Happy Anniversary!

Scott,

Today we have been married 8 years! When comparing it to the tomorrows we have left, 8 years doesn't seem like long, but comparing it to the yesterday's past, I feel like 8 years is a lifetime. And it has been a lifetime. I feel like my life really started over when we started dating.

More has happened in the last 8 years of our lives than the previous 22 it seems. And we've been through it all together. We have experienced some incrediably high high's. Getting our first jobs, buying our first few homes, starting our own family traditions, having a baby, and another baby and another baby, financial peaks, amazing friendships, watching loved ones get married and have babies, getting to know each other better, getting to know our parents and siblings on a different level, getting to know ourselves better.

We have also experienced some low low's. Job loss, DEATH, religious differences, the stress of being apart when you're traveling. I know there is more that aren't coming to mind now. Those aren't the things that stick to my memory.

And now 8 years later we are stronger, more in love, better people, because we experienced all of these things together. We were just babies when we got married and we heard the statistics. We knew we wouldn't be a statistic. And we aren't. We could have been. We could still be. But we won't. We won't because we don't want to be. Because we love each other that much. Not because we have kids or because we share a bank account or because of what other people would think. Because we love each other. That much.

I am not ashamed to say that we haven't always had a perfect marriage. Anyone who says they do is lying. I am happy to say that we have a really solid, incrediable, loving, accepting, understanding marriage. All because we have earned it. Because we try. Because we are best friends. Because we are a team. We are two halves to a whole. We need each other and we know that.

I love you, Scott. More than words can ever express....

Scott

I've been MIA. It's a long story. I'll get to that another day.

In honor of my anniversary and Valentine's Day, I am dedicating this week of blog posts to Scott.

After 8 years of marriage and 2 years of dating, I am still realizing things about Scott that I love every day. Today while I was laying on the couch in the fetal position and Scott was cleaning the kitchen, bathing the kids, taking out the trash, etc., I realized that Scott really steps up.

I am a helicopter. I hover over everyone in my household, basically telling them how to do everything. It is a weakness of mine for sure. I remember when Scott and I had only been married for a very short time I got on to him one morning for not making the bed the right way. He, very sweetly, told me that he was more than willing to make the bed every morning, but it wasn't going to look exactly like it did when I made it. He had a little different technique and it looked just as nice, just a little different. So, if I wanted him to make the bed I had to let him do it and stop hovering over him telling him how to do it. I didn't ask again. I liked the way I did it and didn't want him to mess it up. Helicopter.

Since I have been staying home for the last 5 years I have gotten even worse about this. It's hard for me to let other people do things around the house because they don't do it the way I do it, and come on, I do it pretty well so why wouldn't they do it the way I do. This is a monster I have created, however, I get frustrated with everyone else (aka Scott) for not helping out enough. I am aware that this is not fair, however, it's hard for me to remember that from time to time.

I haven't been feeling well lately. As I laid on the couch and watched Scott perform all of the things I normally do, I was so impressed with how good he actually is at it all. It got me to thinking about all the times when I needed help, but was too proud to ask, and Scott stepped up to the plate.

Every time I get pregnant Scott goes into training it seems. He works out harder, eats healthier, and works harder so that he is in his prime for when the baby comes.

Charlotte wakes up ridiculously early some days and then goes down for a morning nap before the rest of the family is even awake. If I doze back off with Charlotte, Scott gets up with the boys and makes them breakfast and lets me sleep.

Anything that even remotely resembles manual labor, ie. moving furniture around, carrying heavy things upstairs, etc., he takes care of it and tells me to "just sit and look pretty."

When I am feeling puny, like today, and am not up for much of anything he steps up. He does what needs to be done. Without me hovering like a helicopter telling him how to do everything. He is awesome. He is seriously so so awesome.

I am glad that after 8 years of marriage I still don't take him for granted. When he is traveling for work things just don't feel right around here. Sometimes his way is the better way. And now I know that.