I can still remember when we were just broke struggling college students trying to get through our last year of college. We didn’t have much of anything really. We made close to $1,000 per month when we were first married and we needed every last penny to pay for rent, living, text books, you name it. I was only 20 years old and he was just 22. We were young with no clue what we were doing. I remember wanting to impress him with my very poor cooking skills, but hey I was a work in progress! I’m no pioneer woman, but I did want to be a good cook. I can remember 2 months into our marriage and I made a 7 layer salad. Feeling all proud of myself he took one bite and I could tell that something was wrong. It was the peas. He didn’t like peas and I didn’t know that he didn’t like peas. Needless to say, I haven’t made him a salad with peas since. Oddly enough he likes peas in his fried rice. Still can’t figure that one out. Or there was the time that I was having his high school friends and their wives over for dessert and I made some pumpkin pie since it was the fall time. The only problem was that I forgot to put the sugar in the pie! Imagine my surprise as everyone was taking bites and I was the last one to take a bite, only to realize my mistake. Those were some fun times early in our marriage. Fortunately, I think he would agree that my cooking has improved (thank you Ree Drummond)!
Our marriage has been one great adventure from the very beginning. Five months into our marriage we discovered, to our surprise, that I was pregnant and my due date was one month after I would graduate from college. Michael took it all in stride and even though I was stressed that I couldn’t possibly be a good mom, he always reassured me that I could and would be a good mom. After settling into life in Virginia, we packed our bags and moved across the world to the Middle East. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine I’d be living in Jordan with a 2 year old and a baby. I always knew I wanted to travel but going to Europe and throughout the Middle East wasn’t something I envisioned doing at that stage in my life. After that, it was back to Virginia and then back out again to Panama. I felt like I was living in the pages of National Geographic for the early part of our marriage. I wouldn’t trade those experiences or that time in my life for anything.
And now, being settled in Virginia permanently with no plans to go anywhere has been something entirely new to me. This is the longest we have ever lived in a single place during our 16 years of marriage. And it’s a good place to be; settled, content, and enjoying what life brings our way daily and being in the throws of raising children. I”m not going to paint a rosy picture for you that isn’t true because let me tell you, we don’t have a “perfect life.” We don’t always get along 24/7. We don’t see eye to eye on everything all of the time. But somehow despite the imperfectness of it all, it’s perfect for me. I am grateful for my marriage and that we’ve decided to always choose to work together and make things better than they were before. Every year just gets better than the year before. Love you Michael.
A special thanks to my sister-in-law, Brittnay Landoe for taking these photos of us in July!
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