Nueve.

I can't believe that, tomorrow, I will have been married to this guy for nine years. Obviously he's adorable, but I really couldn't have asked for a better husband.



I won't actually get to see him for more than a few minutes tomorrow (we're both working...rats) so in honor of him and our anniversary I thought I would share 9 random memories I have of him (and us) over the last 12 years I've known him.

(1) The summer that S and I really started to become close was the summer that I was introduced to Cocoa Puffs. They became a staple of my diet for a long time and, in fact, after I moved up to Rexburg for school I was so homesick (and S-sick) that Cocoa Puffs were the only thing I could eat for days. So whenever I see Cocoa Puffs now they make me miss S. Even if he's standing right next to me in the grocery store.

(2) The first day I really remember meeting him for the first time was in Human Biology junior year of high school. I was dating someone else at the time (and as it turns out, he was too,) but I remember thinking "Dang, he's cute!" Later in the year we were partnered up in a project which involved something that one of us forgot, so he ran to the store to buy what we needed (I think M&M's) but parked my car illegally when he came back. He is to blame for the only parking ticket (and only ticket, period) I've ever received. He says I was really mad at him. I do remember demanding he pay me back the $5. But technically (and this is the first time he remembers meeting me) our sophomore year I went up to him and asked to borrow his [last] quarter so I could eat lunch, at the expense of him not getting lunch that day. So we're even.

(3) Right after Bean was born, I was so out of it that I missed the majority of the "how to take care of your baby" lesson. S had to run some errands on the second day and he was very hesitant to leave me and Bean alone. I told him we would be fine and that I would call the nurse if I needed any help. He then walked me through her feeding, sleeping, and diapering. I thought it was so sweet! Here was a 2-day old dad walking me through all of the basics on our daughter like a pro. I could NOT have gotten through that first month without him. He was an amazing dad then and still is.

(4) S and I have made numerous plans to go to Hawaii but have yet to end up there together. On one of our first dates, he borrowed the minivan from his parents, bought a palm tree and lights, and the plan was to go to the beach at the Great Salt Lake to recreate Hawaii. But it was the middle of February and we chickened out and went and got burgers in Morgan instead.

(5) I can't remember if I've mentioned this before on my blog (several readers already know the whole story) but S donated his kidney to my dad. The need for my dad to get a new kidney basically excluded all of his kids because we all carry the possibility of the same genetic problem. So S stepped forward and volunteered to get tested and they were a match. Talk about a stressful surgery! Two of the closest people to me in surgery at once! But S has a way of taking the stress out of situations. The day before the surgery, they took the four of us (including my mom) into a conference room to prep us. Talk of an enema came up and we got a case of the giggles. Before we left the room (and after the doctors had) S wrote "What's an enema?" on the whiteboard. To this day when I pass by a conference room here at work I think of that moment. It's been seven years and they are both still doing great. Also, when they sewed S back up, they didn't quite line up his muscle and tissue correctly so that if he is doing a stomach crunch, the lines are off-centered. I think it's kind of cute :)

(6) S is really good at making sure that our kitties (yes, we do still have kitties) are taken care of. Seriously. If it were all left up to me, well...anyway. He decided to start bathing them more regularly to see if we could reduce some of the MASSIVE AMOUNTS OF HAIR these cats seem to shed. So picture this: we put Bean down for a nap so she won't be traumatized (not that it helped since her room is next to the bathroom we used.) S is pretty much straddling the cat in the bathtub and I am on water duty. And we really didn't realize just how skinny Mally was until we got her wet. She kind of looked like a rat. In case you are wondering, it really does take two people to wash a cat. Not the funnest experience, but they sure looked a lot better afterwards.

(7) Whenever we go out with our group of friends, S is always the comic relief. This is particularly fun when we go to Lake Powell. Case in point.

(ABBA was on full blast and there were some boaters going by at this very moment. Classic.) Anyway, one time we decided to go up to Flaming Gorge and we invited along an...interesting (?) guy who was dating another one of our friends. We took our trailer with and, after an exhausting day, all decided to crash for a few hours. I fell asleep in a full (I thought) trailer as a storm was coming in. I remember some wind suddenly shook the trailer so that I woke up and realized that EVERYONE ELSE had left except for me and this guy (luckily he was far on the other end of the trailer, snoring.) I was ticked that no one had thought to rescue me. This guy became the center of most of our jokes for awhile (I would say I felt bad but some people really do deserve it) and no one imitated him better than S.

(8) When I was first hired, I worked the swing shift (3 pm to 1:30 am.) S was working from 6 am to 2:30 pm so we literally never saw each other on the weekdays of my week on. I would tiptoe in to bed, sleep for a few hours, wake up long enough to tell him goodbye, and go back to sleep. You might think this would be a strain on any relationship, but it actually became fun as we would creatively try to find time to spend together. S would drop me off and pick me up after work on the weekends so we could go to Village Inn and have breakfast in the middle of the night. These are some of my fondest memories ever. Also, when you don't see someone too often, it makes the times that you do see them, or talk to them, all the better. It's funny that, after 5 years, we suddenly find ourselves in very similar circumstances. The only difference is that we've added Bean to the mix. S was able to go back and pick up a few days at this job so he meets me at my car as we are trading Bean and drives me up to the door. These 5 minutes that I spend with him probably mean more to me than spending 2 hours watching a movie together.

(9) The other night I told S that I still hadn't really seen our finished deck so we went outside to check it out. We ended up laying down on the deck and looking up at the stars and talking. We must have been out there for awhile. It was so peaceful and I felt so happy to be at home, with him. I feel so blessed to have S in my life and that we have this beautiful daughter to share it with as well.

So in the words of one of Bean's favorite books:

Nine is very good, but then, come on and we will make it ten!