Happy Anniversary to Us!

5 Things Similar about Us

1. We both love to read.
2. We both come from families with one younger sibling and parents who are still married.
3. We both love sports...especially Alabama football and Delaney's softball.
4. We both love to go to wineries.
5. We both were born in the 60s, were kids in the 70s, were teenagers in the 80s; so we totally can nerd out on the same music!

5 Things Different About Us

1. Pretty much everything on the political spectrum.
2. Gary is a real outdoors man who would rather stay in a camper. I really do like hotels.
3. I don't do well taking care of money. Gary has a degree in accounting.
4. If we disagree, I want to get it out right there and deal with it. Gary wants to go be my himself, then come back later when things are smoothed over.
5. He likes mayonnaise and processed meat products (bologna, spam, etc.). Ugh!

5 Things I love about Gary

1. When we go on trips, he knows how much I like to just "go with the flow" and stop at sites along the way. He now does the same thing.

2. He'll call me just to say something like, "This paragraph is so great. Listen to this," and then proceed to read out loud to me from the latest book he's reading. (He did this this morning.)

3. He doesn't make fun of my little personality quirks (moaning at good food, bringing home a dozen Krispy Kreme donuts at random, quoting from Monty Python, going on and on incessantly about my "Lost" theories, and really so many, many more to mention). He just sorta looks at me knowingly and laughs a little.

4. He loves his daughters so much and would do anything for them.

5. He's a romantic at heart.

(a Bonus #6: He dresses up with me on Halloween...in matching costumes...even though he probably would rather not, but knows I love to do it...evidence below in one of the photos.)

10 Trivial (i.e., important) Facts about Our History

1. We both worked at the same office building, yet never met each other. (We later met through mutual friends from that office.)
2. We met when McKenna was just over two-years-old and she went on our third date. My best friend, Angela, babysit for us on our first date and McKenna proceeded to cry all night long. I am forever indebted to Angela for this.
3. When we got married, McKenna got a ring too.
4. Our first kiss was on a dance floor.
5. We also met on a dance floor, and got engaged on a dance floor.
6. We immediately wanted more children, so we had Delaney a year after we were married. (And as a side note: as soon as we found out we were having a girl, Gary said her name would be Delaney. He was unwilling to compromise; it's a good thing I loved the name!)
7. Sydney was our mid-30s, almost 40-year-old surprise. But what a sweet surprise it turned out to be!
8. We try and go out on "dates" at least once or twice a month, and go for a weekend trip away every year on our anniversary. If there's any such thing as a "secret tip" for staying married, that would have to be one of them.
9. We still get really mad and fed up with each other a lot...mostly because Gary's wrong about so many things and is incredibly stubborn. (LOL)
10. This is our 14th anniversary.

One Really Great Thing about Us

No matter our disagreements, or our differences of opinion...we have more in common than could ever tear us apart. It's a lot of the little things, but it's the big things as well. Namely: our Family and our Faith (and the way he still makes me laugh after all these years).

And some pictures of us through those years...












I love you, Gary. Happy Anniversary!