9 YEARS

September 02, 2015

Mike and I have been married for 9 years.

We dated for one year.

And were engaged for another.

The other night we went out for a date to celebrate our anniversary. We ended up at a BBQ joint that made Mike super happy, and me - not so much. There was a dead bug on my chicken. So I enjoyed my french fries and fountain soda, and we talked about the last nine years and what's in our future.

When we first were married, I was the breadwinner while Mike went to school. I worked at a civil engineering firm writing proposals and doing admin work. He was just starting his junior year of college. He worked part-time at Kroger off and on over the next two years.

Life was good.

Mike graduated from college and landed a job in his career field!

That job moved us to Cleveland. I took some time off of working - which didn't last too long before I got bored - and I started temp work formatting product manuals and cataloging sales information at a company that made industrial vibrators for factories. They were getting ready for a huge audit from their parent company. I had tried really hard to get into a huge company based in Terminal Tower - even had two interviews but it didn't pan out. Mike was a land planner for a landscape architecture firm. We got a dog!

Life was good.

And then the economy took a hit. People everywhere were losing jobs. The company I initially tried to get into laid off 80 people in just one day.

And then Mike lost his job. I remember coming home from work to finding him at home already. I burst into tears when he told me he had been laid off.

I emailed my old boss, and he told me to come back to Columbus and work for him again. So we packed up our life and moved back to Columbus. Mike looked for work for months - finally landing at Kroger at working in the seafood department. We left our very good friends who we did everything with - oh how I miss them! (Hi Mindy!) And our small group who we just loved to pieces.

We don't miss the snow though.

For awhile we carried two apartment leases on my meager salary. Then the leasing company rented out our Cleveland apartment, and we were so relieved!

Things started to improve. Mike proved himself as a valuable employee and he became the seafood department head. During this time he was testing and interviewing at local police departments - getting really far with one and was verbally told he got the job, but it never worked out due to those lovely politics.

We ended up buying our first house.

And then Mike got THE call. The call that led him to his current job. He was gone for weeks at training, and then he graduated and assigned a job close to our hometown.

Then we found out we were pregnant.

We put our house on the market and signed with the worst realtor ever. Seriously. It was on the market for six months. We fired him and the day after, we hired a new realtor and she sold the house within hours. No joke.

And then we moved here. I quit my job.

I had Grayson like two weeks later.

Life was different. But good.

We lived life for about year and got pregnant again.

I started working at the church (and then resigned after Easton was born). Mike was switching shifts and days off every six months.

And then one year ago, we had Easton.

Living life as a family of four.

Photo by: Locket Photography

Nine years in a small snapshot.

I would never have guessed all of those things would have taken place over the span of 9 years. We have had really rough years and some really great years too. Sometimes we reminisce about the six years we were married before we had kids. I am SO GLAD we had those years as just the two of us. It wasn't initially our plan, but it worked out well for us.

Life is still good.

It is really wonderful to be married to your very best friend.

I love you, Mikes.