairs to discuss bedtime and tell the cow story and wait for Richard. When he got home he told my parents that the cow actually was covered by the farmer's insurance and we wouldn't have to pay to fix our poor smashed car! The whole time he's picking glass chunks out of his hair, btw.

7 - Somehow we managed to get everything under control at least for the night and leave for dinner by 7, only half an hour behind our original schedule. So I guess things are going okay, but I'm worried about my baby and her bedtime. Oh well, we'll get to that later.

7:30 - Arrive at The Chef's Table. Best restaurant in Utah, no contest. The food was fantastic, the waiters superb, the drinks never got less than half full. It was marvelous. And I ate duck! It was pretty good.

8:45 - As we were leaving the restaurant we walked past a table occupied by another couple that arrived the same time we did. The wife was in the bathroom (she was pregnant) but the husband stopped Richard and said "Wait, I know you. What's your name?" Turns out his family fed Richard on his mission about once a month for 9 months. What are the odds? We got to chatting and found out they were also celebrating their Anniversary. Weird...but weirder is it was their 3rd Anniversary!! Crazy, huh?

9 - We decided to go to a movie at the mall in our spiffed-up outfits, so we headed in that direction. When we got there I thought the parking lot looked sparse, even for a Wednesday night, but didn't think too much of it. We walked up to the box office to find little papers covering every single movie that said "Cancelled" on them. What? I guess they had a fire in the theater so they had to cancel all the shows. Ha ha ha! We ended up at the other mall's theater and saw 2012 there. I hated it, Richard liked it, whatever.

12:30 - We arrive home to find my mom downstairs about to check on our small one who had whimpered a moment before. She had already gone back to sleep like a good girl, but we chatted for a minute and found out she hadn't gone to sleep until 9:30!! Crazy kids kept her up half the night! Haha!

That was pretty much the end of our crazy day. We went to bed laughing about the triple fail of our Anniversary date, and relating it to our fail of a Honeymoon 3 years before. But we woke up today to the reality of insurance claims and an un-drivable Corolla (the cow broke the driver's side window) and that's always an adventure.

Don't worry, I will someday finish the Graham Saga. Unfortunately this little write-up took way too long and now I'll be up too late finishing my powerpoint for tomorrow, so it might not be finished until around Christmas.