7 year anniversary

11 years ago, I lived and worked in Michigan, I'd never considered living in Texas and probably had never heard of the city called Bryan, and to be completely honest, I may not have been too aware of Texas A&M either.  Then in Aug of 2001, I moved to Texas, to an area North of Plano.  I ended up getting a job at a retail, sporting goods store, called Galyan's.  Shortly after I started there, a guy named Matt O'Banion got hired.  We were both in relationships at the time, in fact, he was engaged (before you start jumping to conclusions, no we didn't start dating for a while).  I was promoted and eventually was in charge of the department, then the relationship I was in fell apart and a few months later Matt's did too.  Then I went on a blind date, and a few colleagues happened to be at the same bar, the date was a disaster, but Matt happened to be there and actually rescued me that night.  Bought me a few drinks, we played pool, had a great time, but I was his boss.  I refused to get involved with someone I worked with.  Well, he persisted, and soon we were having lunch together and hanging out more and more.  Finally, I caved in and we went on a real date, and never looked back.  I ended up going to my boss, who moved Matt to another department.  We started dating in September of 2002.  In feb 2003, I found a much better job and left Galyan's, shortly after I left, Matt got a job offer to work in Bryan.  so, we tried the long distance thing for awhile, then a job opened, in my company, in Houston.  I told Matt I wouldn't live with him if we weren't engaged :-)  He proposed and we moved to Tomball in April of 2004.  The drive back and forth was hard on Matt, so in September, we moved to Bryan. 

We knew we wanted a winter wedding, I just thought it would be so beautiful and he knew I wanted to be married before I turned 30 (I had mentioned this when we first were friends), so we picked a date of Feb 12, 2005, in Lake Tahoe I'd turn 30 on Feb 18).  Why Lake Tahoe, I have no idea other then we saw some pictures in a magazine and it looked gorgeous.  It was!  We were married at David Wally's Hot Springs Resort.  Sounds weird, I know, but it was breathtaking!  It was cold, but I don't think we even noticed!  We were there for a week, tons of family and friends made it a vacation, so we planned fun little events for the days leading up to the wedding.  Then we flew to Jamaica for our honeymoon. 

After a year, we decided we were ready to be parents, the day we found out I was pregnant was the day we found out the offer we had placed on a house was accepted!  We moved when I was about 8 weeks pregnant, just pregnant enough to be exhausted, lol.  Garrett was born on Feb 1, 2007. When Garrett was 18 months old, we decided we wanted a bigger house so that we could have more children.  We placed on offer on a new house and received an offer on our old house on exactly the same day!  It was truly meant to be.  We moved to our current home on November 1, 2008.  I lost my job on July 14, 2009, I was 8 weeks pregnant.  Payton was born a tad early, on Feb 16, 2010.  Things got real bad at Matt's work, and his bosses ended up declaring bankruptcy, so on January 1, 2011, we opened our own business.

Yesterday, we celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary.  It's amazing how much your life can change in that time!  So, I do thank our friends Will & Lisa who convinced me Matt was a great guy and I shouldn't let a low paying job get in the way of my life.  Imagine if I hadn't listened!!  We have definitely had our ups and downs, but, I did marry me best friend and at the end of the day I'm glad I get to lay in bed with Matt.  I know it won't ever be without ups and downs, I just hope that we can always get through the downs and survive no matter what life throws our way.

Happy Anniversary, Matt.