8 Years Later...

8 years ago these two folks got married. They were young. Wrinkle free. A lot little lighter. Had a little more gray-free hair. It is crazy that it's been 8 years for us. It seems so much longer, but it seems like yesterday.

In 8 years we have lived in three houses (five if you count the two places we landed for a few weeks in transition). We've had two children. We've had five job titles between us. We've cried a little and laughed a lot. We've been on countless road trips and put miles and miles on our tires burning up roads for short little adventures. We've had a fun time.

People talk a lot about how much WORK marriage is. I'll admit that there have been short moments in our marriage that have taken more work than others, but overall it just seems really easy to me. (Parenting is a WHOLE different ballgame. THAT is work.) We just really get each other. We rarely ever fight and when we do we're so surprised about it that we fix it fairly quickly and easily. We just work really well together. (My family is rolling their eyes and saying it's only because Eddie puts up with my bossiness and does what I tell him to.)

The neat thing about our anniversary is that for the past 13 years, I can tell you where we were on July 19th on a LOT of the years. It's been a pretty big day for us a number of times. Thirteen years ago in 2003 we were both at a wedding. He asked me to go with him and I turned him down and went with one of my best friends. He's never let me forget it. Eddie's granddaddy died on July 19, 2005. We married in 2008. In 2009 I was big pregnant with James. In the three years that followed I was either pregnant with or nursing a baby so we didn't get far. In 2013 we went to the beach by ourselves for our first adults-only trip since Will had been born. In 2014 we started looking for houses and found our current house that day. It was the third one we looked at and I didn't want to look at anymore. Last year we celebrated at the lake.

This year is a little different. It's the middle of the week. Our kids are home with us. We had greasy (not great) Mexican food for supper. I'm wearing a t-shirt, flip-flops, and my hair's in a ponytail. But it's still good. Even on the boring days.

For our 8th anniversary, we're giving ourselves a new patio. Our current patio is 10x12 and is just not enough room to do anything so we're upgrading to something like 30x14. A little more room to spread out. We're pretty pumped about our gift and ready to see the end result. Eddie had to move a tree and dig up a few things to start it all off. Thankfully, our irrigation people finished moving sprinklers today because THAT has been an exciting almost-two-week process. It is a MESS in our backyard. Next up is to pressure wash the existing patio and then pour more square footage. We're hoping all will be ready for football season. Eddie has visions of watching games sitting outside.

Our little life isn't the most glamorous or exciting, but I wouldn't trade it for anything. Happy 8 years to the man who is the perfect match for me!