Waaaaaay Back

Dan and I go back, waaaaaaay back like First grade back. Since we're coming up on the 9th anniversary of our first date and fellow twin mama Megan at In This Wonderful Life is hosting a link up in her Love and Marriage" series I thought I'd share how it all began. *Well, I slacked in posting and missed the link up, so maybe next time. But since I already wrote the post, here ya go!*

Technically we met in First grade when he had to come to my school since it was the only school in the district with wheelchair ramps. One, hello ADA this would never fly these days but circa 1988 I guess it wasn't a big deal. Two, yes he was in a wheelchair. He broke his leg riding his twin sister's bike on cinders in their culdesac doing something called a "power slide" yet he maintains it wasn't his fault! Either way, he spent a month in the hospital in traction, throwing micro machines at his poor mother when she left to get a cup of coffee. Ahhh, the 1980's :) Anyway...he was in my First grade class for like 5 minutes in his wheelchair with an FDR afghan on his lap.

Fast forward to middle school when I became best friends with his twin sister, Sheila. We'd be super annoying and make him pop popcorn for us or heat up the hot tub while we gossiped and ate Ben and Jerry's ice cream. It's a wonder he ever married me after that!

We were friends throughout high school and college as I was still best friends with Sheila. It wasn't until 2004 when we were all out to dinner celebrating their 22nd birthday that we had our "first date". After dinner we all went our separate ways, but he called me and asked if I wanted to grab a drink. We had fun, talking and reminiscing and it still bugs him that I paid. It was his birthday and they were $2 Coronas, come on! We dated casually that spring and summer but since I spent the summer in Prescott we didn't see too much of each other. That fall, we were "official" and spent our senior year of college attending date parties, football games and having a grand old time.

Dan graduated in December but I was still in school and very involved in my sorority. He was trying to get a job with an airline and I was busy with Theta. We did not have the time for our relationship at that point so we very amicably went our separate ways. I lived with Sheila and her husband for the summer after I graduated so Dan and I hung out quite a bit. By that fall, we decided to give it another try. Best decision!

Christmas 2008 he proposed and 9 months later we were married :) Now here we are, almost 9 years later with the most perfect babies a family could ask for!

It wasn't always easy, with his career he's gone a lot so I've had to be pretty independent. Even more so now that we have babies. We struggled through infertility but in the end, wound up closer than ever because we had each other to turn to. My difficult pregnancy and delivery brought out a side of Dan I never knew existed. He cleaned, cooked (or bought and cut up fruit) and took care of everything while I was sick and immobile. Once the twins were born, he was super dad. Running milliliters of breast milk down to the NICU in the middle of the night so the boys could have anything I pumped. He took over feedings so I could get sleep when I was sick with mastitis and took off extra time from work until we had a good system going with the boys.

Now that he is working out of Philadelphia, he has to commute back and forth across the country every 6 days. Just this week, he made a 2 leg 8 hour commute home, just to be with us from Tuesday evening to Wednesday morning. I came home from work yesterday to a clean house, folded laundry, bottles prepped for day care AND chocolate cupcakes (from the store of course). Husband of the year!

Now it's not sunshine and roses all the time; he leaves loose change everywhere, only puts away his laundry because after all this time he can't figure out where my stuff goes, and vacuums around things instead of picking them up but bottom line....I married a good man.