Maybe I'll take this

My anniversary is in one hour. 13 years of being married. After church tomorrow, Andi and Big Guy are taking all the kids out to her dad's house for swimming and grilling out.

He called to invite them a few days ago. I highly recommend this sort of relationship with your ex-spouses if you can manage it. Makes for a lot less stressful times when you happen to be together. Anyway, the kids are very excited to be going out to Steve's.

That, however, is not the point of this post. With every occasion, comes the dreaded gift receiving, which I really could do without. I have already turned down several gifts Bill has wanted to buy, including a laptop computer. Last night I opened (and tomorrow I will be returning) a digital photo frame. I can't imagine wanting a photo frame that costs $127.19. I already have rotating pictures for free. It's called a slide show screen saver and it's 17 inches big, not a 5 X 7 frame.

I don't like flowers, I don't like getting flowers, yet sitting on my counter are 20 red roses -- in an orange Tupperware canister. I threw out all of my vases when Bill agreed to NOT buy me more flowers a few years ago. I really wish he had kept that agreement. Nothing clashes more than red roses in orange Tupperware.

I don't mean to sound ungrateful -- although, truthfully, I really am. I just don't get buying flowers for someone who has clearly stated they do not wish to get flowers. To me, it's as if you are saying you don't care what the person really wants, this is what you are getting them anyway. If I liked getting flowers, this would be a great gift -- but I just DON'T. Bill sees it totally different than I do - he says I deserve beautiful things. So we will never agree. I suppose he will continue to buy me flowers and I will plunk them in a Tupprerware canister. Worse things could happen.

However, please note -- should anyone send flowers in my memory after I die, I will consider it a collosal waste. Go donate blood, give money to The Smile Train, buy Bibles or do something of value to help the living.

Again -- not the point of my post. Blaine posted a picture the other day of something that would be considered a minor household catastrophe just about anywhere you go. Yes, that would be a large glass of V-8 juice spilled on her very light carpet. She was saying she was going to get her carpet cleaner out to tackle that mess and I asked for an after shot to see if it really worked.

I'm going with a big YES on did it really work. Maybe not perfectly, but certainly well enough that I wish I had owned one when Andi ate too many clementine oranges and got sick all over our new light colored carpet. Now I can honestly tell Bill something I would welcome into our house as a gift.

So tomorrow, one way overpriced photo frame is being carried past the unappreciated roses, out the door and back to Office Depot and one Little Green Machine leaves the Wal-Mart aisle to come home with me. Plus, with the extra money, Bill and I can go out for a great lunch anywhere in town. Sounds like a great deal to me.

I'm truly blessed to be celebrating another anniversary with Bill and we are both looking forward to the next year being our best yet. (I know he is because it says so in the card he gave me.)