We Threw A Strike With A Perfect Floor Routine!

Happy ten year anniversary to us!

Top ten things about being married to Neil Conway:

He encourages me in whatever I am passionate about

He has more patience than any man I know

He is generous with his time and resources

He's funny at the most unexpected times

He's willing to admit when he is wrong

He loves his children and shares my love for more of them!

He is always up for trying something new

He eats my cooking

He gets up with the first kid so I can sleep a little longer

And he has put up with me for 10 years!!

Ten years ago today, Neil and I promised to be together till death do us part. Hands down, the best decision we ever made! We worked that summer, living in a room in the back of a barn, to save up money to move across country away from everything we knew. Hands down the second best decision we ever made. With no friends and family to run to when times got a little tough, we learned how to work our problems out.

What's our secret? Well, I don't think it's any secret at all. I married my best friend! In ten years that passion comes and goes, our interests have changed, we have hopefully changed and matured, and life as well as the two of us look completely different than we did ten years ago. If you change with your best friend then it's a fun journey instead of something that comes between you.

On a more practical note, it's the two separate tubes of toothpaste, Neil learning to drink his coffee black, and me changing the way I fold clothes that has been the compromise to keep our house a comfortable place to live. Compromise alone can not make a happy marriage, but it can make for a happy home. It's not about one person losing, it's about having a healthy perspective and realizing the small details are just not that important. The way your father did something or my mother did that, are just that... the way THEY did it. The last ten years have given us a start to finding the way WE do things. If we didn't find our "we", then what would our kids have to argue about with their future spouses, haha.

It wasn't in the cards for us to take a trip to Paris or even Napa Valley for our big anniversary, but I don't care. What really matters after all this time is that we still would want to spend time together! We decided to do something really radical and not like us at all. We needed to surprise ourselves and prove to each other that we are not done becoming who we will be. We did something radical, out of our box, meaningful, and most importantly together.

This tattoo design is from the cover of our wedding invitation . Mom, did you think when we chose this design at the table in Denny's eleven years ago, that we were actually picking out our tattoos?

I can't believe the amazingly blessed life we have been given these last ten years. It's almost overwhelming to me to think of more blessings in the next ten years to come! Year ten was a long and sleepless one that really tested us. Here is to smooth sailing into year eleven! (hey, we can hope)