Happy Anniversary To Us!

Next week on the 24th Dave and I will celebrate our 9th wedding anniversary! Our story: Dave and I met online of all places. I was a single mama of two toddlers who were heavily into mischief at the time. I had a matchmaker account with my mom at the time and only came across the freak shows for men..so I wasn't expecting much out of that. One day I was online I got a message from Dave. He was playing around on his friends account and "winking" at all the not-so-pretty girls for his friend. (Very nice..very nice) So we struck up a chat and realized we lived less than a mile away from each other. After a few weeks of emailing back and forth we decided to meet up. He was insistent on meeting my kids. I wasn't sure how I felt about that. So we met at Freestone Park in Gilbert on that bridge over the lake. Jakob was 2 years old and Isaak 18 months. At first sight I thought he was cute. He has a yellow button down shirt, spiky hair and a visor, and flip flops. After chatting for awhile I noticed how he took to my boys in an instant. In fact, I was so embarrassed because as I had Isaak on my hip he kept reaching down my shirt and pulling my shirt down, then as if that wasn't enough, he undid my belt too. Crazy kid, I obviously had my hands full at the time. Dave just laughed and said he is just trying to show his mom off. I was put at ease with his reaction to my kids' shenanigans. Just wait..it gets worse..We got hungry and he wanted to take us for lunch. He asked Jakob where he wanted to go and of course Jakob wanted McDonalds. So we are in the parking lot of McDonalds and I am talking to Dave and he then starts snickering..I turn around and see my son with his drawers around his ankles peeing in the parking lot!! I about died. He never ever EVER did that before. I am pretty sure I thought at that time this was over with, but it wasn't. Surprisingly, there was a second date with the boys too again, and again. I don't think we ever went somewhere without them. He realized they came with the package. I appreciated that after going on other dates where some guy actually ASKED me to put them up for adoption. Yeah..that ended quick. We dated for a year and 5 months. On May 24th 2003 we drove up to Laughlin, Nevada and got married on the bank of the Colorado River by a lady with shiny blue eyeliner and a mustache. No kidding. Looking back I wish we had a wedding, or even took pictures but at the time it wasn't in the cards. I did find a picture of exactly where we got married..we walked down those stairs and got married on the beach, and went up in the gazebo and signed the papers! Awwww...

As every year goes by I am amazed at what kind of dad he is to my boys. He teaches them all he knows, about cars, fixing things around the house, and most importantly how to treat the women in your life. There is much more to it, but I am thankful for him and what he does with my boys that he really never had to do. We added Colin and Natalie to the mix, and its been a fun ride since!