Happy 9th Anniversary

Nine Years ago today, I dragged DB's sorry butt to the courthouse ....  I was 18 weeks pregnant and it was definitely not the wedding we were planning.  It was the quick - we're going to get us legal because we have a baby on the way with medical issues, and we'll have our *real* wedding later.  But that hasn't happened.  I wish I could say *next year* for our 10th ... but I don't think that will happen either.  :(

Regardless ...... 9 years is something!!  Especially since he didn't even last a year with his first two marriages.  He vowed he'd never get married again.  Then he saw my picture and says he just knew he was going to marry me.  He has told me that since the get go.  He was going to marry me.

Usually I do this sappy love note thing on Social Media and tag him in it ....  but last night, I decided to do a little something else.   This is what I posted......

HA HA HA HA HA ..... and looking down on the comments - you can see his reaction....

We didn't do much - I haven't been feeling well, he's not feeling very well either...  We laid in bed, watched the Seahawks game and the Packers game, we watched the first few episodes of Jessica Jones.  Played WOW.  We had some fake champagne in coffee mugs.  Had ham & stuffing for dinner.  We just spent time together.  I got to explain to Kaed what an "anniversary" was.  Told him it was the "birthday" of our marriage.  He understood that.  He's been with us most the day, he's been Croupy.  

There was a little bit of annihilation going on .... for both teams .....

Happy 6 Years to Us!

It's that time of the year ... again ... where I gush and go on about how wonderful and amazing my husband is.......  and make everyone sick with how perfect our relationship is.   (big grin) ...

It started with an internet dating site ....  me swearing off relationships to focus on school and my kids....  a black and white photo I took of myself ...... and a wink from some strange guy down in North Carolina ...

Yeah ...  he sent me a wink ... and I got it and thought ... huh ...  checked out his profile, and thought = we have some similar interests ... he lives in North Carolina (I was in WI at the time) ...  then figured ...  it's always nice to have friends since the distance will definitely make it impossible for any sort of relationship.

So I responded to him .....  said "I see we have some of the same interests, nice to "meet" you."

We ended up chatting for hours and hours on the computer, and the first day we were talking, he asked me for my phone number....  and I was nervous and didn't like giving out my phone number.  He was very persistent, so I ended up doing it.   So we talked on the phone, over the computer, we web cam'd and we got to know each other a lot.  With in a few days - we both seemed to "know" ...

And that damn slow button exploded ....

Shortly after, when my boys (Cal & Noah) had come to WA to stay with my mom for a couple weeks, I went to North Carolina to meet this clown ....  leaving explicit instructions of his address, phone number, friends name down there and info that I was going to stay with if things went south ...  and if I didn't respond, he obviously axe murderlated me ...

And when he came to pick me up, I was trying to gather my luggage, and he walked right up to me, putting his arms around me... tipping me back and planting a kiss on me that is only a reality in romantic movies.....  no really, he did....  it was....... a.m.a.z.i.n.g......

After spending time with him (without cyberspace between us) ...  we realized things really were pretty serious between us.   We ended up moving him up to WI and I went to WA to get my boys ...  while I was with them, I was preparing them for meeting him.

Things went really good ....  so good that Calahan was stand-off-ish and Noah kept telling him to "go back to the mountain."  LOL ...  No, really ...  it was completely normal and acceptable.  We all had to adjust.  We were planning our Fall wedding for October 13, 2007 ....  I was so excited...  I loved everything I was coming up with ........ and then....  I got this result of a test that changed everything.

In November, Dennis left for work and called me....  2 minutes after he left for work...  and he said ...  "I've been thinking... maybe we should get married next month" ....

Wow............. how........... romantic.   (He will never, ever live it down - I specifically told him that I wanted an amazing romantic proposal, and I'm STILL waiting for it........ )

So ...  we planned a small courthouse wedding.  I was 18 weeks pregnant.... with Nathan... at the time.   Dennis and the boys wore suits and I got a pretty dress...  We had several friends show up to watch us get hitched at the courthouse...  some not so good photos taken - but ...  they are all we got.   And then we had a small reception over that weekend.

We always planned on having a bigger wedding at some point, cuz it's something we both really wanted.

Regardless, we went on to have another bundle of blue....  and completed our family.   My boys, Cal and Noah from my first marriage.  His daughter from a previous relationship.  Then our boys together.  We are a successfully blended family ... 

Six years later and I love him more than I did when I married him.  Our relationship hasn't been easy.  We both have our faults and our demons from the past, but we communicate, we talk a lot, laughter is a HUGE part of our relationship, we love each other to the ends of time...  and most of all - we accept each other for who we are, and we lift each other up and don't drag each other down.

He is an amazing guy who took on my two kids and all their medical issues, me with my medical issues ... he picked up and moved half way across the country ... and he became my best friend.  When we first started to get to know each other - I kept saying he's the male version of me.   Course we have our differences in personality, taste, interests, but there is a lot of common things too.

I love him so much, he knows me better than anyone...  and I'm so thankful to have him beside me every day. 

We didn't do much for our anniversary tonight.   We had some fake champagne (neither of us drink) ... we had a nice meal, cake, and we are going to watch a movie :)

 Happy Anniversary Honey!!!

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY .......

It feels as if we've known each other forever ....... that we've always had each other in our lives......... and yet, it feels like such a short time.

It's our 5th Anniversary ......  wow :)

FIVE WHOLE YEARS ........

It all started with a chance wink on a free dating website.  My thinking - this guy is in North Carolina and I'm in Wisconsin .... we could be friends.  He says he knew as soon as he saw this picture, that I was the one.

I don't know how he knew that ...  but he knew.

I had been talking to some other guys ... some who seriously proposed ... or talked about marriage, and all that did was make me back off.  But when Dennis did it - it felt different. It didn't make me want to run the other way screaming .... cuz I got a weird feeling.  But I was totally drawn in.

He had moved up to Wisconsin, we were engaged ... I stared planning a fall wedding.  October 13, 2007...  I knew I wanted ....

I loved the autumn colors...  roses, and I wanted Calla Lilies ..... Flame ones.... A bouquet that looked like this with the fall leaves and those flowers (plus the Calla Lilies)

 I wanted pumpkins and a BEAUTIFUL dress ... I saw this one ... and loved it....

 And I ended up trying it on ...  with my Mom...

Cal and Noah were now involved, we were blending into a great little family ........ this happened....

Yep...... so the wedding we were planning for October 2007 ended up being bumped up to December 2006.  Mainly, because we realized by November that things were NOT going the way they should for a healthy pregnancy, we were likely headed to the NICU... we were going to get married anyway - we just weren't going to get the wedding we both wanted :(

So we ended up having a little wedding .... got married at the court house...   so I got a cute maternity wedding dress .... (here I am trying it on)

And then came the big day ...

 My flowers ...... hydrangeas ... with some crystals... (they were suppose to be larger crystals)

 The guys buds....

 Quick family photo before I put my dress on.

 Dress is on!

 Bad luck to see the bride before the wedding .... oh well, we had to drive in the same car.

My 18 week belly ... with a Mr. Nathan inside....

The only photo during the wedding that turned out even remotely well....  :/

We had a little reception that weekend ... made home-made lasanga and had all sorts of goodies :)

 Our Cake ...

Family pic :)

 Dennis was married twice before me, this was his ONLY Wedding cake....

 I'm telling him that if he even THINKS about squishing that in my face, I was going to .... well.... I won't repeat what I said.

 Awwwwwwwwww :)

And 5 years later ...we've got a family of seven (counting the missing Princess of course) ... and all we did was hang out in bed, because that's about all we could do.  We had some pie, some fake champagne ...  and we watched tv and cuddled.  With him housebound, can't really go anywhere.  Had to take some pictures though...

 And then.......... someone came in and was cramping our style!!   (One of my BFF's said "See, a few years ago that's how things started too which resulted in that little hobbit that was trying to cramp your style! ;)"  LOLOL ... I told her to shush, it was immaculate ....  that one, however, was a surprise shortly after our first anniversary .. ha ha ha ha..

Who is this child and who does he belong to??? It's obviously NOT us.  LOL

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY BABY ...... I love you :)