Happy 10 years Matt!

Happy 10 year anniversary Matt!  Our story is my favorite!

We met our junior year of college.  I had a class with Matt the previous semester, but we didn't really talk.  When spring semester rolled around, I noticed him the minute he walked into class and told him I saved him a seat by me.  It only took 2 weeks of pencil dropping and flirting for him to ask me out.

I remember sitting in the living room of my apartment with my roommates watching a new show called "The Bachelorette" dishing to my roommates about this cute guy that I sat by in one of my classes.  A few minutes later, the phone rang, my roommate answered it and said Matt was on the phone for me.  I thought she was playing a joke and it took me quite a long time to come to the phone.  But I'm glad I did :)

Our first date was Feb 15, 2003... we were engaged 6 months later and married 9 months after that.

Everyday Matt shows me the love of Christ.
Matt is patient and kind to me.  After we had Warrick in 2009, we were both working and constantly exhausted from lack of sleep a new baby brings.  We had a dog named Dexter who we both loved.  But once a baby came into our lives, there seemed to be no time or energy to walk a dog and give him the time he deserved.  I would come home from work and just want to spend time with our little family, but the dog needed walked and was beginning to tear apart the house from boredom.  I started to get upset with Dexter and wanted him gone.  Matt loved Dexter and found a great home for him.  I am forever grateful to be married to a man who loves me selflessly.

Matt is not easily angered and keeps no record of wrongs.  I was so excited to celebrate Christmas once we had a baby.  I took so many pictures and was excited to share them with our out-of-town family.  I uploaded them that night and something went wrong with my camera and all the pictures were deleted.  I was crushed and really mad.  I threw the camera and it broke even more.  Later I felt like I had ruined our Christmas by acting so immature.  But Matt wasn't mad at me and never brought it up again.

Matt protects me.  At one of my jobs I was having problems with a male co-worker.  I would come home upset and tell Matt how he treated me and the inappropriate things he said to me.   Unknown to me, Matt made an appointment with him and had a very frank talk with him.  I was upset and embarrassed at first, but in the end I was glad that Matt stood up for me and protected me.  

Matt is definitely my better half.  He is the best father I could have imagined for our kids.  And though money is tight, he sees the value in me staying at home with our kids.  Matt takes care of our family and makes a rule not to be gone more than 2 evenings during the week so that we can eat dinner together and be together in the evenings.  Matt puts God first in our marriage.  And that is the key to a great marriage.

Thank you Matt for putting up with my high-strung personality and loving me more everyday.  I love you!