ps.

happy birthday to me!
i turned 30 last week.
for my birthday, i requested we take the children to the theater to see toy story 3.
it came out on my birthday.
so we took a trip to iowa, to visit grandpa bill and grandma sara.
on the way, we stopped at the big M in platteville, wi.
we climbed all 266 steps to the top of the mound!
mark carried shiloh, the children raced ahead, while i walked with able.
(i did pretty good for being 26 weeks pregnant, but my legs reminded me soon after by turning to jello at our potty stop in platteville's walmart.)
able kept me laughing all the way up and down.
he chattered on and on.
" i can't climb these steps. i'm doing a good job. i just can't go up. yea, good job able! i didn't see the big M. where is the big M? i see our new tan van. i'm doing a good job. did we see the big M? we didn't go to the top of the big M? where is the big M? . . ."
oh how sweet is our little 2 year old able boy!so this is how we celebrated our 10th anniversary: a climb to the top of the world's largest M.
it was a good day!

mark's parents treated us to the theater trip to see toy story 3.
it was all of the children's first theater movie.
and the weekend became toy story themed with plates, napkins, cups, and toy story toys.
it was sooooo fun.
my husband gave me the sweetest gift.(mark is not a plan ahead gift giver, so this meant a lot to me.)
he cut out paper hearts and each one of my milligan bunch gave me a birthday message and their hearts.
mark quoted the verse "this is my beloved, and this is my friend".
he wrote something sweet about our friendship.
the children drew pictures and wrote some messages every momma would love.
i have them hanging by the mirror in our bedroom.

we had a wonderful weekend playing at grandpa and grandma's farm.
one day we took a trip to a little lake and enjoyed the beach and fishing on the boat.
we weathered some summer storms.
on sunday we celebrated father's day.
grandpa bill, mark, and hogan got in an extra (funny) fishing trip.
(they dropped 2 poles into the water off the pier!)
it was a wonderful, restful weekend of celebrations and fun.
now mark and kim milligan are moving on to a whole new decade of life together.
we are both loving being 30!
doesn't that sound crazy?
God has been showing us how wonderful it is to mellow out from our extreme reactions of the twenties.
and we can still have great passion for so many things, but that passion is directed with a bit more wisdom and experience.
so it's nice to be able to embrace this next adventure.
it has been fun and good to reflect on God's workings in our family.
how God has made us to compliment one another.
mark is my best friend and strengthens so many of my weaknesses.
then some of his weak areas are my strengths.
and there are certainly troubles, but we are seeing how even differences are used to complete us.
it totally helps to look at difficulties from the positive side, then they are not so frustrating.
our beautiful children are a piece of that completing picture.
and maybe God will bless us with another 1/2 dozen milligans in this next decade!

you've got a friend in me . . .