5 Things You May Not Know About Ben and Kendra

Ben and I just celebrated our 11th anniversary on September 9th.

Except we didn’t celebrate it.

Life has been a little crazy around here, with the usual busy fall camp schedule, as well as with the new discipleship program that Ben started here at camp this September. With everything going on, we decided that this year, our anniversary will be in October this year. We’ll have much more time for being romantic in October.

In the meantime, in honor of our anniversary that wasn’t, I decided to share some fun facts about us that you may not know. ‘Cause I’m sure you’ve all just been waiting for a post like this, right??

Well. It’s the kind of post I like to read about other people! (Why is that?)

Anyway. Here we go:

1) We have our own special whistle that we use to “call” each other. Like a dog. Or like the children on Sound of Music.

It started when we built our little house in Niverville, a couple of years after we were married. Before that, Ben would usually call me by my full name, Kendra Belle, but he’d do it in this sing-song kind of way. And then it changed from “singing” my name to whistling the syllables of my name. When we built our house, we made an office for Ben in a little room that was in the farthest corner of our otherwise unfinished basement, so whenever he was working in his office, he was really far away from me, even though our house was tiny. So whenever I’d answer the phone, and it would be for him, or it was time for supper, or whatever, I would be hanging over the stair railing, yelling for him at the top of my lungs. And most of the time he still wouldn’t hear me. So I’d yell a few times, and by the time I finally got his attention, I’d feel like I was angry at him or something, because I’d just been yelling so much.

So I started using his little whistle. It worked then, it works now, it works in stores when we can’t find each other, it works when I don’t know where he is outside, it works when he’s in the other room and I really really need him to come help me with something. It’s quite fantastic. We don’t have to yell, and it’s one of those little things that makes me happy every time I hear Ben whistling for me. We’ve even given Anika her own whistle. When Kaylia is old enough to understand the system, we’ll give her one, too. She does already know that Daddy’s coming when she hears me whistle. 🙂

2)”Our” song is “It is You I Have Loved”, the theme song from “Shrek”, for some weird reason.

I don’t really remember how that one started. But we used to whistle it to each other, before we knew that it actually has words. Then we made up words. Then we found out that the song actually had words already. Then we learned how to waltz, using YouTube, and now we waltz around our kitchen to “our” song. Well, we haven’t done that recently, but we will in October!

3) We had the best first date ever.

Ben wanted to be very creative, so instead of planning exactly what we’d be doing on our first date, he got two envelopes ready – one with 10 different restaurant names in it, and one with 10 different activity options. When he came to pick me up, he gave me the envelopes, and I had to pull out a slip of paper to determine where we’d be eating. Fortunately, I pulled out Olive Garden. Ben had actually been extreme enough to put in McDonald’s and The Royal Crown. (He was relieved when I randomly selected Olive Garden. So was I – it was my favorite restaurant, and made a much better first date impression than McDonald’s would have!)

Throughout the evening, I got to keep pulling out activity slips, and we did all kinds of different things – we walked along the river to the Legislative Building, played pool, went up the glass elevator to the Royal Crown (but didn’t eat there!), we went out for coffee, we didn’t want the date to end.

4)People get our names mixed up all the time, and call us “Ken and Bendra”.

Which works out okay for Ben, but I end up being “Bendra”. Eww.

5) Ben and I are 3rd cousins.

This seems to disturb people a lot, but my mom always taught me that after 2nd cousins, it doesn’t count. Maybe because my mom and dad are also 3rd cousins?? 😉

Whatever. Our children are normal, so obviously marrying your 3rd cousin is not all that bad.

Anika was doing some deep thinking the other day and asked me, “Am I my own 4th cousin?” Yup, we can have extended family reunions…with ourselves. Awesome.