Dear Us, 10 Years Ago

Joe and I celebrate our tenth anniversary today. We were both established in our jobs but still pretty clueless about a lot of things in life. I often think about those two crazy kids, in love and determined to make the best life for themselves. Sometimes, I wish I could go back and tell them a few things, but then again, its much more fun to figure them out on your own.

Dear us, ten years ago,

Today you will say I do. You will probably never feel more beautiful then you do today. Cherish the moments with your family. Dance on that table at the reception! You wont remember much of the day....its just too exciting. I remember when you said you didn't want a videographer because you wanted to remember it a certain way in your head and who watches those silly wedding videos anyway? Get someone to videotape! Look around at all the people who are there to love and support you. Some of them won't be around 10 years from now...whether due to death or friendships lost or a falling out between family members. Enjoy every minute!

All those people standing beside you? You'll grow closer to some of them. The opposite will have with a few too. That's ok. Everyones on their own journey living their own life and you will see that the most important people will still be in your lives 10 years from now.

You are going to have so much fun making a home together and trying to figure out all the stuff: how to decorate the christmas tree, having opposite work schedules, who is in charge of the bills, who does that yard work. This is part of creating a family unit. It will be hard some days. Just because it is "how we did it at my house" doesn't mean that is how it needs to be now. Compromise and make your own traditions. Remember when you were asking your mom about how to obtain accessories for the house? Ha! She told you would collect them over time and boy was she right. Be happy that you both have the same taste when it comes to home decor.

Embrace the simple days. Life gets crazier down the road. Death, friends getting divorced, job changes...its all going to happen. Prepare! One day you will be so busy with life and babies and you will long for the days when the biggest decision you had to make was Pottery Barn or Restoration Hardware.

Enjoy your first house together. It will be the place where you have parties, create memories and bring your sweet baby home from the hospital too.

Enjoy moving to a bigger house. I know you are sad to be leaving your first home, but think of all the memories you will make in the new house.

Travel, travel, travel.....as much as you can. Go on adventures and don't think twice about spending money when it comes to this. It's so very important!!

There will be days where you are angry and hurt at each other. You’ll make a promise together to never go to bed angry, and you’ll keep that promise even on nights when you’d rather face the wall silently crying. Make sure to keep the lines of communication open. You’ll learn that you’re much stronger together, on the same page. You both have strong wills, let them work for you, or you’ll let them work against you.

 You'll teach each other many things over the years. You will grow up together, you will have babies and become parents together, you will love each other fiercely. Make sure you don't forget to put each other first. Make God the center of your marriage. 

It won’t always be perfect, but I can say with confidence, you’ll love to learn from and embrace those times.

You’ll write this letter to yourself, with a smile on your face as you think about those past ten years and look forward to the next ten years.

Be careful with each other. Let go of things quickly. Apologize when you mess things up. Support and encourage each other. Above all, love each other well.

Love,

us, ten years later

P.S- Take a look, it’s a beautiful life…

Why We Work (Our 8th Anniversary)

Joe and I celebrate our 8th anniversary this week. I have been thinking back over the years and wanted to tell you why I think we work. I know all relationships are different but ever since we got married, we have been pretty happy most of the time.

Has it all been butterflies and puppies? No. Do we fight often? No. Do we hurt each others feelings? Of course...we are human. Here are some things that have helped us have a healthy and well-balanced marriage.

1. I admire him. He is the most charming, out going, hard worker I know. When he decides he wants something...he goes out at gets it. He works his regular job, flies for a few cooperate companies, builds things for me (and others) and is in the process of starting his own airline. I think being each others biggest cheerleader is very important.

2. We enjoy doing some of the same things. We both love watching a bunch of the same shows, eating at the same restaurants over and over again (las delicias!), traveling, sily youtube videos, having parties, etc. It's fun to do things together, but we also have our own interests. Joe golfs, I craft. Joe plays disc golf, I bake. We realize that its fun to do stuff together (and important), but we don't need to spend every waking moment with each other. That brings me to #3. 

3. We have time away from each other. Due to Joe's job, he is often away. While I do get lonely and miss him at times, I think we both enjoy our "alone" time. We can take up the whole bed, watch what we want on TV, etc. Absence makes the heart grow finder, right? It does for us. 

4. We fight fair. And infrequently...and its usually about silly stuff.

5. We are smart in different ways and on different subjects. Joe is very book smart, knows to how fix and build just about everything. He can talk about planes until he is blue in the face. I am really good with money, couponing, planning our trips, etc. We balance each other out.

6. We want the same things in life.....kids, a pretty house, stuff from Pottery Barn, to travel, retire early and sail around the caribbean on a boat in our bathing suits....you know the usual stuff. I knew that Joe would be a great dad from the moment I first met him.

7. We both love to travel and it's one of the things that is most important things in our lives. 

8. We support each other no matter what. We have been through a lot in 8 years...job changes, moving houses, having a baby, my mom dying, etc. We have stuck by each other and had each other's backs through everything.

9. We laugh just about everyday.

10. We try to never go to bed angry. If Joe is home, we always kiss each other before bed...we also have a little thing that we have said to each other every night for the past 8 years. Its a very special thing between us.

Happy Anniversary Joe! Life gets more fun everyday! You are the best husband that I could ask for. Thank you for being such a hard worker, a dreamer, and a thinker. I love you so much!!

p.s.

If you want to see details from our wedding go here.

Our Seventh Anniversary!

On June 10, Joe and I celebrated 7 years of marriage. It sounds crazy even as I type it that we have been married for 7 years! You can read about our wedding here. 

In our first several years of marriage, we celebrated by going on a fabulous trip.  

We celebrated with a honeymoon to Greece and we have been celebrating with adventures every year since.

For our first anniversary, we spent a week in Disney World.

For our second anniversary, we drove the California Coast.

For our 3rd anniversary, we went on a week long Eastern Carribbean cruise out of San Juan, PR.

For our 4th anniversary, we were supposed to go to Costa Rica, but ended up in Charleston. Read about that big adventure here.

For our fifth anniversary, we went to an all-inclusive in Mexico.

Last year we had Sally so we kept it low key. This year we decided to do the same....we have a trip coming soon with just the 2 of us though :)

We debated going to fancy restaurant here in Memphis (there's always time for that later ), but in the end we decided to just spend time together doing the things that we love doing....

eating on the patio of our favorite Mexican place, las Delicias

getting ice cream at Ben and Jerry's

and seeing a movie. I had passes to the screening and y'all, this movie was crude and totally inappropriate and we loved it!

What's YOUR Love Story (Link Up)

I am linking up today with From Mrs. to Mama for her "What's Your Love Story" post. It looks like a lot of fun. Feel free to go over and link up with her as well.

1. How long have you and your significant other been together?

We have been married 5.5 years but together for 7.

2. How did you meet? {What's your "love" story?}

Read all about that crazy experience here.

3. If married, how long have you been married? If not, is this the guy you hope to marry? {do tell}

We have been married for 5 1/2 wonderful years :)

4. If you are married, where did you get married at? Big or small wedding?

You can read all about our wedding here. It was the best!!

5. Do you have any nick-names that you call one another? Do share!

Joe used to call me "Monkey-Butt" and I called him "Toof" but now we both call each other "Scrunch". It started out as Munchkin and then changed to Scrunchkin and now it's Scrunch.

6. Name 3 things you love most about your honey.

1. He is a very hard worker.

2. He is nice to animals and doesn't hunt.

3. He is very supportive of everything that I want to do.

7. Tell us how he proposed? Or your ideal proposal?

You can read all about the day we got engaged here.

8. Is he a flowers and teddy bear kind of guy for v-day, or strawberries, champagne, and rose petals?

He is a flowers and chocolate kind of guy....the best! If he was the kind of guy that brought me a teddy bear we wouldn't be together...not my style.

9. Are you a sunset dinner on the beach kind of girl, or pop a movie in and relax on the couch?

I would much rather pop in a movie and order a pizza or Chinese take out....but I also LOVE getting dressed up and being taken out on the town.

10. Tell us one thing you'd like to do with your significant one day. If you could do anything? Go anywhere?

I would love to travel across Europe with Joe for a few months.

11. Tell us what you plan on doing on this Valentine's Day.

Our sweet baby girl is scheduled to come ANY day now...so we will be having a VERY low-key Valentine's Day.....exchanging cards, going to a nice dinner....maybe some chocolate...nothing too crazy.

12. Are you asking for anything this Valentine's day?

Nope...just a healthy baby girl. I hope she does NOT come on Valentine's Day. I really want her to have her own special day and not have to share it with a holiday.

13. Give us one piece of advice of keeping a relationship strong and full of love.

COMMUNICATE!!! I cannot say it enough. You must keep the lines of communication open.

14. Show us a picture of what love means to you.