Someone convince me that "13" is lucky!

 May 18th Brooks and I celebrated our 13th Anniversary!!!!!!!!!!

Saturday night we went out and were reminiscing a little. We got a good laugh on my wedding gift to Brooks that I ran over the morning of our wedding........a snow cone machine. I had gotten it at Walmart and it looked JUST like the one below.

Fast forward 13 years and we own the above shaved ice machine. 

It's kinda a gage on how far we come I think during our marriage. :)

Our actual anniversary was on Sunday.....and like Mother's Day the week before Brooks was working all day and through the night. I got the kids ready for church and loaded them up in the van in enough time to get there early. Look at my sweet one-month-old!!!

I went to turn the Yeti on and there was nothing. Happy Anniversary, right? I realized it was left on from the day before when the guy that had fixed something in it wanted to show me something in the steering and needed the van on or something to show me that "something". CLEARLY I don't know much about cars. All I knew is that the van TURNED OFF WHILE I WAS DRIVING on me (AGAIN!!!! for the 7th time) on Friday and was not going to drive it again. The man told me although everything isn't fixed yet I should be okay to get to church and back.

But back to the battery being dead.

I had SEEN Brooks jump the car before, and since I was the only adult, I obviously had to act like I knew what I was doing...and I'll-be-darned if I didn't get all the kids ready/fed baby on time ONLY to be LATE FOR CHURCH!!! No sir-ee.

I got out in the rain (yes, it was raining) and found the battery under the Yeti's hood but didn't know if red was positive or black. I texted Brooks at work and he told me that red was positive. Allrighty then. Got it.

Then I went over to our white Buick to hook the OTHER side of the cables to the batter and saw this.......

I mean I KNOW what a battery looks like, but I didn't see one in there!!!

Bronson and Camden joined me and tried to find it. Meanwhile I texted this picture to Brooks and asked where the battery was. 

Before he could answer I saw one of our neighbor-men and asked for his help. He got the Yeti jumped super fast and off we went to church. On the way I asked Aleeya if she could pray outloud for the family that we could make it to church. 

I'm always uplifted by church and besides losing Royce for only a little while it went quite well.

We drive a woman home from church each week who cannot drive herself due to a previous bike accident she was in. After church she got in the Yeti and all the kids were in and we were off.....before most people could leave too.

I get ONE block away from the church to the intersection and the Yeti just turns off again. Ugh. I was in the left turn lane and pulled out enough in the intersection to block one of the lanes but not all of them thankfully. I looked behind me and there's a line-up of people from my church behind me. My first thought was how embarrassed I was that EVERYONE I knew saw me stuck there. 

I kept trying to turn it on and it never came back on.

Then I thought, how LUCKY I was to break down HERE with so many people "behind me".....literally and figuratively.

Next thing I know there's three men from church in suits running towards me car, their wives are still in the cars w/ their hazard lights on blocking me from getting hit by any other cars. One of the men jumped in the driver's seat shoved it into neutral ( I couldn't get it in neutral....it locked up) and the others behind the Yeti and started pushing us out of the way.

(photo by my friend Geri). I was also touched that the man on the right (NOT in the suit) was just a complete stranger who parked his car, jumped out to help someone in need. Good Samaritans rock.

So you see what's going on OUTSIDE with the men pushing the Yeti....which is no small task mind you.....but what you can't see is how the kids were CHEERING-:LAUGHING-SQUEALING inside the Yeti. They thought it was the best thing.

They tried jumping it again assuming it was a battery issue (since this was the 8th time happening to me, I knew that wasn't all that was wrong) and there was nothing.

My friend Geri had crackers in her car and started feeding my children. haha.....little moochers.

When we realized the Yeti was NOT going to start we started dividing kids into people's cars to be driven home for me..........because let's be honest, who REALLY has 10 extra seats in their car for me, my kids and the lady I was driving home?!?!? It took three cars to get us home.

The boys were THRILLED to be driven home by Brother Buffington because it was an "all boys car". Good ol' Emerson on his shoulders.....

Aleeya and Iris went home with a family who let them play with "Talking Tom" on their phone. They thought THAT was so fun.

When we all got home and reunited the kids smiled and said this was the "BEST SUNDAY EVER!!!!" 

Yes......those were the EXACT words going through my mind as well.

Bronson said he just wished that the Yeti broke down on the way TO church and not on the way HOME!!! It dawned on me about Aleeya's prayer..........I just asked her to pray that we could get TO church (which she did say that) but never was there any mention on getting HOME. Guess we need to be more specific next time.

My Anniversary Sunday DID go up from there though. 

We all crashed for naps. Happy Anniversary to me.

After a Bronson's friend's mom brought over dinner for me and the kids as a post-birth present. It was such a treat. She even made individual cookies for each child with the first letter of their names

And a huge sandwich buffet. 

It was so sweet. I made 25-ish freezer meals before Everly was born so we have been eating those (I still have 7 left I think) but to have something that I did NOT prepare was a nice break.....especially 4 weeks postpartum. Happy Anniversary to ME!

While I cleaned up it was nice that Emerson volunteered to keep Everly entertained and not crying. I noticed she WAS quiet the whole time. Apparently Emerson's slide-the-baby-around-the-house-on-his-pillow idea worked.

Iris, Kellyn, Aleeya, Royce and Camden were entertaining themselves racing down the stairs in pillowcases

while Bronson shot the basketball outside....so it was a kaos-free cleaning up time. 

Happy Anniversary to me.

Aleeya (who is always thoughtful with notes, probably because "words" is her love-language too) made me a note and picked me a WHOLE bag of mulberries just for me to eat. Which I actually downed pretty fast. 

"I love you Momy It is a happy day for you You are a happy Momy Happy day for you You love me I do to Love, Aleeya Love Momy"

Iris even wrote me a Anniversary card, picked me some mulberries (she can't reach as many so her 10 mulberries were kind of a widow's-mite-type thing.....so sweet) and also picked me one of the neighbor's roses (lovely).

Did I mention Happy Anniversary to us?

Gosh, I love that man of mine. What a fun/exciting/hilarious/crazy 13 years we've had.