A reflection on the life we've had.. (so far!)

I had a good life

Before you came

I had my friends and my freedom

I had my name

Still there was sorrow and emptiness

'Til you made me glad

Oh, in this love I found strength

I never knew I had

And this love

Is like nothing I have ever known

Take my hand, love

I'm taking you home

I'm taking you home

~ Don Henley

Tomorrow marks 9 years of marriage for Jason and me - over 12 years as a couple. The years have truly blessed us - providing us with a fantastic life and two beautiful little girls that we couldn't be more proud or thankful for.

I thought back today (on the eve of our anniversary - thought it would be tacky to bury in the computer on our actual anniversary...) on the years we have spent together.

It all started back at the most wonderful institution known as Clemson University in September 1997 where a couple of sophomore Electrical Engineering majors shared a C language computer programming class (can you feel the romance building???) Jason was a self-proclaimed 4.0 GPA super-student, and I was barely clinging to the 3.0 required to keep my out of state tuition waiver (the Gators were calling....) He somehow thought I knew something about programming, and I wanted to figure out how to get him away from those books. So we studied together.

A few weeks later we had a couple of real 'dates' under our belts (1st being the Clemson Peppino's restaurant, 2nd being the FSU game in which we lost) we blossomed into a real relationship - making sure the studying continued. Thanks to Jason, my GPA made a stark recovery out of the danger zone - was there time for anything else??

Over spring break, on the boardwalk over looking Vero's Beach, we got engaged in March 1999. The engagement was long while we trudged through school. Graduation was December 21st 2000 and the wedding was January 6, 2001 - allowing our still in college friends to attend the Florida wedding and make it back for the beginning of Spring semester classes.

From there, we settled in a small and slightly ghetto apartment, bought our first house (May 2001), welcomed our first daughter (August 2005), moved to our second and current house (May 2007) and welcomed our second daughter (April 2008.)

These days are spent running from home to jobs, gymnastics and to the lake. We love our life and our family and look forward for the years that are to come.

Happy Anniversary, Jason!!