The Beginnings of Hubby & I

It's Dennis' and my 3rd Anniversary today (12-13).  Sure, doesn't seem that long, but it's been wonderful.  I was married for 10 years to my ex when we split up .. It started out with a wink over an online free dating site ...  from him to me... 

Then a couple of emails back and forth...phone calls, webcamming ...   he lived in North Carolina, me in Wisconsin ... the only thing that could really develop was a friendship.  We both love photography, some of the same music, we believed in a lot of the same things, looked for the same qualities...  we talked about our kids (Cal was 10 and Noah was 4, and his daughter Jessa was 1 1/2) ...  very quickly we realized things had leap off the page from friendship, to something more.  My Mom had planned on taking my boys for the summer, then have me come out there for 2 weeks in August before school started.  So she came for my cousin's wedding... then left with my boys. She left with the boys and I came home and started packing to go to North Carolina. 

One of my bestest friends lived down there too, and so I figured - if things went south with Dennis, I could always go stay with her.  I felt crazy - going down there on a whim.  What if he was an axe murder... I mean, I didn't think he was but who thinks that serial killers are murderers?  No, their neighbors always say "he was the nicest guy" ... so several people had his address, phone number, name ... and I started off on my adventure to North Carolina. 

Dennis via the webcam before I left

 

When I got there, and he saw me, I suddenly felt arms around as he eased me back, pressing his lips hard against mine.  I literally was in his arms, leaned back, with one foot on the ground.  It was truly a kiss you see in movies.  How was THAT for a first kiss!?   Not to mention a great ice breaker!  LOL ...  we went out to this cute little German Restaurant with his parents and then back to his place.   For the 2 weeks I was there, we barely left his bedroom (ha ha ha) ...  but we went out to eat a few times with his family, managed to escape to go see The Lake House at the theater.  Even went sight seeing twice, once on my birthday (a few days after I got down there) and when my BFF came to visit with my nieces for the 4th of July! 

 On my birthday in North Carolina

North Carolina on my Birthday

Sight Seeing with Jen and the Girls

North Carolina is GEORGUS and I loved it there.  

 

I took these amazing photos from Dennis' drive way

So when it came time for me to leave, Dennis decided to move to WI with me.  The kids were still gone, we had time to hopefully find him a job, etc, before they came back.  We had time to ourselves before we became the instant family.  We were talking getting married, trying for kids sometime down the road...  all that stuff...  I went out to Washington to get the kids, and while I was there, I explained to them what was going on.  We webcammed with Dennis from home from my Mom's computer.  Calahan was very apprehensive but Noah was excited.  We got home we caught our footing.  Life was pretty good...   and then, all of a sudden ... when we weren't even trying ...   (Apparently the rabbit style "bow-chicka-wah-wah" that happened after my returning from WA did something because I got home Aug. 15 and got this next pic on Aug. 31!)

Oooooooooh boy!!  We had been planning on getting married on October 13, 2007 but with my history and knowing I'd probably be classified as a high risk pregnancy, ect, we thought it would be best to get married before the baby was born.  We went back and forth on it - a lot - and I told him it was up to him.   One day in November he called me, literally 2 minutes after he left the house for work, and said "So I was thinking.  We should get married..." ... was he asking me to marry him over the phone??? "I was thinking next month" ... yeah he's asking me to MARRY him over the phone.  After lengthy conversations about how I wanted a REAL proposal because I never got one from my first husband and I really wanted one done right.  So to this day, I still tell him I'm waiting for my REAL proposal.  

We decided to get married on December 13, 2006.   My lucky number is 13 and I thought it would be a great date for us.  It was a Wednesday, and although it was a quick, cheap wedding .. done at the court house, it was more of a wedding then Dennis ever had his previous 2 Weddings.  (LOL) ...  He had told me until he met me, he NEVER wanted to get married again.  (Even though he asked his daughters mom to marry him, apparently he had never planned to go through with it, from what he tells me.)   So we started the day out with some good friends helping us get ready and my friend Julie took this lovely family picture before I got dressed.

This was actually a previous day where I had been "trying on" my dress while Dennis was at work and my friends wanted a picture

The Blushing Bride!

My Flowers

 

I was 18 weeks pregnant with Nathan

Then we had our reception that weekend at our house ...

 

We had friends and family stopping by and it was a lot of fun that night.   After that - life went on, Christmas...  Calahan's 11th birthday, Noah turned 5 ... and then the birth of our first baby together came...  Noah was in the hospital close to kidney failure ... if we hadn't gotten a DR to listen to us, when we did ... Noah would have died.  As it was, he ended up in the hospital just a few days before Nathan was born.   So I went from Noah's hospital room....

To have the tiny 3lb 4oz Nathan.  (Not as small as Noah who came 1lb 12oz, but still, tiny)

 

 

This picture was actually hanging on the wall by Nathan's isolette and one day it was missing, the director of the NICU saw it and wanted to know if they could use it for the new brochure they were putting out.  I said sure!

 Nathan came home and life was hectic for awhile.  With all Nathan's issues - trying to adapt to tube feedings and life of having a baby on an NG Tube period.  But soon we managed to get him off the tube feedings and he was growing. 

 Pretty soon, when Nathan was about 9 months old.... we found out that for our first Anniversary ....  we got..... 

Ooooooh my oh my....... 

 LOL - that picture cracks me up because he wasn't much bigger then that piece of paper and he was announcing his soon to be Big Brother-ness...  

The pregnancy went well for once, other then having Gestational Diabetes and Nathan taking so much of my energy...  the baby was BIG and Healthy... 

On September 9th 2008 .... along came.....Kaedyn

 Through some ups and downs and a lot of laughter ... a lot of love...  Dennis and I are celebrating our 3rd Anniversary today!   I made some cookies he's been wanting me to make, and we're having homemade Carnitas that Dennis is working on.  And tonight we're going to have our Welch's Fake Champagne and cuddle on the couch watching some movies.  

Dennis met me, took on me and two kids he didn't have to.  Especially one with medical needs.  Then giving me 2 more beautiful boys, another of which ended up with medical needs.  The only thing missing from our family is his daughter.  But for now, we just try to fill our lives with love and laughter, and make sure our family is as happy as can be.   He amazes me and I love him more every day for little reasons. 

We ended up watching Alice (Syfy) and Julie & Julia ... Our oven broke and dinner was excellent despite that fact.   It's 1am and I'm finally going to post this even though I wrote all but this paragraph through the day! LOL...  so now I'm going to go to bed, cuddle with my dead to the world NyQuil influenced husband who probably won't even know I've come to bed.  All the kids are asleep (with the exception of Calahan who I think never sleeps) ...  Nathan of course had to be on Mommy for most the night, so it was Daddy, Mommy & Nathan most the night, then when Nate finally fell asleep...  Cal decided to come up and intrude on our "date night" .. lol... Oh well huh?

Anyway - Goodnight all my Blogging readers!  I hope your Monday will be better then mine!