11 Years...

What a day 11 years ago was. It was a beautiful Saturday morning. The sky was clear. The wind was blowing. The sun was shining. It was very warm. I know we reached 100 degrees that day. It was a day that will be etched in my memory forever, even though there are parts of that day that I can only remember by video. Strange, huh? It was the day I married my best friend! Happy Anniversary, Kevin! I love you, and truly deep within my soul know that you are my best friend and the man that I am supposed to walk this journey of life with.

The day I married Kevin was truly the beginning of a wonderful, sometimes scary, journey that we would take together. The scary part must have started right from the beginning. I still to this day can't remember my wedding ceremony. I remember talking with him that morning. I remember getting ready. I remember being at the back of the church with my Dad. And then somewhere in there, my brain went blank. I know I was there; I have a video and a marriage license to prove it. Honestly, I think I was so overwhelmed that my brain had to turn it off in order to get through it. I haven't been able to remember our wedding ceremony since the day after we got married. I woke up the next morning and couldn't remember it then either. Weird I know:)

Thankfully, the "turning off" of my brain hasn't happened since. There have been many ups and downs on our journey, and I am glad that I can remember each one of them. They have brought us to this point in our life. While there are things I wish we could have done differently, I know each of them happened for a reason. It has made us a stronger couple and family. It has brought us to a point where we can look back on them and see the reason it had to happen. We can see the life lesson out of it. And we know there are many more life lessons to come.

There are still many firsts out there around the bend. That is the joy of having small children. You get to live their firsts out with them. And you get to live there endings out too. It dawned on me this morning that people see Kinsley for the little stinker a 2 year old can be. And I was convinced the boys were never this bad. They were; they had to be. We just didn't take them anywhere. They didn't have school activities to attend or Mother's Day Out. I got the joy, heartache and laughter all to myself when they did mischievous things. The world gets the joy of witnessing Kinsley!

I wish each of you a beautiful, albeit cool and rainy Saturday. May you find the joy and blessings of today in the simple things in life!