10 Years!!

Today is mine and Curt's ten year wedding anniversary! I can't believe its been that long already. It seems like yesterday we were 20 and 21 years old. Wow. Time goes so fast. Let me give you a little back story on us. We started dating on June 1, 1999. A few days before I graduated high school. We both worked at McDonald's together but in the year 2000 I decided I needed to move to Iowa to live with my mom again ( I was living at my friend Gena's house with her mom, Gena had already left to join the navy and I felt it was time to move on and I sure couldn't afford my own place that young and working as a shift manager at Mickey D's)...anyway, so I made the tough decision to move to Iowa where I hadn't lived since I was 5! I left the burbs of Chi-town and moved to Manchester, Iowa. A town of 5,000 people. What a change! I started working at Walmart and loved it there. Curt decided he was going to move to live with me after his Junior year ended. And he did! The boy loved me!!

We eventually moved into our own apartment and out of my mom's house (thank God) and in 2002 I found out I was pregnant and Curt decided to join the army. While he was in basic we decided we needed to get married so we started planning our wedding through letters sent back and forth and very few phone calls! Me and my stepdad drove down to Fort Knox, let me add I drove, my stepdad slept! haha. I was so tired because we drove overnight and I drove the entire way until the sun came up, then I finally woke Mario up and told him he needed to finish the trip because I was starting to see double. haha We drove down for family day weekend at the halfway point of his training. I was six months pregnant when we got married on Friday, September 13, 2002. Yes we were married on Friday the 13th and I wore a black maternity dress borrowed from my sister :) I was so happy to finally marry the love of my life! A few months later Kaylie was born and then we moved down to Fort Benning which was our first duty station.

And now here we are! Ten years later, still going strong!! Our song has always been "Still the One" by Shania Twain. We had so many haters who said we would never make it. And I'm sure some even think that today still. But I know we are strong, I know we are making it, regardless of what people think. They only get a sliver of what we are really like behind closed doors. What others think of us doesn't matter anyway, because we know the truth and that is all that really does matter! It doesn't bother me what anyone thinks we are like and not like. That is their opinion, and well...we don't really care how we are perceived by others.  We are the loves of each others lives. I can't imagine being with anyone but him even when he drives me crazy :) We have both grown and changed since we were those two high schoolers falling in love. It's amazing to watch him grow old with me. I look forward to the next ten years with him and seeing where our journey leads us next. :)

Happy anniversary to us!