Ninth Anniversary and Birthday

Last week, June 19th, Lorne and I celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary and I'd have to say, I am just as much - if not more - in love with him now as I was in this lovely photograph of our amazing and incredibly beautiful big day, nine years ago. He is evermore my strength, my love, my hope, my future and my wonderful ever after and this past year/15 months he has proved himself over and over to be the incredibly supportive, caring, loving and amazing person that I knew him to be the day I married him. My very own, and very cherished, Mr. (W)Right! Heck, I even find it hard to believe myself most days - that I could be lucky enough to have found someone so giving and loving, not to mention downright hilarious, with whom to share my life. Right down to the fact he's just as much a big softy animal lover as I am. A true and wonderful match for which I am ever grateful, more with each passing day and especially with the cancer events and such of this past year.

Okay, enough of the heartfelt mushiness, before I have to start handing out the airline sick bags ;-)

So, with a dry and sarcastic sense of humour being among Lorne's many qualities that I love dearly, he is very imaginative when it comes to gift giving and this anniversary was no different but with the 'traditional' 9th anniversary gift theme of willow/pottery/leather being somewhat mundane, it was a struggle to even know what to buy.

He and I are scarily in tune with one another and frequently think/say the very same thing at the exact same time (does that make us one of those couples?), so it was no surprise to either of us that, for the willow part of the theme, we each ended up buying the other a bottle of this rather pleasant BC Shiraz: Red Willow by Prospect Winery. (In fact we did the same on our 7th anniversary with Copper Moon cabernet sauvignon.) Red Willow's not a bad wine, although it suffers the usual exaggerated BC duty that inflates the price to $16.99! It's actually nicer than the supposedly 'premium' red wine that we ordered earlier this year through a local U-Brew, namely Broadway Brewing Company, which is proving to be extremely underwhelming, and even that's being generous. But I digress.....

For the leather part - which is not so easy with me being a long-time vegetarian - Lorne found the perfect, tongue-in-cheek, veggie-friendly compromise, complete with explanation of his quirky rationale:

Not sure I'll actually eat them, although I think
it's all fake flavouring anyway, isn't it?

And of course, having already married Mr. Wright, it was only fair that - as the pottery gift - I acknowledge the fact he is also my Mr. Perfect. Aaaahhhh - barf bag anyone? ;-)

Though he's not quite as blueberry-coloured,
this does kind of resemble Lorne nonetheless :-)

And this is very fitting for the day 

we got married, June 19, 2004.

That aside, another celebration very close to our wedding is Bronwyn's birthday and I'm still incredibly impressed how Vicky managed to stay the duration on our wedding day, outlasting many other guests, despite having given birth to Bronnie by C-section just 5 days prior! Now that's determination!

While I joined in Bronwyn's birthday celebration- and delicious homemade cake - that she had on the Sunday, June 16th, I also offered to take her downtown as an extra birthday treat, to do a bit of shopping. She's now at that age where she wants to pick her own clothes and so, last Sunday, we headed for H&M where we spent about an hour or so looking at just about everything and both feeling disturbed by the perversely skimpy clothing geared towards girls her age and even younger. Honestly, it gives me the creeps. The 'in' fashion for girls in Vancouver this summer seems to be super-micro-cropped/shredded shorts that have both your crotch and arse hanging out and the front pockets flapping lower than the actual shorts. Needless to say it's not a good look and, maybe I'm getting old, but I find it pretty sad to see young women parading themselves like cheap meat in this way. Thankfully Bronwyn agrees and we both rolled our eyes at similar hot-pants and underwear-sold-as-shorts that are geared to such young girls, not just teenagers! We struggled to find a pair of shorts that even came below her bum. And anything longer than your backside was - ironically - twice the price of that with half the amount of fabric and even less bum-cheek coverage! I shake my head, really I do!

For the none girly-girl, I was surprised
Bronnie picked this outfit out herself!
That said, she looks adorable!

Anyway, thankfully - after carefully scouring the store - Bronwyn picked out this lovely little outfit, complete with glittery shoes (even though you can't see the cute sparkle so much in this fitting room photograph). The pink jacket is very BRIGHT and a little bit big on her, but it was the last one and she just fell in love with it. I could hardly say no, could I?

We had a really nice afternoon, she's such a thoughtful and complex girl with so many questions and really interesting perspectives, way beyond her years. I love her for her strength, independence and modesty and sharing a little of her new self-awareness and, at times, self-consciousness, was a pleasure. I could see her weighing up in her mind what her peers might think of her outfit...hence the pink jacket was vital and the shoes an absolute must-have.

After H&M we went over to Claire's Accessories where she deliberated over earrings for at least 40 minutes, weighing up how she was going to afford them, since she had only $5 of her own money and had just spent half of that on a bracelet at the Dollar Store and was now bitterly regretting the choice. On top of that, I could tell she was aware she had already just scored a lot of stuff at H&M and shouldn't really expect more (I'd say, shouldn't be 'greedy' except that I can't say that word without feeling awful in my stomach, it's such a loaded term in my mind and comes with a horribly overwhelming sense of shame.) She even offered to pay me back from the $8 or so she has in an account, bless her. So I let her sit with her decision-making for a little bit as she debated which earrings she wanted most and then we compromised, thanks to the store's 'Buy 2 pairs, get a 3rd pair free' offer, and decided we'd both get one pair and that'd mean her second pair would be free.

One the bus home she seemed really tired - that girly downtown shopping takes it out of you - but we'd had a great time, I loved spoiling her and it was a pleasure to let her decide what she really wanted to get and pick things out together. Vicky says I should definitely do the same for her when her birthday rolls around later this year! Hmmm, nice try! ;-)