{8 Years}

10ish years ago Travis asked me on a date. And I told him no. And he kept on trying to convince me. And eventually, he did.
9ish years ago me and one of my very dearest friends Lorinda were at our friend Jamie's apartment on campus. I was flat broke at the time because a)I bought a lot of clothes and b)I bought a lot of clothes and c)I played a lot. When Lorinda and I went to leave and hop in my little beat up car, I found a boot on it. I was in tears, and devastated, and had to shell out the $60 to remove the boot, leaving my bank account, well with like 4 bucks in it. I complained to Travis, who was my sort of boyfriend, sort of not-at the time.

The next day at beauty school he called and told me to go outside to my car. And when I got there I found the largest, ugliest, most hideous red cowgirl boot on the hood of my car. Stuffed inside was 60 $1 bills. And I knew then that Travis would fill my life with humor, and always take care of me.

8 years ago Monday, I married Travis for Eternity. I knew then, without a doubt that I made the right choice, and that our life would be a very happy life. And it has been. And I knew then that our marriage was Eternal, but since then, that has come to mean more to me then anything else in my life. He's mine for keeps. :) I am so lucky.

7 years ago we bought our first house. (And probably our last house). It is warm here. It's not always clean, it's not huge, and at time it's inhabitants get grumpy over the dumbest things, but it is truly a home. Our home. And I love it here.

6 years ago we had our first baby. Little Adyson came into our lives and we became a family. I watched Travis become a daddy. I watched him fall in love with being a Daddy. Our home became homier, with a crib, diapers, baby laughter, and lots of laundry. And I often wondered how I got to be so lucky.

5 years ago Travis was diagnosed with cancer. And life seemed hard, or maybe just was hard. We sat in the Doctors office together, thinking he was going to tell us that Travis had an ulcer, and instead heard the words tumor, surgery, and not curable. We were face with our first real trial, and even though I always knew we were a good pair, I really learned it when we were faced with the bad stuff. Turns out Trav's laid back-sarcastic personality gels very nicely with my overly stressed-worrying self. 5 years ago I learned that we were good together even in the hardest of stuff. Surgery happened, and we were told the cancer was gone...which leads me to 4...

4 years ago we had Sienna. And our little family became just a 'real family'. A complete family. Our life became full of doting on our little ladies. We each had one to wrangle. And had our arms full everywhere we went. And looking back I am so thankful that we took advantage of that small window of time and welcomed Sienna into our family. What would life be like without her??

3 years ago (almost) the cancer came back. And it brought friends. And we were faced with the worst case scenario, and we wondered if we would make it to our 8th anniversary. 3 years ago I learned I married an even more amazing man then I imagined. I watched him start his treatments and have sores all over his throat, and mouth, and not complain. I watched him decide that he was still going to be the amazing father he was, the amazing husband he was, and realized that he would face whatever was thrown his way, without letting it change his whole life. And I am still amazed that after 3 years ago we still have hair, and aren't in a nut house.

2 years ago we took our kids to Disneyland. We bought a new car. We had 2 kids in dance, went out every weekend for ice cream, and played a lot of canasta. This year we found a balance for living a normal life with our not so normal circumstances. Heaven bless 2 years ago. That was the year we got our groove back.

1 year ago, and today still, we are just plugging along. We have a 1st grader...what the what? And 2 girls who ride bikes sans training wheels. We still get ice cream every weekend, scans every 3 months, and do our darndest to sleep in on Saturdays. We are even trying really hard to do Family Home Evening every week! I steal the covers off the bed, Travis snores. He zones me out while watching ESPN and teases me for my Wednesday night outings with my friends. We take turns washing the girls' hair, and napping on Sunday afternoons. We do homework, watch a lot of 'Wizards of Waverly place' and can sing the lyrics to most 'Hannah Montana' songs. We plan for the future and are learning to never take advantage of time. We are not perfect. We still fight over the small stuff, and lose patience easily. But I think that the best is still ahead of us.

I do love that man of mine, and am excited to commemorate our Anniversary this weekend. I know, without a doubt, that there is no one in this world who I'd rather be 'in it' with. Love you T.

(And if you are wondering how we are celebrating, I will tell you. We aren't doing anything special this weekend...because in a few months we will be going here, here, here, and here! We are a little excited...)