Happy Anniversary to Us!

Ok, I promise this will be the last sappy post about my hubby for awhile, I'm sure y'all are getting sick of all our sweetness!

Wow, how has it really only been 3 years??? We had quite the whirlwind courtship, and things really haven't slowed down since then. It's been almost 4 years since I felt the Lord's nudge, he said Jay's name to me before I had even met him. I knew who Jay was, by name anyway, he had gone to church with my family for years, and had recently started attending Seacoast, where I had been going for about a year, and before I even met him the Lord had started planting seeds in my heart, that there was supposed to be some sort of relationship there...I kept telling myself, the Lord probably just wanted me to his friend, how funny is that??? About a month later we had a chance encounter, I showed up for a singles outing, as I often did since I was leading the single women's group at church, and surprisingly Jay showed up as well, I have to say there was immediate chemistry, at least on my part, I can't speak for him... we talked a lot that night although I can't really remember what we said, I don't think it was much of anything, but I did find out we went to the same gym. So the next Sunday I head in for a workout and honestly (even though he still does not believe this to this day) I tried to think of a time when he would NOT be there so he wouldn't think I was stalking him...so I went around 4 pm, the Gym closes at 5 on Sunday...I figured that was pretty safe, who goes to the gym right before they close??? Well, apparently Jay did, that was his normal routine, to go at the end of the business day for the gym when there were less people there...what are the odds of that???

We talked more that day, and ended up working out together several times a week, and afterwards we would stand in the Sportsclub parking lot talking for hours, until everyone else had left and all the lights were turned off, and we'd still be standing there talking.

Around this time, I planned a singles outing to a local coffee shop that was supposed to have some live music, and do you know what??? No one showed up, but me and Jay! what is up with that?? It was our first unofficial date, we hung out at the coffee shop for awhile and then decided to go see a movie, because seriously what else is there to do??? And I'm not even going to tell you what movie we saw, it's to embarrassing, and seriously the worst movie ever, and we sat there laughing awkwardly and half covering our eyes the whole time...it was truly terrible. But the evening was awesome despite the terrible movie.

As we were saying our goodbyes, Jay asked if I wanted to try it again for real the next night, and of course I said yes! We again went to the movies and saw a much better movie thank goodness, although I can't remember the name of that one, it was a scifi flick with Jessica Biel, but that's about all I remember...That is not where my mind was...

And the rest is a blurr...we spent every possible moment together from then on. We went to a few movies, did things with the singles, hung out at Barnes and Noble and spent alot of time in downtown Greenville, actually that's where we spent most fo our time...we spent hours walking around down there, and especially Falls park, we would walk across the bridge and then find a secluded spot to sit and....eehhheemmm... talk for hours...but really we did talk a lot, and about everything under the sun, and we never wanted our time together to end, I swear I got less sleep back then than when we have had newborns..but there's something about new love that just makes you not care about sleep or food, or much of anything else...

It went on like this for months, and we met and spent time with each other family and friends, and it became very obvious that there was something special here, and I came to realize the Lord had a lot more in store for me and Jay than just friendship...


On April 5th 2006, not quite 8 months after our first dates, Jay called me at work and said he wanted to go downtown that night...not an unusual request at all, but as soon as I saw him I knew there was something special about this night. When we got there we went to eat at Trio, and then headed for the Bridge, this all was our "normal"... but it felt different anyway. When we got to the bridge, we stopped as was normal about halfway across and stood looking out at the falls, Jay was hugging me from behind, and then suddenly there was this beautiful ring in front of me, and I said " oh my gosh!" and he said "do you like it?' and I said "I love it!" and he said "do you want to wear it?" and I said "that's not the question" and we both laughed and he said "will you marry me?' and of course I said yes!!!! it was so awesome, we walked back to the car in a complete daze and when we got in the car he played a special song for us, it was "The Luckiest" by Ben Folds, it became the song we danced to at our wedding, and it's in myplaylist below if you care to hear it.

This is where we got engaged...you can't see the falls from this angle, but it is truly a beautiful spot...



We planned the wedding for just 3 months away, for July 1st 2006. So the next 3 months were also a bit of a blur. We were getting married in his parents back yard, at 8:30 pm, dusk, by candlelight and tikki torches, the reception was in the side yard and all the trees were strung with with white lights. It was so unbelievably beautiful, and exactly what I had always wanted.

I spent most of my wedding day relaxing, I went to the movies with my sister and later took a long hot bath and just tried really hard to not be nervous. When I finally arrived at my future In-laws house, I was doing pretty well until I saw that one of my Bridesmaids dresses didn't quite match the others, but I just shook it off...who really cared anyway...we would still get married regardless, and then i found out that the cake lady had dropped the cake and had to put it back together...again the show would go on...and then I had noticed the wedding coordinator's husband walking around with this little bouquet of flowers and when I got ready to walk he handed it to me, and I was like that's mine??? It was maybe half the size it was suppsed to be...At this point, I just wanted to see my almost husband and get this thing done...thankfully marriage has almost nothing to do with the all the hoopla of a wedding! I just wanted to get to the I do part already!

As I stepped outside, the night was beautiful, and all the work we had done made such a beautiful setting, and at the end of the red carpet was Jay smiling at me. It was all worth it in that moment. I walked down the aisle to "At Last" by Etta James, and that was exactly how I felt. At last, my love has come along...

I didn't let the photographer take pictures during the wedding, I didn't want anything to distract us from the moment, but this was taken by a friend...



So here we are 3 years and 2 babies later, I had no idea this is where we would be or what we would be doing, and I never would have dreamed it would be this good. I have everything I never even knew I wanted...