4 years...

Today is Dean and I's FOUR YEAR ANNIVERSARY!!!

It all started in December 2005... I needed to meet new people and make some friends my age, so a few of my co-workers invited me out to a bar on 2nd Ave. in downtown Nashville.

That night, I was going out to see this "amazing, super fiiiine" country singer, at least that's what Pam and Rosie said... I'll never forget walking into that bar. It was dirty and grimy and nothing that I really wanted to be in, let alone that I'd expect to meet my future husband in.
The girls and I got our drinks, and settled in for what I figured would be another trashy karaoke experience where I would end up singing, get rave reviews, and be on my way, back to my quiet apartment with my jammies on and snuggling my pet rabbit and my new black bouncing ball of energy, lab. I'd be in bed before nine and up early to go to work the next morning.
Well of course that's not what happened. Nope, I was instantly entertained and quite impressed with this "show" the people that worked at this place were putting on. There was a country singer, a rocker, a long haired surfer guy singing 'Johnny Be Good', two other guys, (one with dreads, and the other with a baby face) singing harmonies with all the other staff jamming out on broken instruments "backing" long haired surfer dude. That guy is the one I was totally "in to". By the time I had gotten up to sing, I had lost the thought of being bored, and now I was actively trying to impress this group of performers, specifically the long haired surfer boy. Apparently I did that well, because before I had left, I ended up landing a job and a few phone numbers as well.

A few months later, at the beginning of March, I was working at that grimy little bar. I got paid to have fun, drink and sing. I was also setting the stones to a boyfriend, a proposal, a wedding and two beautiful children...

If you would have told me six years ago, I would have met the love of my life at a bar, be married a year and a half after, pregnant six months into our marriage and moving all over the place raising babies, I would have laughed and asked for another drink. But, here we are. :)

Four years is not the biggest anniversary, no. But it is FOUR years. And in those four years Dean and I have had many, many up's. A few down's. An amazing amount of laughter and fun. One of the worst knock out drag out fights. Two of the scariest moments in our lives, the hardest month in our history, with a child in a NICU. The best family cuddles, three homes, lots of traveling and trips to Disney World. The most amazing kisses. Losses and additions, some hard times, but certainly the best times.

I don't think either of us would have guessed we'd be where we are now, let alone with two babies... But we are, and we know we are in the right place! We've only been married Four years... We still have a lifetime of memories to make, adventures to take and along the way, there will be bumps, detours, little hills and mountains... But I'm definitely looking forward to the trouble we'll get in to, the laughs we'll share and holding Dean's hand the entire way!

Here's to a lifetime of loving you Babe! Thank you for being a wonderful Husband, an AMAZING father to our boys, and mostly for being the greatest friend I've ever had!

I love you!