again and again

on february 6th, 2001, he finally asked me out. we had our first kiss (awkwardly) in front of his entire soccer team... yes, IN FRONT of... and that night, he asked me out over the phone. I think his exact words were 'I hate to ask this over the phone but I'm afraid someone else will ask you before I do...'. it was about 10pm at night and I was already laying in bed so I doubted anyone would get to me first ;) but it was so sweet regardless. I said yes, of course!

on december 2nd, 2005, he finally asked me to marry him. I had just gotten back from a family vacation to australia and new zealand for 2 weeks and had taken an extra day off work to adjust to the time change be lazy and he took off work also to spend the day with me. it was just after thanksgiving and alittle over a week until my birthday. I jokingly asked him what he was going to get me. he asked if I really wanted to know and I said 'well, sure!'. he then told me to open his wallet and pull out that yellow piece of paper... I open it... my heart starts beating out of my chest and my palms got sweaty... it was a receipt from kay jewelers. holy moly! he proceeded to explain that he was sorry to spoil the surprise but he was too excited to keep it a secret from me. the ring was getting sized so he didn't have it yet... but he was so excited :) I could see it in his eyes and the way he looked at me. he was finally ready to marry me... my gosh it felt like I'd waited f-o-r-e-v-e-r!! a few days later, he got the ring, got down on one knee as I sat playing on the computer, and proposed in his own special way that was most perfect. I said yes, of course!

on february 3rd, 2006, we said I DO. each year, we went on a ski trip with some family and friends. we had this years ski trip planned and soon after we got engaged, a friend that was going skiing with us jokingly mentioned that we should get married on the ski hill. we shrugged off the idea at first but the more we thought about it, we knew it was the perfect idea. we arrived in durango, colorado on a tuesday and went straight to the courthouse to get our marriage license. that friday, on the last 'run' of the trip, my dad skied me down the aisle, then married us in front of 20 of our closest friends (although missing some loved ones that couldn't make the snowy trip) and family. we had God's beautiful handiwork - the snow-covered Rockies - as our backdrop. It couldn't have been more perfect.

on february 3rd, 2012, we celebrated 6 years together as husband and wife.

on february 6th, 2012, we celebrated 11 years together as a couple.

after all these years, I love who I have become because of him. he makes me laugh every single day. from the goofy songs he randomly makes up for me to his hugs and kisses, he makes me feel like I'm the only woman in the world. I love the way that he loves me and I love that he reminds me daily of those feelings. we have our ups and downs, but I can't imagine making it thru all of it with anyone else. neither one of us are perfect but we are perfect for each other.

after reading, and my heart aching, for this family ... and after just celebrating anniversaries with the love of my life, I felt the need to write. the blogging world is a crazy thing... from real-life stories of joyful, miraculous, and long-awaited arrivals of a new baby to cooking and recipes to day-to-day living of friends and family to the heartbreaking, traumatic, and tragic stories of lives taken from this world. not much happens in my life to fill pages and pages of my blog but reading the words of the wife/mother in the blog above reminds me that I need to be thankful for all the things in my life... today, I wanted to write all of this down so that I can come back to this someday and remember exactly how I felt on this day when thinking about the man in my life. I will continue to thank God again and again every single day for blessing me with this man.