5 years

Ten years ago, I met my husband.
It was August, 2001 and we were both at Passport at ACU.
He was 17; I was 18. 
We ran into each other some our freshman year and hung out with some of the same people.
Second semester, we ended up in the same health class. 
One afternoon, we went to a movie and dinner.
Then, we dated for a while.
This is us at the end of our freshman year, on the day that we were moving out of the dorms.  My dad had come to help me move back home for the summer and he snapped this picture for us outside of Nelson dorm
as we were about to leave.
We continued dating that summer. 
Then, Landon went to Africa and I worked at Impact Church of Christ.
When he got home from Africa, we broke up. 
But, we stayed friends and kept talking, much to my surprise.
When we reutrned to ACU, we were still friends, oddly enough. 
This is us on our first day back, at a Jars of Clay concert on campus. 
I think both of us had gotten a little sun that summer--and I think my hair went a little crazy, ha!
Sophomore year, we didn't date but became really good friends. 
People thought we were dating, but we weren't.
Then, Landon went to Califroni for the summer and I stayed in Abilene working at The Mission. 
We talked pretty much every day that summer. 
Some days I even remember being on the phone with him as the sun would be coming up. 
Then, following a middle of the night conversation, we ended up deciding to try dating again.
When he got back in town in was nice and exciting and weird all at the same time.
This was us the day he got back to Abilene.

Thigns started out well, but eventually went downhill. 
It wasn't the right time. 
I think in hindsight we both thought the other was the person we were going to marry, but we weren't quite ready for it yet.
But, there were some good times. 
This is us at Hay Lay at the beginnig of the year.
                        
I didn't really take any pictures of the bad times. :)
Then, at the beginning of the summer after our junior year, we broke up again. 
Things got instantly easier betwen us and off and on we kept talking. 
This time it was a little harder to stay friends though, because we had a lot more invested.
But, our lives were so intertwined at that point that when he came back to ACU for our senior year, there was no way for us to not cross paths, at least at church and in school. 
There were some good times that year and some hard times.
We still took the kids to church every week.

And we went to Hay Lay, his club's social, together.

We both did our senior class's Sing Song act.

And then, graduation came. 
I think in the back of my mind I always kinda thought we might get back together, but around graduation I was fairly certian we wouldn't. 
I'm not gonna lie though--part of me was mad that I'd wasted so many years on a relationship that wasn't leading to anything other than a friend.
But, we were in a good place.

We were actually friends, which was nice.
And then, we said our good byes.
And kept right on talking over the summer.
Then, on July 5th, 2005 Landon showed up on my doorstep in Abilene. 
And, we got back together again.
But this time everything was completely different than when we dated freshman year or junior year.
Everything.
We were intentional about things we were going to say/do/be and things we weren't. 
We talked and talked and laughed and smiled and it was just about pefect.
But not that fake kind of perfect, where you're trying to impress the other person.
We'd been through it all at that point and there was no point in pretending. 
Then, in August, Landon started law school in Houston.
I went and visited him a couple of times.

Then, in December, I moved to Houston.
On February 5th, Landon surprised me by proposing.
The first time we ever talked about marriage, he was down on one knee asking me to marry him.

Of course, I said yes.
I didn't even know I could be so happy.
3 months later, on May 21st, 2006 we got married.

In some ways, it felt like a mere formality, but again, I was happier than I could have ever imagined.

It was the perfect day.

 Before we knew it, a year had passed.

Landon was finishing his second year of law school.

I was finishing my first year of teaching and grad school.

We grilled out and watched 24 on May 21st and then relived our engagement night that weekend.

And, of course, ate our wedding cake and played with the new little additons to our family.

And again, another year flew by.
I moved to a new school that I loved and finished my second year of teaching.
I graduated from grad school.
Landon graduated from law school.
On May 21st, we went off of our P90X diet and tried a new hole in the wall Italian restaurant in the Heights.  Then, that weekend we went out to eat at Fridays and Landon surprised me with 2 beach towels with our names and '2 Years' on them and I gave him a couple of games for his new Wii.
Then, we spent the weekend at the beach, celebrating.

The next year, we continued P90X, which somehow led to us running a marathon--and Landon signing up for an Ironman. 
We spent May 21st going on a little 3 mile run together through our neighborhood (we couldn't miss a traning day!) and then trying out a fancy restuarant in our neighborhood that we'd been hearing about for a while called The Glass Wall.
Then, he gave me the most awesomely wrapped present--a hot air balloon ride (that we still haven't been able to use--but one day will!) and I gave him some tickets to Astros games that we definitely already used.

Last year, Landon was right in the middle of his peak traning days, so we had a low key anniversary.
I took the day off work and met him right by his new law firm for a quick lunch at Macaroni Grill.
Then, we spent a nice, quiet night together at PF Changs on May 21st.  We ate; we talked.  It was good.

We figured that with out trip to Coeur d'Alene for his Ironman coming up and our cruise, we had a lot of time left to spread out the celebrating.

And, celebrate we did. It was a summer we won't soon forget.

Then came a moment we won't soon (or ever!) forget.
On October 23rd, we found out that this little guy would be joining our family in about 8 months.
We were shocked, thrilled and terrified all at the same time.


And while part of me can't believe we won't ever just be Aja and Landon anymore, we're thrilled that we're about to be a family of three.
I always imagined being married and teaching for about 5 years and then having kids and somehow, for some reason, God let it work out just the way I had always imagined, giving us more than we deserve.

This year, on our last anniversary as just us, we spent the day out at Ironman Texas, where Landon competed in his second Ironman.

Last year at Coeur d'Alene, I saw a bunch of moms and pregnant women out there cheering on their husbands.  And I had this idea instantly of how fun it would be to one day be them.  I had this picture in my head of being out there cheering Landon on at Ironman Texas (since he'd already signed up for it before he did his first Ironman!), pregnant with our first baby.

And again, I have no idea why God sometimes lets things work out exactly how we dream about, but again he did.  And while it wasn't quite as glamorous as it looks, to be out there 8 months pregnant, I did have the exact feeling of family and fun and gratefulness both that he was competing and that we were about to have a baby, that I thought I would.  It was a sweet day and a sweet memory.

At 36 weeks old, little Aedan got to experience his daddy competing in an Ironman.

Happy 5 years of marriage, babe.

Happy 10 years of experiencing life together.

I love you more than I ever thought possible, through the good and the bad and the hard and the easy. 
Though it took us some ups and downs and a windy road to get here, there's no where else in the world I'd rather be than living life with you.