Thirteen years ago, at 1030 on a hot, hot Sunday morning, Keith and I tortured our friends and family by making everyone stand out in the sun while we tied the knot.
We met in the fall of 1993, went out on our first date in February 1994, and married June 7, 1998. We had planned to get married a year earlier, but slowed down and decided to wait until I had finished college.
We met in the fall of 1993, went out on our first date in February 1994, and married June 7, 1998. We had planned to get married a year earlier, but slowed down and decided to wait until I had finished college. We had a fantastic wedding at Lake Lilly Park in Maitland. It was beautiful and many, many people gifted us with their talents to help us pull off a memorable day.
Dancing together
In our 13 years of marriage, we've moved 14 times - between me being a Travel Nurse for a few years, and Keith joining the Coast Guard. We've also survived periods of little communication during 8 weeks of bootcamp, nearly 2 years of Keith being stationed on a 2 month out/2 month home ship, 3 different Air Stations with their scheduling/deployment variabilities, and a handful of Coast Guard schools that would take Keith away from us for anywhere from a long weekend to a couple of weeks, 3 months and 5 1/2 months. Not to mention the full year that Keith went "geographical bachelor" living near the Clearwater Airstation, while the kids and I lived here in the Orlando area. Learning to live apart was rough, and then learning to live together again proved to be even rougher! We've lived in some awesome cities - Boston, Atlanta, Chapel Hill (NC), Falmouth (Cape Cod, MA) and Kodiak (Alaska) have been my favorites.
Leaving to go on our honeymoon. We're both so practical, we actually stopped to get the car's oil changed on the way to the island.
We've bought a house, sold a house and bought another house (hopefully this is our last!). We've been through a few cheap-pay-cash-for vehicles, and yet somehow, our trusty green 4Runner that we bought a year after we got married is still hanging in there.
So typical - Keith's checking out my plate to see if I got anything to eat that he might be interested in.
When Daniel was born, Joshua was 3 years 2.5 months old; Megan was 17.5 months old. And here we were with a newborn? What were we thinking! We were living in Alaska and Keith was working the 4pm-midnight (or whenever the work got done into the wee early hours of the morning) shift. And I was working 8am-3pm at a fabulous medical practice. It's funny now to think of how chaotic our life was then - to add into the mix, Daniel absolutely refused to take a bottle for Keith, so the baby would nap most of the day and then stay up all night to nurse. I'm sure I was extremely pleasant to be around during that time!
And now here we are with a nearly 9 year old Joshua, 7 year old Megan and 5.5 year old Daniel. Our kids are gaining their independence, and Keith and I are finding more time to hang out together. It feels as though we've circled right back around to where we started 13 years ago - I'm back working for the same Hospital, although in a much different area. Keith is back in college and for a while was on the same campus he went to straight out of high school. And we live a few streets over from the house that Keith's parents have lived in for many, many years.
It's been an awesome 13 years. I'm excited to see what's still ahead for us. Our wedding ceremony ended with this blessing...
May the road rise up to meet you. |
1 comment:
awww....congrats to you guys! You are such a great family, TRULY! You impress and inspire--here's to many, many more wonderful years!
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