10 Year Anniversary!

I am not even really sure where to start this post so I thought I would just start from the beginning…the beginning of my life as I know it today. Thirteen years ago sitting in speech class, I met the boy I would marry and spend the rest of my life with. Scott and I were both 18, living at home, working part-time and starting our first semester at TCC. Scott had a girlfriend in our class when school started. I knew this because she made sure to announce it when everyone was asked to stand up and say a little something about themselves. I really never thought much about Scott after that day because he always sat with her at the front of the class and I pretty much sat at the back (sneaking in late half the time). I had aerobics right before that class and always had to get dressed and get all the way across campus so I was never on time. About mid-way through the semester we were asked to break into small groups for a project and my group needed one more person. Scott volunteered from across the room and came to join us. One of the girls in our group thought Scott was cute and asked him if he wanted to go to lunch with us. Scott drove all of us in his Jeep up to Don Pablos. I remember thinking he was my type of guy when he turned on the Jeep and Weezer “Only in Dreams” was playing at full blast. It’s one of my favorite songs of all time and not something that was played on the radio so you would have to be a Weezer fan to love it. I sat in the back seat and we kept making eye contact through the review mirror. When we got back to campus he dropped off the other girl at her car first and then took me over to where my Mustang was parked. He asked me for my number and the rest is history. We went on our first date on Columbus Day in 1997, I told him I loved him for the very first time on Thanksgiving a short 6 weeks later. We were inseparable for those first few years. We got Daisy in May of ’98 and had so much fun being “dog parents”. We went to Cozumel the following summer and decided then that we wanted to move out and live together. We started saving for an apartment and all the furniture to go in it. In February of ‘99 we put a deposit down for a one bedroom apartment that would be ready in mid-March. It was a brand new apartment complex off of 20 and Collins. We thought it was SO nice. We went to the model apartment a million different times to measure rooms and check wall space and we shopped and purchased everything you can think of. I just boxed the stuff up as we bought it and labeled it by room. We had lists by room of what we would need. We were building our home – our life together. When moving day came, we rented a U-Haul and loaded everything up from my house and from his house and had everything unloaded and unpacked by 9pm that night. Our parents came over that evening thinking they would help hang pictures, set up the bed, or unpack the kitchen but no need because we had already done it all! I remember Joni laughing when she opened one of the kitchen drawers and I had chip clips. She said “You guys DID think of everything!”. We opened a joint checking account and never looked back. The next summer Scott proposed and the wedding date was set for September 3, 2000. 2000 was a busy year for us – we built our first house, moved in it in April, had showers, bachelor parties and prepared for our fun wedding in Vegas! I am so glad that we had a wedding in Vegas. It was the best! No stress, no worries – just tons of fun with family and a beautiful little ceremony. We loved our life in that little house, hosting parties and showers for friends and just enjoying each other and our sweet Daisy. Life was busy but it was good. In 2003 my dad passed away and we had spent most of the year trying to get pregnant – it was a rough year for us as we just seemed to be dealt a lot of hard things. We had Nolan in 2004, moved into our current home in 2005 and it was the start of a new chapter in our marriage – parenthood. I think we actually made the transition pretty smoothly it wasn’t until Hudson came along that things got a little hairy. I WAY under-estimated two kids. I am a fairly good multi-tasker and I came from a family of three girls so I thought I would just have it all down, no problems. Wrong, all the things you think you know about parenthood go out the window when there are suddenly two of them and two of you. (I can’t imagine three!) Nolan had been a pretty easy baby and Hudson was not – he was loud, he didn’t want to sleep at first, he was always hungry never seemed satisfied and we had this three year old throwing fits and wanting things too all the time. I think the upgrade from 1 to 2 kids was even harder on Scott. He had come from a only child family – no real concept of what it would take to satisfy the needs of two children. Those first two years with both boys were really hard for us. We kinda lost ourselves in parenthood for a little while and didn’t even really know it. At the beginning of this year we had a serious talk about our marriage and where we were heading in life. We were so busy working, taking care of kids and being “good” friends to everyone we had lost the best part of our relationship – our love and companionship with each other! It’s a scary thing because we didn’t even realize that it was happening. It's like I woke up in January and just realized how distant we seemed and yet we were together everyday. How could that happen? How could we be sharing all of the daily responsibilities – spending nearly every minute outside of work together and yet really not be connected? It was a weird feeling, it was a bad feeling. It was one of those thoughts I will remember for the rest of my life. I felt like I knew Scott better than anyone but really I didn’t know him at all anymore. So many of those nights that I had thought we had spent “together” were anything but together. I was in one living room on the computer blogging, he was in the other watching tv – there was a lot of communication between us about the boys, our family, our friends or just things in general but no real talking. I guess by the time we got to actually talk about ourselves, our needs our wants – there was nothing left to give. We really have had to work hard to get "us" back this year. I think that this situation is probably pretty common. Especially with today's pace of life. Looking back on this past year, I am SO glad that we went through it. It made me realize that I have to protect my marriage, and put it first BEFORE kids, work and all other responsibilities. We just weren't doing that anymore and have both really learned what happens when you take your spouse for granted. We started going to The Church on Rush Creek in January and immediately loved it. It's the perfect place for us and our family. We both feel at home there and I am so glad that Amy invited us all those months ago! It was a big missing link in our marriage - we both came from similar religious backgrounds and both had a relationship with Jesus. We just let life get in the way and put our spiritual growth on the back burner. We officially joined our church in August and we were both baptized in front of our family and friends last weekend. We recently joined a couples bible study about marriage which has been AWESOME. I feel like the things we are learning from it are so helpful and adding such great insight into our relationship. I seriously wish that all of our married friends could take it! We still have about ten more weeks of the study and I just can't imagine what else we will learn! It feels so good to be back on the same page and to feel so in sync with Scott again. He is my perfect match and my soul mate. I heard a saying the other day that seems so true - "the days are long but the years are short". When I think back on the past ten years (or well, thirteen years) it this giant blur of amazing events. I have been overly blessed with my wonderful husband, healthy and happy children, friends and family! I am the luckiest girl in the world.

These are photo-booth pictures that we took on our third date. CRAZY!!