I hope everyone had as nice of a holiday week as I did. My husband was on vacation all week, so we spent time together and with friends. I really did not mean to be absent from my blog for so long but we had so much to do and so little time.

On Saturday, July 1st my husband and I celebrated our sixth wedding anniversary. He truly is one of the best things that ever happened to me. We have a very different story from most couples that we know. My husband and I did not date each other. We were introduced by a friend of my mother’s, and we did not experience any initial attraction. We got along well and had many similar interests, so we remained friends. He was nice but not to my taste, you see. (I judged him before I really knew him and made some assumptions about him.) I even tried to introduce him to other girls. Well, over time we became better friends. We kept in contact when I transferred to another college 800 miles from home. When I came home for the summer, we spent most of our free time together. It was all purely platonic and we did not even speak about dating each other. In the fall when I went back to college, I realized how much a part of my life that he was. Whenever something would happen I would think, “I wonder what he would think about that,” or “I cannot wait to share this news with him,” etc. Even when guys at school would ask me out, I would turn them down because I just was not interested. Then an unfortunate set of circumstances caused me to have to leave school in the middle of the semester. I was devestated. So, I packed up and went home. When I had been home five weeks, I was cleaning the house with my mom one day when I said, “Mom, I just don’t know what I would do if Benjamin were not in my life anymore. I mean, if he started dating some girl or just did not want to spend time with me anymore, I just don’t know what I would do.” That night, he came to pick me up for our usual Tuesday night Bible study. I had called to see if he was on his way, and I was a bit frustrated because we were going to be late. When I answered the door, he stood there with a rose beautifully wrapped with greenery and baby’s breath and tied with a ribbon. Thinking this was a peace offering, I said thank you and turned to find a vase. He said, “Wait, I’m not finished yet,” and pulled me over to sit down. There, in my parent’s living room before Bible study on a Tuesday night, Benjamin asked me to marry him. He presented me with a giftwrapped box which my nervous fingers could not seem to unwrap. When he finally got the question out, I said “Yes!” before I even got the box open. Inside the box was a beautiful marquis cut diamond and platinum ring. He had picked it out several weeks before and was waiting for the setting to be custom made for my small size 4 finger. (He guessed on the size and the ring fit perfectly!) That night we held hands for the very first time. We even made it to Bible study and were only five minutes late…we walked in grinning like the cat who swallowed the canary, and I kept my hand with the ring in my pocket until we made our announcement. I found out not long after that that everyone knew he was planning this except me (including my mother who I had spoken with earlier that day). I married my best friend seven months later.

For our anniversary we had planned to go to on a day hike, but with humid 100+ degree temperatures we opted at the last minute to go to Bonne Terre Mine, which is about an hour south of St. Louis. This is not the low ceilinged mine with wood supports that we all see in the movies, but rather a large stone cave-like mine with 50 foot ceilings supported by very large stone columns. My husband and I enjoy caving, so this seemed like an interesting place to explore. (Since we have been married, we have visited Meramec Caverns, Marvel Cave, and Mammoth Cave. Mammoth Cave’s Introduction to Caving tour was a wonderful experience, and we both highly recommend it to others interested in caving. It gives an opportunity to get off of the lighted and paved tour trails and explore the “non tourist” parts of the cave with a guide.) Anyway, Bonne Terre Mine was both an interesting and educational experience. The cave was shut down in the 1960’s after lead was declared to be hazardous. When the workers left, they did not know that the mine would be closing permanently, so everything is where they left it that day. There is also a nearby lake fed by an underground spring. When the mine closed the pumps were stopped and the mine filled with water. There are five levels to the mine, and levels 5, 4, 3, and part of 2 are filled with water. The 4th level down housed the stable for the mules, a cafeteria, and even a bowling alley. The water that filled the mine is exceptionally pure and crystal clear. It has a low oxygen content and therefore everything has been well preserved without rust or corrosion. Scuba divers go down to explore these underwater sections of the cave. Diving this mine was rated as the #10 adventure in America by National Geographic a couple of years ago. We did both the walking and the boat tour, and now my husband has the bug to learn to Scuba dive. I must say, I am a bit claustrophobic and never dreamed of wanting to dive, but I am definately interested in exploring more of that mine and now considering learning to dive. It would be another thing for us to do together and the history lover in me really wants to see that frozen piece of history. There is even a train down there. It is an undisturbed archeological site that has not greatly deteriorated with time.

And for some knitting content…

Since I had to occupy myself during the car trip, I worked on my footy socks. I am hoping to get the second one finished soon. I have not decided whether to add the pom poms or not.