Nine Years of Wedded Bliss

Today is our ninth wedding anniversary!

Wowza! Where does the time go???

While nine years of wedded bliss is something to celebrate...there's no one here to celebrate it with me. Well, except for four kids. Three of which have snotty noses and gunky coughs and one of those which has yet another ear infection. Super.

While I nurse all the sickos back to health with some homemade chicken noodle soup (so what if it's over 100 degrees outside?!) and a few uninterrupted hours of Netflix, husband Joe is once again off on another business trip.

Sigh. So typical.

Even though he may be absent, I'm so grateful for the hardworking man he is and the dedication he gives to providing for our little family. I love the good, good person he is through and through. He is gentle and kind and sensible. He is calm and down to earth and has managed to balance my wild, erratic side out a bit over the our marriage. He has a sense of humor that sneaks up and attacks you when you're least expecting it and he's managed to keep me laughing for the last nine years.

I love you Joe! Thank you for marrying me and staying married to me through the thick and the thin.

And to celebrate, albeit solo, why not take a walk down memory lane? Here are nine memories and nine pictures from our wedding day back on July 11th, 2003.

1. I didn't sleep very well the night before our wedding. I woke--wide awake--at 3 am and couldn't fall back asleep. I decided to go ahead and start the beautification process for the early wedding ceremony. When I swung my feet over the side of my bed I heard a loud squish. Or was it more of a subdued splash? Either way, it was quickly apparent that my parents' basement had flooded during the night. Side note: the reception was held in my parents' backyard that evening.

2. Joe cried, nay, bawled through the entire temple sealing ceremony. I was really hoping he did so because he was overwhelmed with my beauty...And not because he realized there was no going back now.

3. For LDS couples that marry in the temple, it's rather a big moment when they exit the temple doors as a newly sealed couple. The family and friends gather around the doors and wait for this joyous moment. I didn't realize this and kind of made a hasty exit from the temple...sans new husband. I was quickly corrected and rerouted, reentered the building, grabbed the hand of my newly attained eternal partner, and then made a more graceful exit...this time with husband in tow. 

4. My dad owned a small limo business at the time and insisted on driving the newly married couple home from the temple. All 104 miles. With the privacy partition rolled completely down the entire way. Thanks Dad. Thanks a lot.

5. On the way home from the temple we stopped at a Sprint store so I could pay my overdue cell phone bill.

6. Our reception started at 6 pm. About 5:56 pm I realized I was so exhausted that I really didn't want to stand and smile anymore. But the show must go on, eh?

7. In an exuberant (translation: stupid) moment I jumped up into my groom's arms with a passionate (translation: awkward) embrace...and ripped the zipper out of the entire length of the back of my wedding dress. I spent that last hour of our reception held together with nothing more than two dozen safety pins and a prayer.

8. My dear sweet husband was so proper he wouldn't even kiss me "enthusiastically" until after the reception.

9. Confession: For all my teasing about his propriety...I was kind of--okay, really--nervous to get in the car and drive away from my family and friends and childhood home with nothing but my new husband and ZERO physical boundaries.

So, as I reminisce about our wedding day I'm realizing there was an abundance of clumsy, awkward, and calamity. And what a beautiful, awkward, magical, exhausting, calamitous, cherished day it was!

How to Break a Daddy's Heart

I asked permission first. It was bregudgingly given by a daddy who loves long hair on his little ladies. Off to the salon we went. 10 minutes later, Elle walked out looking so much fresher and fuller. The missing chunk in the back mischeiviously taken by three year old hands and stolen scissors no longer conspiciously contrasted with the rest of her longer length. It is darling and so perfect for summer!

11 minutes later this one started whining that she "wasn't pretty anymore".

All day I lovingly strived to convince her that she was absolutely beautiful, whether she had hair like Rapunzel or Daddy Warbucks. No dice. That night we asked for Daddy's permission again. I was secretly hoping he would say "no" like he had every other time she had asked to lose her locks. He didn't. The next day, with paternal permission in tow we stopped at the same salon on our way out of town for the Memorial holiday.

I expected her dad to be the one weeping over the loss, but it was me that choked back a few tears as my "little" girl got her first big girl haircut. One would think I would be sobbing with joy after all the struggles we have had in front of the bathroom mirror each morning before church and school. But this was just one more piece of evidence that my babies are growing up too fast.

She loves it. "Pretty" has once again been restored to her universe.

It's growing on me. It really is a lot of fun to style. And so easy and quick to wash and do!

Daddy was shocked but gracious as he asked her if she liked it first. Once confirmed that she did, he concurred. Ever the gentle father.

The consolation prize...Thanks to Locks of Love, somewhere out there in the world, someone will be wearing Jeigh's hair in a wig. The hair lives on.

toothless

Dee lost his first tooth!






He was eating his ritual post-lunch green apple. All of the sudden he jumped up exclaiming "Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh!" He was too shocked to tell me what was wrong.

I couldn't figure out what was going on until I saw the bloody gap in his gaping mouth.

"Dee! You lost your tooth! So where is it? Uh oh. You really did LOSE your tooth!"

As we searched for a while I began to fear that he had swallowed his first lost tooth. Eventually we found it lodged in his apple.

It was almost as exciting as when he peed in the potty for the first time.

Or started walking.

Or smiled for the first time.

It makes me laugh to think how anxiously we waited for that little tooth to make its debut six years ago.

Now we celebrate as it falls out.

What a strange melancholy cycle parenthood is.