Celebrating Six Years!

Last night, Jay and I went out for our six-year anniversary to the steakhouse in the Choctaw Casino--it is so fancy and delicious! Great fun to get dressed up and then go to a great restaurant only 10 minutes from our house! My mom came to our house and kept the girls--we love Grandmom! By the way, see any resemblance between Jay and his namesake girl? Their baby pics look very much alike, and people have told us a lot that Anna favors her daddy.

Of course, I had to do something celebrating our relationship, even though six isn't really much of a milestone, and I wanted to prove to Jay that I'm not all about material gifts, so I wrote a poem! Don't think this was any kind of exercise in rhythm, scansion, or even rhyme--I wrote it as a spinoff of the poem that Jay wrote me to propose, back in 2002! Except this time, I made it a metaphor between the challenges and rewards of fishing and hunting, and the challenges and rewards of marriage (or I tried to anyway)! I clipped out phrases from Jay's Bassmasters and Outdoor Oklahoma magazines, and cut out pics, and made it a collage. It was so fun, and it was funny to compare the ways we were romantic as a dating couple to how it is as a married couple with two young kids.

Here are the words (the bolded ones are the ones I clipped from magazines):

June 12, 2010, with the Bassmaster who reeled me in
A night we've been flippin' and pitchin' since last night after we tucked the girls in.

Many times I've asked God why this crankbait comes in so late,
Then he blesses me with an unplanned family swim or a yummy breakfast date.

It can be tough, getting to church on time, or connecting at the dinner table,
But if we work as a team, we can tackle anything, I know we are able.

My favorite times are the ones we share together,
A Day on the Lake with my hubby is as good as a Collectible Bass Lure.

I made it through so many deer seasons and spring spawns,
I'll make it through many more, even though I hate when you're gone.

A lot has changed since you wrote me that sweet poem that changed my world,
You've bought tons of New Lures, but stuck with the same girl.

You're my Biggest Bass, the best lure in my Tacklebox,
Eight years after you saw that girl in red, I hope you can still say I knock of your socks!

My Oklahoma hunter takes aim at projects all over southern Oklahoma,
You work hard, and I get to take care of our beautiful girls and manage our home-a.

Fishing and huntin' are always a challenge--try different Lures and Reels, trees or arrows,
Our marriage is a challenge, too, but it's worth the trophy moments we share like pros.

Doggerel, I know, but from the heart! I also had us write down six things we love about each other, and two things for both of us to work on to make our relationship better. We wrote them on these little door-hanger things I scrapbooked, and hung them on our closet doors.