Anniversaries and reunions

On August 2nd Eric and I celebrated 8 years of married life.  I swear I don't know where the time went, but here we are and I couldn't be happier.  Eric surprised me with 8 beautiful red roses:

 

and we had a nice dinner at red lobster, where we enjoyed the "crab fest". We also enjoyed a new drink on the menu and came home with 6 new mugs! Reimond joined us for dinner as he was the only kid home, and it was nice to remember and acknowledge the changes we have all made in the past 8 years.  

Reimond drastically changed his look from being a boy as seen here in the photo with my mom and Liisa from mid July

To a more grown up look 

 Complete with shorter hair and lots of self confidence.  When I look at this picture I see my brother Erik in the upper face, and my brother Neal in the grin, my dad as a young man, and my son Anthony. I'm really proud of the decisions he's made and the path he is headed on. 

These last eight years have brought a lot of challenges and successes to our lives and I feel very blessed. I am notsurewhat the future holds for us, but I know Eric and I can manage as long as we have each other.

I finished another project that's been around for almost a year: 

The pattern was a mystery and while I finished the first one in good time, I took forever on the second one.  They are beaded and I am going to need to remove a bead or three at the heel because they bother my foot where they are placed. Otherwise I am happy with them. 

The little girls went home Monday (8/1) and man has this week been tiring back at work.  The caseloads are slow, which is good, but I cleared most of my active cases before I left for 2 weeks so now I have only 6 open cases (as opposed to 15-20 on an average week) and the day just drags! We are losing a supervisor to budget cuts, and two workers are leaving to move out of state, so things may get harder soon. Always a pleasure working for the government! I am looking forward to the weekend and just being. I learned I won a raffle prize from the yarn crawl--out in Washington Missouri!--so I plan to drive out there Saturday to get it, and maybe laze by the Missouri River for a spell or Finda winery to sit at so I don't just spend the day in the car.

Eric is in Indiana through Sunday for his 30th high school reunion. I had mine 6 years ago... I'm so glad he is able to go. It was serendipitous that he heard about it on Facebook and just happened to be on vacation this week, so he had the time and the freedom to go! He'll also be spending time with family, and I know he'll have a great time. Meanwhile, I will have a weekend by myself to relax and rejuvenate!

On that note, I am going to post some photos I took in the last two days, of a break in the storm clouds from last evening,and a lunch at a river park today.

Time to open my bottle of peach wine and find my knitting!