Home Heart and Hands: 13th Anniversary

You know I've been married a long time when I am sitting here at 11:00 at night on my 13th wedding anniversary writing a blog post about said anniversary, while my husband is sitting across from me belly laughing while watching old episodes of Frazier. We are lively aren't we....lol...

This is one of my all time favorite shots of my husband and I.

I love it so much :)

Well, we do have a big date planned for Friday night, so I guess that is something. We got take out and milkshakes tonight to celebrate and posted lovey dovey things to each other on Facebook. I still can't believe it has been 13 years since we were married and 17 years since we met. Here is a shot of us when we were first dating.

We met when I was halfway through my sophmore year in high school and he had already graduated the previous year (I was always after the older guys, I guess). We lived 100 miles apart and he just happened to tag along for a road trip with a friend of his who was going to attend my best friend in high school's sweet 16 party. He didn't even know my friend (who's party it was). It was the most improbable meeting ever. Below is a shot of the very first moment I took notice of him at that party. He was asked to sing (he has an amazing voice) a song that he and a friend had written. This picture is of him in the back ground singing and me looking at the camera with a huge smile on my face, turning to complete mush, because I was SMITTEN!

Can you tell this was from a high school girl's birthday album...haha! I am the one all the way to the left in the foreground and my husband is the one all the way to the right in the background.

This is one of the most precious pictures to me. Not many people have the very moment they met captured this way.

We both formed crushes on each other this night, but we both thought we'd never see each other again...until I bumped into him a few weeks later on a trip to Columbia, SC (I was from Charleston, SC) to attend the circus. He got my number, we went on a few dates....and it was LOVE. We only dated for a few short months (6) before he headed off to serve a 2 year mission in northern California for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We promised to meet back up once he came home. I dated other boys while he was gone, graduated high school and when he came home, we basically picked right back up where we left off.

This is us the very day he came home in 1999.

We did one year commuting back and forth 100 miles to see each other every week. I drove up to see him once a week and he drove down to see me once a week. When my little sister passed away that very same year (pictured above sitting on the floor in front of me), I moved up to Columbia to have a fresh start and to live near him. We were married one year later. I was 19, he was 22 (almost 23). He saw me through the hardest thing that ever happened in my life, and I knew that he was it for me :)

Our Wedding

We have seen each other through the hardest of times and the happiest of times. I love this man more than anything in the world. He is the best man I know. He is always the most hilarious person in the room, always has everybody in stitches....he is usually the smartest person in the room...he talks to me every day, tells me everything he thinks and does, he is my very best friend. He always finds me attractive no matter how much of a mess I am, and how many pounds I may have gained. I've never met another person who is more genuine than this man. He is fiercely loyal and does not ever compromise what is right, no matter what. I have never met anyone who is more sure of them-self. He is full of integrity and does not follow the crowd. At the same time, he is also wonderful with people. He is able to always stand his ground and buck the trends and people always love him for it. I am always in awe of him, every day....even after all of these years. He is an incredible example to those around him and most of all to our children. I could not say enough good about this man. Here are some pictures, of us over the years.

2006