11 years later....

Wow, time flies when your having fun and Chaz and I have had a lot of fun over the years. Today we will look back on all of that fun by celebrating 11th wedding anniversary together. 11 years ago today was a super crazy day (but aren't all wedding days). But it all worked out and we made it to the chapel on time.

Here's our wedding day picture. That's my oldest niece Salem in front of us. She wanted to be a princess like Aunt Jecca that day. She's now 17 and in my mind she's still this little girl.

I wanted to just get married at the courthouse. Yes me, I wanted that, Chaz wanted a wedding. I wanted to spend money on a honeymoon. But our families convinced us to have a wedding. Chaz was in Kosovo, so my sister, my mom and I tossed together a quick small wedding and reception in Nashville and it was perfect to us. It was a lot of fun putting it all together, but it was not fun dealing with all the criticism. It amazes me how when you get married people forget that it's about the two people getting married. Weddings are crazy. So glad I only have to do it once.

Out of eleven anniversaries together, Chaz and I have only had a few of them actually together. The first one was ours and we attempted to eat our freezer burnt wedding cake. The second and third had him in Korea. Deryn surprised us with her arrival September of 2002, so I had someone to celebrate with. We had our fourth together, but our fifth was spent with him in Iraq and me with two babies to celebrate with. After that it's all a blur. We had number six and seven together and God Bless him he forgot one of them because he was at the NCO Academy. He worked fifteen days on, four days off there so you can understand why. He was at a school for eight and nine. And I'll never forget our tenth.

Our tenth was spent in WRAMC on Ward 57. We had many people come together to help make our day special. Ortho Trauma gave us the gift of a surgery free day. Chaz's Dad had brought in some roses for Chaz to give to me. Our friends had helped us get a TV and DVD player so we could watch a movie. Chaz had finally gotten his appetite back so I let him choose dinner. I got to order us some Popeye's fried chicken. (I was not impressed, but let me note that I don't like fast food.) I don't remember what movie we watched but I know Chaz stayed awake for it and that was really exciting. Last year at this time we had celebrated our 1 month Alive Day the day before and then our anniversary. Chaz was still in a lot of pain then and didn't stay awake for long periods of time yet. So him making it through an entire movie was a big deal.

This is a picture of us from last year! He convinced me to crawl up next to him and give him his cuddles. So with the nurses permission, I did. I didn't stay long, but I stayed as long as I could because Chaz fell asleep on me. I waited until half of my body was numb then I epically failed as I tried to crawl out away from him. It was really funny. I woke him up and he quickly realized what I was doing and laughed at me. I slept in that delightfully uncomfortable pull out chair in his room that night. We truly made our 10th anniversary as fun as possible. Together Chaz and I made the best out of some really crappy circumstances.

With all my back and forth between TN and DC I promised Chaz that I'd be with him for our day. It was a simple day, but it could have been a day I could have remembered without him if that IED would have succeeded in its mission. I was so thrilled to be with him for our tenth anniversary together. The best part of that day was when he and I were alone watching that movie. For the past month we had had a gazillion people in and out of our room at a constant pace. The nurses tried to stay out as long as possible that day. I truly miss our nurses and staff from Ward 57. They became like family to us. They were so sweet to us on our anniversary and helped us keep the peace and quiet. Heck they were amazing the entire time while Chaz was in-patient, not just that one day.

I didn't care what we did last year because we were together. Now that we've moved on, I still don't care what we do because we are together. We are long overdue for a honeymoon and one day we will have that. We were supposed to go to Vegas this past summer and get remarried by a drive thru Elvis to celebrate our tenth. Instead we got to go on stage with Train in August in Nashville and celebrate their awesome song Marry Me with 11,000 other people. That trumps Drive Thru Elvis just a bit.

This picture is one of my all time favorites!! I love the pride you can see in Deryn's eyes. Ryann is being her shy self. Jimmy is clapping and Pat is having a moment. Me, I was thinking, I am truly one blessed woman. I seriously was so overwhelmed by the fact that the three people I love more than anything in this world are with me on stage with my favorite band whose music has provided the soundtrack to our lives.

What are we doing today?! Nothing! Well Chaz is at the hospital, I have to catch up on work and the girls' home school. Then we'll enjoy the rest of the day as a family. After all this is our family's anniversary and this year we're together to celebrate it. Maybe we'll get that honeymoon next year! ;)

I hope you all have a great day!! I know we will!!