15 years!

Hard to believe it has really been 15 years since the day this photo was taken!

In fact, today is a double anniversary for me, and this is a big year. Twenty years ago today I entered the MTC. As I have seen more and more of my friends and family, especially sisters, getting ready to serve missions since the change in age was announced, and as I've approached the 20-year anniversary of when I went myself, my mind has been on this a lot and how grateful I am that I had that experience. It enriched my life in so many ways!

This is a photo from one of the sister's conferences while I was there. I think there are a couple of notable things about this picture. First, that I am not the shortest person. Second, that I am the only one wearing a knee-length skirt. Rebellious even then, haha!

So, back to the real reason for the day, the wedding anniversary. Like every marriage, there have been ups and downs. The last few years have been so busy that sometimes it felt like we were distant, and that bothered me (just being honest here). Starting about a year ago, I really started to feel that I needed to do some things to make our marriage stronger. One of those things was date night. This is something we've never been super great at. Between work schedules, lack of a babysitter, and lack of money, for many years our date nights were more like once a year rather than once a week. I wanted that to change.

I was finally able to clear Friday nights once I got a new job, and for the last couple of months we have been able to go out nearly every Friday night. Our kids are old enough now to be home alone. It's been a really good thing for us to do. We have become friends again and that's really important to me. Usually our dates are very simple and cheap, but they are always looked forward to and enjoyed. We have grown a lot closer to each other recently and for that I am extremely grateful. All in all, lots of gratitude today for the joy in the journey.