10 Years

Ryan won't put up with my tendency to belittle myself.  In fact, he gets mad at me when I do.  It can be a tad frustrating when sometimes I just want someone to listen or moan and groan with me, but it teaches me that negativity towards myself gets no attention.

I like to reward Ryan with a nice back-rub when he has done well in public and handled crowds with ease.

Ryan is teaching me how to be punctual.

I am teaching him child development.

In fact, marriage almost feels like parenting on a bigger scale.  Ryan and I are helping each other grow up.

Sure enough, Ryan and I have reached our 10 year anniversary of growing up together.  It feels pretty odd and awesome at the same time to say 10 years.  I don't know how I can sum up the last 10 years.  It seemed to fly by .

Thankfully we have a marriage where both of us are committed to it.  It sure makes it easier.  Not to mention that I married someone who can cook, clean, bathe 4 little girls, and doesn't sleep longer than is needful.  Even if he is stubborn and doesn't like crowds.

There have been days of bliss, yet, there was also that time that I threw the phone down and said, "I hate you."

(We were newly married and I was 19 and took my car in for my first oil change.  My dad always did those things for me before I was married.  I didn't know oil change places take advantage of you with needless fixes so it ended up being an $80 oil change.  After paying I realized I had been cheated and the guilt was already enough to teach me a lesson.  I called my new husband for a shoulder to cry on and got a lecture, not what I wanted.  So for about 10 minutes, yes, I hated Ryan.)

In the past 10 years there have been....

months of getting used to sleeping next to someone (we soon figured out we can't share blankets)

and weight gain (I added 10 pounds in about the first 2 months of marriage.)

There were scholarships to be gotten

and fun vacations....Tennessee, Utah, my first drive down to Mexico, California....

There was the triumph of finishing college together after years of full time work and student status and only seeing each other after 10 at night.

There was winning the "bid" on our HUD home (hah, we were the only ones that bid - too bad we didn't know that) and officially becoming homeowners and saying goodbye to the duplex that left me moody in the summers.  That yard was begging for some TLC.

There was the day I officially had my own classroom and good luck flowers from Ryan.

And Ryan's first purchase of a nice camera.

 

Where he paid this man $1 to take his picture

There was the purchase of new cars and the selling of my $1 mini-van.

And that Christmas where we were asked to dress up like Mary and Joseph for a stake nativity (Ryan hates dressing up.  I relished in the opportunity because I knew this may be the last time Ryan could ever be forced to play dress up.)

There was fertility medicine (where I swore it didn't effect my mood but Ryan would beg to differ...)

And more fancy vacations because that is what you do with double income and no kids...Washington D.C. and Cancun, Colorado, California, Utah and Washing D.C. again

This isn't a man purse - it's a camera bag.  

We even took a hot-air balloon ride that really wasn't that exhilarating.  

There was the time we paid Ryan's sister Anna $2000 in ones.  We thought it was hilarious.

And 2 little girls who surprised us and made my belly into a table.

There was a move to our final abode (where we plan to stay for the rest of our lives)  Don't worry, those palm trees were tamed with a 3 ft chain saw.

And the birth of our first borns and our entrance to parenthood.  I layed there in bed after birthing our girls - doped up on medicine to keep me from having a stroke and Ryan just kept staring at me and smiling.  There was almost a tear in his eyes.  We were parents and I had just announced that we would name them Lucy Pearl and Elsa Kate.  

There was the accident and totaling of Ryan's car.

There was the beginning of I Heart Mesa.

And that time that somehow Ryan convinced me to go to Italy (and we bid farewell to big vacations for the next decade).  We sat in Venice and took pictures of unsuspecting people with a borrowed zoom lens.  My favorite part of the trip.

We marveled at this family that would travel to Europe with 2 sets of twins...little did we know this would soon be us.

There was another accident and another totaled car.

And to our utter enjoyment, there was another 2 little surprises....(who thankfully waited until after the car accident to grow inside me)

Another set a twins brought about the time that Ryan proved his love by just about passing out during delivery (I've never seen him cry, but I love that he came close to passing out from worry.)

There were medical bills and a change in finances and a call to creativity.

There were millions of diapers to change and crazy times of 4 kids 3 and under.

There was sacrifice and tears and a force to do better, try harder and give more than we have ever given before.

There was blogging.

And, there were even still some vacations, some hiking, a little bit of yelling, but a good amount of love.

My aunt Mitzi said when I started dating Ryan, "What you see is what you get."  Thankfully she was right.