Lucky Woman

Today is our sixteenth wedding anniversary. We've been married SIXTEEN years. And if you count the four years of dating through high school and a year of college, we've been together TWENTY years. That's kind of a lot of years. He asked me to 'go out' with him in early May of our Sophomore year in a field that doesn't exist anymore. It's covered in houses now. I said yes and that was it I guess. We were pretty much inseparable after that, and we still are.

In August of 1995 we went to a local park where he proposed and then we high tailed it out of there because there were some shady people hanging around. We got married in May, 1996 on the single sunny day that whole month. It was hot and sticky and my wedding dress covered my whole body. He wore a white tux. The bridesmaids and groomsmen were our siblings and friends, as young or younger than we were.  It was a great day and we left the next day for Orlando, FL for our honeymoon. Turns out its hard to rent a car at age 20, so we borrowed his parents, and we were lucky enough to be able to get a hotel room. We sat in the sun too long, swam, enjoyed Disney and had a great time. That's pretty much been our life since then. We make plans, we save up or take steps to make that plan happen, and we achieve what we shoot for. We've been to Aruba, Cancun (free trip that I won through work, woo), and Maui. I'd still like to get to Greece and France as well as Bora Bora. Someday, we will.

We enjoy each other. We believe the same things and we find the same things hilarious. We are, for lack of a better phrase, a match made in heaven. Even though we were matched at what some might consider too young, I believe God sent us to each other. Sixteen years later we have two wonderful daughters and we support each other in everything. We keep each other sane, balance the craziness of parenthood and careers with love and support that we each require to get through our lives together.

He sent me the flowers in the picture today. With a beautiful note that I'm keeping to myself. And I couldn't agree more, there is no one that would be a better husband to me or a better father to our children than him. Happy 16th anniversary and I'm certain there's many many more to come.

May flowers

Did you see that? How I posted every day except 2 in April, like I said I would for NaBloPoMo? And then May 1 comes and BAM, I'm over it. It turns out, it's alot harder to regularly post than anyone thinks. Stuff gets in the way, work gets in the way, kid puke gets in the way. LIFE gets in the way. I missed two days, one because I completely spaced it off, and the second because I was in tiny town IL and unable to get a good enough signal to post anything.

Besides completing NaBloPoMo April 2012, I also survived Puke-a-palooza, threw a wonderful baby shower for my super sister-in-law and broke the R key on this laptop. I have ordered a new keyboard - THANK GOD for I CANNOT TYPE WITHOUT R! The husband also has golfed a ton already this year making his golf pass for the city courses super duper worth it this year.

We'll also be celebrating our 16th wedding anniversary this year. I don't know what 16 is..paper? plastic? I have no idea and I'm too lazy right now to look it up. We're going shopping for bedroom furniture I think. We might even buy some :) Those of you that know me, know that it'll take me a year to choose and decide and pull the trigger to actually buy something. What can I say, I'm frugal, practical and I like not owing anyone anything (besides car/house, I don't count those).

I don't know what else May has in store, but school ends May 31, and preschool ends May 24th and then we're into summer and chores and hopefully tons of swimming.

My five

(A really long time ago) @Chookooloonks tweeted this question: "5 best decisions of my adult life so far: go to law school, move to London, marry @marzjennings, adopt Alex, quit law. What are your 5 best?"

My five:

1. Getting married at 19 to my highschool sweetheart. Everyone always says it was young, but I don't see it that way. We were old enough legally, mature enough (mostly) and we had it planned out. So it worked for us, perhaps it wouldn't have for you, but it worked for us.

2. Having babies after being married for awhile (and stopping after two). Waiting to have kids until we'd been married at least 5 years was great. We were able to do a little traveling, have our own interests and time and do things on the fly, when we wanted, however we wanted. Kids throw a giant wrench into all that, which we knew, so we didn't want to jump into that too soon. I think we waited the perfect amount of time to have kids, and between our two kids (nearly 5 years).

3. Taking my current position which meant being able to work from home, doing work I really enjoy. It was a risk, what if it didn't work out, what if I was awful at working from home, what if my old job wouldn't take me back (they no longer exist)...so many what ifs. I'm glad I went for it, best career decision so far I think.

4. Savings. Saving in a 401k started early for both of us, saving with Edward Jones IRA accounts. Planning what we spend, and buy and do, so we can retire when we're ready and not when we can or have to.

5.  I don't know. I can't think of anything right now...I'm sure I will eventually. Right now though, all I can think of are all the things I'd like to do still, like the things on my life list and the organization things my house needs. some day.

I guess these would be my five SO FAR. I hope I make other great decisions in the future. Although, I think #1 and #2 will stay on whatever future lists I make.

Joy Dare: Day 23

3 gifts found in Christ

1. Eternal Life. John 3:16. Such a gimme for this list, but such an important one. Something I'm hoping my girls will grow to see the importance of.
2. Forgiveness? That feels hypocritical, but I think I've forgiven people, I just can't forget.
3. The perfect mate. It's pretty clear the husband is my perfect match, no matter what we both do to irritate each other. We're in sync 99% of the time and it's peaceful and blissful.

The master bathroom is getting to a point where I'm going to actually have to choose a paint color. Eeek!