Let's get oily!!

The Atkinson house has been hit by the plague--the plague of virus after ear infection after stomach bug. 

13 weeks y'all. 

We have been sick for 13 weeks in a row! That's 8 ear infections, 4 head colds, 2 stomach bugs, 1 ruptured ear drum, and 1 raging fever virus.

No partrich in a pear tree needed.

And I am done! We had been dabbling in essential oils-just dipping our toes in really-but now we are diving in. We are gathering oil recipes for kids, adults, cleaners and household products alike. We will test them (safely) and report back when we find what works. But we are definitely in! 

Now I'm not saying I'm anti-tylenol or over the counter meds (I still love my modern medicine) but if we have a headache I will try the oils before breaking out the medicine cabinet. It's more of a "we will use what works" be it medicines or be it oils.

 I don't think oils are cure alls, but I do see the natural properties behind some of them that could help us in health and everyday life. I have also witnessed trial and errors by others and have seen (when used correctly) the benefit oils can be for ones health and wellness. 

So send on those recipes! I will be starting with my recent Pinterest finds but I'm open to suggestions! 

Dear Baby Weeks 33-34

Our latest bloodwork gave us a pleasant surprise- our bile levels are down again and we have kept this baby girl in another week!! We are as confused as we are excited and hopeful that this trend keeps up another few weeks. Everything about this ICP stuff is new and baffling to us, but we are resting in the promise of Ella Jane's name- that she is God's gift and only he knows what is ahead these next few weeks. We just have to trust and take it day by day, week by week, and when it's hard- inch by inch. 

Ursodiol for ICP- a tiny update

Waiting. It's so very hard to wait. While we have been waiting my levels have dropped-be it temporary or be it permanent we don't know but they dropped. The Ursodiol Rx they have me on has proven to work at least for a little while, buying us a little more time. So for right now we keep on trucking and waiting. We will have to see if my bile levels stay down or head back up again, but for that we wait until Thursday. No matter how long it's bought us it has definitely curbed my itching. So if you have the ICP take the Ursodiol if offered. Then pray and wait and enjoy every minute of those heartbeats on the NST machine you get to hear however often. That sound is of pure joy friend! 

ICP in Pregnancy - an Ella Jane update

Okay, so this will be a little on the long side as far as posts go, but I wanted to write it all out anyway. We try to keep all of our family and friends in the loop as much as we can and this seems like an easy way to do it. Also, National ICP Awareness Day was last week and as you are about to read we are very aware and so should others be.  If one pregnant gal reads this and realizes her itchy hands and feet deserve a second look then I feel it was justified to write it. 

So to begin. 

We found out last week that the liver condition that I had during pregnancy with Liam has returned for this pregnancy. It is called ICP or Intrahepatic Cholestasis of Pregnancy  and the best way I can explain it is this:

It is a liver disorder which occurs during pregnancy, usually only showing up in the third trimester or end of the second trimester. It affects the normal flow of bile- slowing it down and causing the bile acids to build up in the blood which results in the mother itching.  The itching can vary in severity but usually is worse at night and shows up most often as itching on the hands and soles of the mothers feet (though it can sometimes cause the mom to itch all over).

 NOTE: By itching I mean an INTENSE- want to rub sandpaper on your feet and hands- kind of itch! Some women will scratch until they draw blood that's how bad it can get. Trust me you haven't itched like this!

The risk:

ICP is associated with an increased risk of stillbirth, preterm labor, fetal distress, respiratory distress, maternal hemorrhaging and meconium passage in utero. 

The best way to avoid these risks seems to always be early delivery at 36/37 weeks of pregnancy. There are some medications that help with the symptoms (mostly the itching) but do not guarantee the safety of the baby. Everything I have read point to early and intense monitoring and delivery once certain bile levels are reached in the mother. 

(The best info I've found on it online comes from www.icpcare.org if you need more details.) 

The basic thing you need to know is that untreated or unmonitored it can be deadly for the baby- even with proper monitoring it is a very scary reality that stillbirth is still a "greater than desired" possibility. 

The day we discovered it with Liam we were induced immediately two days before hitting 36 weeks pregnant, but this go around we have caught it much sooner (30 weeks). So now we are playing the waiting game. We met with our doctor last Thursday and here is her game plan for now-

We will be monitored every Monday and Thursday by non stress tests for Ella Jane just to make sure she is doing okay via heart rate and oxygen levels. Every Monday they will do blood work to check my bile level and liver enzymes and each Thursday give us the results. (It takes that long at the lab to get the results.) 

My last level read 29.1 last Monday and my OB has stated it is not dangerous for the baby until the levels hits 40.0. That said, her plan is to give me steroid shots for EJs lungs when my levels reaches mid 30s and plan to induce early. How early will depend on how fast and how high my levels go and how EJ is reacting. Right now we have no idea how fast my levels are rising (we will have a better idea on Thursday when we see how much it rose in a weeks time).  She is hoping we make it to 35/36 weeks but if it hits 40.0 before then or EJ appears to be in distress at all we will have to readdress. 

We are currently at 31 weeks so our hope is we can squeeze out another 3-4 weeks if not more. No matter what she will induce at 37 weeks to air on the safe side as at that point the baby is in more danger by the day but considered to be full term if I'm not mistaken. We are taking it all day by day! 

 In the meantime we are doing kick counts each hour or two to make sure she is still active and taking a prescription which we hope at the very least will relieve some of the itching and hopefully slow my levels down some.  Also, Brian is on a dietary kick based off what he has read online that helps detoxify the liver of bile, so nasty hot teas and hot lemon water for me daily! (Someone save me and get me a Starbucks!)

Anyway, to sum it up, we are asking for prayers that EJ arrives safe and healthy whenever she comes.... And for peace for Brian and I in the stressful waiting. We know God's plan is bigger than medicine and we know no matter what he has it under control!

More updates as we learn things and get more results each week. 

-Amy 

Dear baby- Mother's Day 26/40

Dear baby- 25/40

Dear baby

Dear baby updates

Dear baby

Baby Girl Atkinson Has A Name

*****Warning: this is long and wordy! So if you just want the name, no story attached, jump to the photo ending!*****

Picking a baby name is like picking your favorite restaurant or food. As soon as you think you know your favorite, you over use it for a week or two and hate it (at least for a little while).

Maybe you don't have this problem but I sure do. From the time I was dragging around baby dolls I was giving them my "all time favorite" baby names that I thought one day I would use.....until I was pregnant with Liam and realized I hated them....all of them. 

So from the minute we picked Liam's name, Brian and I decided our children's names would require two things: a heritage name from a family member and a name with a meaning.

Example: when we chose Liam's name we wanted a name that had a meaning that would foreshadow his life. So we chose "Liam" meaning Strong and Brave. Everyday of his life he has shown this to be true of himself. We know this name was put on our hearts for a reason, and from the moment we found out about his vision we have noticed that he is completely these two things. Nothing, vision included, will defeat, slow, or hinder him- of this we are sure. (So when we call him LiamtheBrave we mean it!)

Liam's middle name, his inherited name, is "Robert" which is my father's first name (though he goes by Bobby). I could list a dozen reasons to why we picked my dad to name Liam after, but I would be rambling for a while so I will leave it at this- girls look up to their dads. (And so do the son-in-laws that get the permission to marry said daughter.)

Jump to present day.

From the moment we got pregnant for the fourth time, we just KNEW this baby would be a boy. 

The only reason being this: 

One day we sat in our kitchen discussing the chances of having a third miscarriage if we tried again to get pregnant. I remember telling Brian I wanted to wait until after Christmas to even discuss trying again. He jokingly said, "why? It would be a cool Christmas present." And I told him it would have to be a "gift from God" because I wasn't up for it. We laughed and joked about how funny that would be and then on a whim I googled baby name meanings meaning "gift from God" or "God's gift". Turned out the first one I found was Hebrew and I loved it! Better still, Brian loved it. 

A few weeks later we were staring at our 4th positive pregnancy test, and two days before Christmas we were listening to our baby's heartbeat.  Christmas baby announcement it was! 

Skip forward a few short months- our announcement and shock that this was not a baby boy but a little girl. All I could think was, "BUT our name!!! It was perfect!" 

And it still is.... Just not for this baby- which is why I'm not including it in this post ;) 

After we wrapped our brains around this new information, we started to discuss girl names. Both of us came to the same conclusion: THIS baby, this GIRL baby, is still just that perfect meaning-"God's gift".

So we found Jane. It took some convincing because at first Brian hated it, but I kept on. We struggled to try and name her middle name after my sisters, but we came up with more problems than solutions. 

So one day on my way to work, I pulled up a list of my family tree and zeroed in on the female names. I not only found that "Jane" was actually an inherited name, but I also found the name "Ella". 

Mary-Ella, called Ella, was my Nana's grandmother. She was my dad's greatnana. 

 I called Brian and this is (give or take) our quick discussion on it:

Me: "did you know that Jane is our name meaning name and an inherited name? So we can technically pick whatever we like to go with it!"

Brian: "Cool but what goes good with it?"

Me: "Well, I found Ella.... I kinda like Jane Ella."

Silence.

Me: "Babe?"

Brian: "I hate it.... But I like Ella Jane. What does it mean?"

Quick google search....

Me: "You won't believe this... It means "all or completely/utterly".

Brian: "So if we use it as Ella Jane instead of Jane Ella, together her name would mean "Completely A gift from God"?" 

And that was that. We both loved it and there was no other name it could possibly be. Two meaning names, two inherited names. The perfect combo for our little girl. 

So (now that I've drug this out long enough) the secrets out! Our sweet daughter's name will be..........

Dear Baby

I keep forgetting to post these weekly so here's a few to catch up (minus a few that I forgot). I love the idea of seeing weekly growth but I wanted a unique way to do it other than just in pictures. Since I've periodically written letters to Liam, when I saw this idea on Pinterest I fell in love with it and decided to give it a try. 

That One Weekend When Nobody Showered

Yes I said it…NOBODY showered; not Brian or Liam nor I showered the entire.weekend.long.
It also should be called:

The weekend we thought Liam had the plague, then the flu, but it turned out just to be hand-foot-and mouth.
The weekend we were quarantined inside our home with worse cabin fever than a hunter in the middle of winter hyped up on red bull.
The weekend we ran through all of our dishes and laundry before we stopped to do a load.
The weekend we watched Croods twice, Lady and the Tramp four times, and Veggie Tales once because Liam couldn’t get off the couch.
The weekend the couch was never more than two feet away from a puke bucket.

The weekend we sat covered in germs and stink next to Liam on the couch because he begged for us to just hold him, hold his hand, hold his cup, hold his roo-roo—both of us to hold him---and we did without moving, without a grudge, and without showers.

Let me tell you it was worth it. And so was using the entire can of Lysol and the entire water tank of hot water Sunday night.

Sometimes little superheroes just need to be held.

Writers Gotta Read

I’m not going to lie, I have been such a slacker lately. I have been too busy to write, too busy to read and too busy to stop and breathe. That is all about to change.
I took a new, totally amazing, totally rewarding, totally WORTH IT  job back in August this year, and we have been trying to perfect our family schedule ever since then. The new job gives me mornings with Liam when Brian is working and then time with the both of them in the evenings after 6 pm, but there is no time for “me” time. I used to write in the mornings after Brian took Liam to work and then have my alone time with Liam in the evenings from 4-6pm before Brian got home but not anymore.  Now my mornings are filled with giggles and tickles, fixing breakfast and packing lunches, and occasionally sleeping in with my snuggle bug Liam.
I WOULD NOT, WILL NOT, CHANGE THEM.
So where is the time to write and paint and read?

When I started the new job and started coming home after 6 pm to dinner on the table, followed by bath time then reading time, then brush teeth and bed time---well there was no time left. 
I sit here now writing only because my little blonde bear has a horrible virus/plague and has spent the past three days napping on the sofa. Soon though he will be back to his normal bouncy self and then we will be back to the normal schedule.

So as I explained to Brian in so many words, “if I do not write I do not function” and he looked at me with those “I don’t understand but I will fix it” eyes…..a plan developed. I will deliver Liam early to our sitter once a week before work and have an hour to write then as well as turning off the TV one night a week for BOTH of us to write, read or whatever. A mandatory no TV night.

Hallelujah.

Since I believe with everything in me that writers have to be readers, I have been looking for books to motivate and move me, or just make me enjoy the read, and I have developed my LIST. (Queen of lists right here.)

Like any good list, it is primed and ready for expansion; so I am willing to hear input as well but what I have so far is this:

Eleanor & Park—by Rainbow Rowell
The Book Thief – by Markus Zusak
How to Raise Selfless Kids in a Self-Centered World—by Dave Stone
Give Them Grace—by Elyse M Fitspatrick and Jessica Thompson
Radical—by David Platt

So here’s to the love of books, both writing and reading alike!

Winners!

Our two winners were Renee and Manda! Thanks to all those who pinned, posted, and shared! Soon we may pair with Blue Lizard to do a mega sunscreen giveaway so if you didn't win don't give up! To the winners please email me your shipping address via the email listed on our contacts tab, and thanks so much for participating! 

Oh, Happiness Giveaway!

Okay, it’s no secret that I’m not a huge fan of September this year. So what better way to try and start September off right than with a Labor Day giveaway? How about two Labor Day giveaways!

My friend Sarah Autry over at Oh, Happiness! is one crafty lady. If you remember I mentioned a while back that she was responsible for revamping my blogs, but she also runs an Etsy site selling her customized invitations and art prints. One of her latest creations are these adorable Pregnancy Prayer Cards that have customized prayers and scripture centered around your growing baby. Each weekly card details new developments for your baby and specific ways to pray for them as they grow. (All references in NIV.)

Here’s some examples:

I only wish I had these when I was pregnant with Liam! They are truly unlike any other pregnancy tracker gifts I have ever seen!  Since I have so many pregnant friends and family, we want to give away a set today!

It’s so easy to enter, here’s how:

Do any ONE of these three things:

• Repost this giveaway on any of your social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or your personal blog, etc.) and leave your name in the comments section below.
•   Post the link to Sarah’s Etsy site http://www.etsy.com/people/segraha on any one of your social media accounts.
• Go to Sarah’s Etsy account (Oh, Happiness!) and favorite her site!
•  Pin it! Pin one of the images above to Pinterest with information on where to purchase the cards!

It’s that easy!

Then head over to www.throughliamseyes.com to check out our sunscreen giveaway! Winners will be announced later this week so stay tuned!

 Happy Labor Day All!!!

 

Dear September

Dear September-

I have mixed emotions about meeting you this year. I won’t lie, last year you were one of my favorite months of the year. September is National Awareness Month for Visual Impairments and Blindness, including Albinism, as well as White Cane Awareness month. So this year I looked forward to you just like last year to do my White Cane posts, wear my Raise Awareness shirt, my braille shirts more often, even doing little giveaways of sunscreens and braille books.

Then things changed. You changed for me, for our house, for our family.

Nowadays when I think of you, September, I dread you. I dread the emotions you bring with you this year, and hope that next year will be better. Right now all I think of when I think of you is a due date. A month that should have marked the coming of our second child, our middle child, and for that reason it is special. I’m a middle child, and one day I will have a middle child, just not this September. So for this year, as we wade through September, no belly about to burst, no nursery prepped, no every-five-minutes-or-less bathroom runs, and no baby in our arms, I will hold a grudge 30 days long, and hope that next year I enjoy you more. I’m not sure you will ever be one of my favorite months again but for now I am content enough not to rip your page from my calendar altogether. But that’s as much as I can say for now. Be kind to us September, in our house you are special, you are still loved, but you are also on the bottom of the totem pole.

Sincerely a sometimes but not this year fan,

Truth

I found this recently. I've been avoiding this blog recently, one that I frequent often for her mommy wit and advice, and her overseas travel stories.  She and I discovered our pregnancies at the same time and I knew she would be blogging a lot about it, so I avoided it like the plague.  I dared to venture to her page this week and I was shocked when I read her most recent post. It was like ripping off the bandaide on an old wound, bringing anger and tears at the same time, but it was a MUST read for me. My heart needed it, and it was beautiful. I won’t spoil it or try to under explain it here, but it is well worth the time to read.
http://adrielbooker.com/dear-pregnant-woman-from-a-baby-loss-mom/

Homemade Laundry Detergent

I’m not an overly obsessed pinner on Pinterest, but I am a major DIY’er. If I can do it myself, I prefer to.  So when I saw the dozens hundreds of DIY laundry soaps and baby wipes being pinned, I was intrigued.  At first I thought it would be more of a hassle than it would be worth, until I found a mom blogger who had put them both to the test to see her savings over the course of a year.  By replacing these two items with homemade versions she claimed to have saved $600 a year! Now granted she has 6 children in a household of 8, and we are only a family of three, but still I wanted to give it a shot.

I mean $600 is one mortgage payment.
$600 is one large vacation, or three mini weekend get-aways.
$600 is eight weeks of groceries in our house.
$600 is 15 tanks of gas in my car.
$600 is one year of paid satellite television.

Even if in our small household we only save a portion of that, we would still see the savings over time. So ten minutes of mixing time seemed well worth it. We decided to only do the laundry detergent for now, as we are almost done (fingers crossed) with baby wipes for now.  When we have more children we will try to do both.

I thought I would share my recipe even though it is not the most original I’m sure. I saw many recipes on Pinterest that I liked and decided to mix several different ones for my own.

A few reasons for my choice ingredients:

• *We used Zote soap instead of Fels-Naptha for two reasons.  Zote is plant derived so it’s environmentally safe, whereas Fels-Naptha is not and is strongly discouraged if you have a septic take (even though we do not) because it kills the good bacteria inside them causing back-ups over time. Fels-Naptha is also harmful if it gets in your eyes or ingested by mouth whereas Zote soap is not. Because of this we went with the Zote soap which has a whitening agent in it but does not have as much stain/grease fighter in it. For that reason we added the Oxi-Clean which replaced the need for Fels-Naptha. If we had not used the Oxi-Clean we would have used a small amount of Fels-Naptha instead, but in smaller amounts mixed with the Zote soap.

• *We used a mix of Washing Soda and Baking Soda as everything I read said that Washing Soda was so acidic and with such a high PH balance that the Baking Soda was needed to re-balance the load as to make sure the fabrics did not cause skin irritation. So we used equal amounts of each in our mix.

• *I wanted to use a booster in our mix, like the Oxi-Clean, but as I looked for others besides Oxi-Clean I found most were scented.  Purex Crystals were my first choice as a stain booster but since they are scented, I bypassed them for the Oxi-Clean because of the sensitive skins in our house. If it were not for the sensitive skins I may have chosen a scented booster and powdered softener, but the Zote soap does give a good clean scent.

My advice is to customize your recipe for your households needs and then test out different versions to see what is right for your crew, but our version is below. We loved the results and the laundry smells and feel just as soft and good as our normal All Free and Clear detergent.

We average with our costs per ingredient, that the total cost for one batch (which does 256 loads) is between $9.80-$12.90 for the one batch of almost 2 gallons.  The price varies only due to generic or name brand ingredients and if you remove the extra option for the Oxi-Clean or not. This averages out to $0.03-.05 per load!   Our normal liquid detergent (All Free and Clear) is $4.00 at 33 loads which is $0.12 a load. Since I tend to use the liquid more freely and get only 22 loads from the bottle (I always use the large load amount) I would be spending $0.18 per load.

To switch to homemade is a saving on average of 9 - 15 cents a load!

Let me break that down further for you.
Say I do 6 loads of laundry a week for a year.
That’s 312 loads a year.
Homemade would cost me $9.36-$15.60 a year, and store bought would cost me $37.44-$56.16 a year.
A possible savings average of $46.83 a year!

Now I know what you are thinking--that’s not $600 a year! It’s true it isn’t, but remember how I said that mom blogger had six kids? Two of those children were babies in diapers….washable cloth diapers. Also, the $600 was baby wipes and laundry detergent combined. So I can easily see how, over time with a large family, you would save more money with these homemade versions than our smaller family will. Still to me it’s a small save and a fun new DIY to try. So, now for that recipe.

Homemade Laundry Soap

*1 Bar Zote Soap  (or 3 bars Fels-Naptha Soap bars, or use one of each)

*1 3lb 7oz box Washing Soda (We couldn’t find the 4lb boxes-just make sure it’s even with the Baking Soda.)

*1 3lb 7oz box Baking Soda (or 3-4x 1lb boxes if you cannot find the larger box)

*1 box of 20 Mule-Team Borax (You will only use an equal amount to match the sodas so if you’re using 3lbs of each soda use only 3lbs of Borax. If you can find the 4lb boxes of the sodas use the whole 4lb box of Borax. Since we used about 3lbs of each soda we used ¾ of the 4lb box of Borax for ours.)

*½ of a 2lb tub of Oxi-Clean

Dump all of the above in a large container and seal. The bars of soap (Zote/Fels-Naptha) will have to be grated with a cheese grater into small shreds, and then everything should be well stirred. Just like most powders you need to add the detergent mix in the water before the laundry is put in, and if you have an HE washer it’s advised that you dissolve it in a cup of hot water first and then pour it into the washer.

Happy Washing!

The Difference Between Joy and Happiness

The past few months have been a huge roller-coaster in our house. The coaster departed the station the moment we decided to pursue expanding our family of three into a family of four, and after two dive drops (miscarriages), the ride ended back where we started. Some days, it is so easy to think the ride was “all for not”, but the rides twists and turns definitely taught me so much about motherhood, my hearts desires, our family dreams, and ultimately the biggest thing: the difference between Joy and Happiness.

A few days after our first “dive drop”, I drove through the Starbucks window on my way into work with my puffy under eyes subbing in for my usual makeup.  I was in no mood to talk to anyone but I was holding it together.  Now, I would never admit this to my husband, but let’s just say at least half of the Starbucks baristas may or may not know me by name….and drink order….just maybe.

Anyway.
It only took a minute for my barista friend to hand me my Frappuccino, but her words have stuck with me for weeks since then.  She paused with my receipt and stuck her head out the drive through window, “Is everything okay? You’re usually one of the most joyful people through my window at 6 a.m.” She waited for me to respond by I just shook my head. “Well, you just look like you’ve lost your joy,” she finished and with an apologetic smile she retreated back inside the window.  I sat there for a few moments but no words came, so I forced a smile back at her, which must have looked strained, and then just drove away.  I wasn’t ready for the questions, and I had not prepared myself with a reply.

It took weeks and another “dive drop” for me to realize something—there is a difference between losing your joy and losing your happiness because there’s a big difference in joy and happiness.

Your happiness moves and changes with each event or change in life, but your joy cannot be shaken when it is rooted in Christ. As a Christian your Joy is unwavering.  Let me explain.

The definition for Happiness is: the state of being happy or satisfied.
The definition for Joy is: great delight or a feeling of great pleasure and happiness or rejoicing.

Joy is a fruit of the spirit. Gal. 5:22 –“..but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience…”
Happiness is not.
Joy is strength in the Lord. Neh. 8:10 –“…do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”
Happiness is not.
Joy always comes with the morning. Ps. 30:5 “One may experience sorrow during the night, but joy arrives in the morning.”
Happiness does not.
You still have your Joy even in times of sorry when the happiness is gone.
Joy is happiness but happiness isn’t Joy.

When your Joy is found in Christ it cannot be lost, it cannot be easily wavered, it cannot be stolen even when your present happiness can be.  I hope when people see me, even in my days of sorrow, they see that I do indeed still have my Joy. After all when I look at these definitions, I want to be more than just satisfied, I want to have the joy.

So I guess you could say Starbucks fed more than my caffeine addiction that day! Kidding…but even though I didn’t learn this until after my conversation with the barista, I am glad I have realized it now, and next time my answer will be ready.

Fun fact: Joy is mentioned in the bible around 189 times; happiness is only mentioned 20 times.

Wedded Bliss

In our house May 29th is a holiday. We celebrate it more than we do most others, because without it we wouldn't have our little family.

A extra special day because it's Brian and I's 4 year wedding anniversary.

In a world where the success rate on marriages is 10%, we choose to celebrate every year as a victory,  like the holiday it should be.  

Today I thought of a few funny things I've learned in our four years of marriage and thought I'd share some of my favorites. 

Starting with.....
 

1. Sometimes to get what you want you must place heavily weighted bets. So if you see Brian wearing his first ever pair of plaid shorts-please note, he bet poorly. 
(So many choices I could choose from!)

 

2. Forcing your hubby to watch too many So You Think You Can Dance episodes with you may trigger spontaneous, competitive car dance offs.  (Videos to come!)

3. Loosing said dance offs may trigger heated high weighted bets over previously mentioned plaid shorts....

4. We each have different roles and wear many different hats in our family. No really we do.  

5. Flowers never get old

 

6. Based on the number of matching superhero shirts Brian has purchased for him and Liam, my husband must still harbor a childhood desire to grow up to be a superhero. 

7. He is always my superhero. (I was always more for superheroes than a knight-in-shining-armor kinda girl.) 

8. 4 years married may feel like 40, but I have a feeling when we get to our 40 year mark, it will feel like only 4. 

Love anniversaries, love him.