Easy as Cheesecake, our 9 Year Wedding Anniversary!

9 years ago today I married my amazing husband James. We met in high school, I was in a senior and he was a sophomore. I asked him as a friend to Sadie Hawkens on March 8th 1997 and I could say from there....the rest was history. But that would make for a short and not very interesting blog post ;)

The theme of the dance was "Momma Said Knock You Out" an obnoxious song back in 1997. (In my next life I must come back as student body president to veto such lame dance themes) and there was a huge inflatable boxing ring. We took turns bouncing around in it with HUGE gloves....yes what a great first date ;) actually it was kinda fun and we just tried to not have to do that part with our dates haha, so James took his turn in the ring and came down hard on one of his knees. Messed up one pretty good and he would later need surgery on it (more about that later) so our date ended with me and a friend helping my date hobble out of the dance and I dropped him off back at his place battered and bruised....I am sure his mother loved me ;)

To this day he says I only called him back and showed interest in him because he got hurt on our date. Which was only some what true, I felt bad so I called him and stopped by and soon after we started dating officially.

It was easy from the start, we just got along, had nothing in common but for some reason it didn't matter. My prom came around in May just 3 months after we had been dating. James ended up needing knee surgery around the same time and we talked his mother into scheduling it AFTER my prom. (just by 2 days but worked for me ;) so we enjoyed prom and I graduated shortly after that. We spent a month during the summer living together (shhh my Mom didnt know that part) in Eastern Washington and then a month apart after I took a job as a camp counselor in Leavenworth and he returned home to Kent. It was hard to be apart but nothing like it would be when school started back up for him and I started work and community college when I returned at the end of Summer.

A year turned into two and James was done with school. It wasn't easy but he took a job part time during those years and I worked two and we got our first apartment in 1999. I had been living with a roommate in 1998 and when that didn't work out it just made sense to get our own first place together.

Being young we didn't plan to get married anytime soon but we had talked about it, there was no big get down on one knee or proposal. It was a given. We talked about it and just knew it would happen some day, it was always just that easy. Yes we had our bumps in the road, in fact in 1998 we broke up for a short while and he tried to win me back by writing "I LOVE YOU" in the snow outside my house with laughy taffys, but it wasn't until I was faced with him possibly taking another girl to homecoming that I came to my senses and few days later and we got back together.

Years past by and we ended up in Everett working in the Property Management Business. We got lucky enough to meet an amazing person who had been in the business for 35+ years and taught us everything she could in a short year we worked with her. After 4 years of dating we finally decided to set a date, and we married July 14th 2001 in a little cottage in Redondo Washington over looking the water. A cloudy day, it was a small 30ish guests, understated wedding, Cheesecake (our favorite) for our cake instead of "cake", somewhat tropical theme to go with the location on the water. It was perfect!!!

We honeymooned like only my Italian family could......with my family in Westport Washington. OK so not REALLY with my family we had our own hotel down a few miles but one whole side of my family did come out to Westport for the weekend. Since family members had flown into town for my wedding it was just a perfect opportunity for everyone to get together after the wedding and enjoy a weekend catching up in Westport! So our family honeymood was planned ;) It was fun, and I wouldn't of had it any other way. (My Mom later sent us to Vegas for our first real trip *honeymoon* it was a blast too, no family allowed haha!)

Looking back at the past 13 years, 9 of that married. We have had the best of times and the worst (My cancer, James laid off from jobs, boys health problems) but as corny as its sound's, as long as we are together its ok, everything will be ok. Nothing else matters but family. For the longest time we thought it would just be us as a family, but after MANY years of infertility and loss :( our family grew. That family now include two amazing little boys, Wyatt 4, and Nash 2.

We haven't made it to 9 years without some bumps, but when asked why we make it sound so easy, the answer to that is easy also. Its always been easy, so on the days its not, its not us, its *everything* else that gets in the way and at the end of the day the everything else doesn't matter. We are best friends first. Our life isn't perfect, but its our life together and I look forward to the next 9....13 and more years together!