Today, Tommy and I celebrate 13 years of marriage. He's written some beautiful notes to me on anniversaries past, but I have not really ever done that, opting instead to reciprocate with a video or photo collage- more my style.
I surprised him with a little written history this year; he gave me a beautiful journal. So this is what's printed out and tucked away in my new journal...
Us
If I think back to high school and you… mostly I remember a big smile on your face… the cutest brown wavy hair… an untucked golf shirt… a Sundrop bottle dangling from your hand…a sarcastic sense of humor… I remember giving you my phone number in Weaver’s driveway the summer between our junior and senior year… then days later… riding down a gravel road- corn a mile high on both sides- to my grandparents’ house to pick up my cousin… for what I don’t know… but there you are with that smile again…and then flash forward to weekends during my freshman year at UTK… when you and Bobby and the rest would converge on my apartment …we were all just the best of friends then…I remember mornings…sitting on the living room floor of that apartment with you and laughing in front of the TV… and the next thing I know…we’re back in Winchester…it’s winter break of my junior year at UTK …you were on break from UTM… and there we are together again…riding back-country roads in my Mustang and talking and laughing….and snow delayed me in Winchester an extra day… and there you are on my back steps… to extend winter break with one more night of hanging out…and I went back to UTK and told Teresa that I didn’t know exactly what was happening… but I liked it… then I spontaneously invite you up for the long MLK weekend… and we hang out with Andrea and Paul and Teresa and Matt… (funny how we are all old married couples now)… and a year and a half later I’m walking down the aisle and there you are at the end of it… and everyone else is wondering how in the world this happened so fast… and all we know is… we don’t want to miss one single second of us…and we start our lives… together… in Nashville and spend evenings after work at the driving range or the racquetball court… and there’s Charleston and Vegas and Gulf Shores…and I nickname you ‘Famous Tommy’ because suddenly you know everyone in Brentwood…and then it’s our first anniversary and I’m in the middle of two knee surgeries… and I make that bride and groom quilt while you sweetly, lovingly wait on me hand and foot…you are waiting tables at Outback to save money for golf tournaments and I hang out at the Outback bar after work just to be in the same room with you…and strange as it sounds…next thing you know… my sis and her hubby and also your mom have apartments in the same building with us while your dad hikes the AT… and we laugh a lot and drink lots of wine and then all of us pile in one car for bowling on Thanksgiving… and other shenanigans…and we travel all over for golf tourneys…and somewhere in the middle of this part…your cousin Josh spends the summer with us and we ‘parent’ a nine year old and we love every minute of it…and then we bought our first house… on the way to a movie because that’s just us… then there we are… teeing off first thing on Saturday mornings, walking 18 at Legends, eating pizza on the back deck afterwards…we would round off the weekend at Adelphia Coliseum on Sundays…watch those Titan miracles live… and suddenly we’re on a plane to Hawaii in shock because we found out just hours before that a baby is on the way… and then we’re back from Hawaii and you lock yourself in the baby’s nursery-in-progress to study for the CPA exam (thank heaven you passed the first time)… and you take up mountain biking…and one day I’m hitting golf balls with your dad while you are at work and the next day I’m holding Blaine in my arms… all 8 lbs 4 oz of him…born just before our five year anniversary… and he’s absolute perfection… you change your first diaper and learn to Martha Stewart swaddle him…tightly… and I am an insomniac for 4 days just marveling at this little thing that looks just like you… and then you buy me a Gary Fisher and teach me to mountain bike…. and our life revolves around baby milestones…and we turn around one day and we’re in a beautiful little cabin near the Ocoee for rafting and biking and we’re praying the sale of a certain piece of land doesn’t go through because it’s going to be OUR little some place special…and magic happens…then a miniature pony runs across what will be OUR front yard- to Blaine’s absolute delight…and someone calls and wants to buy our townhouse out of the blue…and we move in with your parents for a little spell and start to build this some place special… and then it’s a cold February and we’re back from Disney and eating McDonald’s in this unfinished house…the house that now lives and breathes ‘us’… and then suddenly I’m dying for baby #2 and he’s on the way…and you read all of Narnia to Blaine while I lie exhausted and pregnant on the couch for a few months… and then we learn together what sorrow and delight feel like mushed up together… the week we lost your mom and Drew was born… and the next thing I know my house and my life are full of men who love football and golf and bikes and anything rough… anything to be like daddy…and tomorrow we will spend our 13th anniversary at pee-wee football training camp…chuckling to ourselves because we don’t want to be anywhere else…because it’s just one more moment of us…
