10 years already?!

How on earth can it be that today marks the 10th year of our marital bliss?!

I feel like just yesterday I was 17, on the roof of the Capitol building (scaring the heck out of Mark) and rounding the corner to find the dozen roses left with a note asking me to homecoming.

But yet, that event is coming on 19 years go!

Holy moly.
What a whirlwind.

I often wonder what it will be like to have an uneventful year.

Then I wonder how long it will before we have that uneventful year.

I'm not complaining, I wouldn't change a thing.

So much as happened in the past 10 years:

Mark was just a little into his career as a firefighter

I started my first real professional position (and will forever love Tacoma and all its wackiness because of it)

We restored a BEAUTIFUL 1923 house

We had our first baby

We sold our BEAUTIFUL 1923 house

I started consulting so I could be home with the kid(s)

We had another baby

We designed another house, Mark cleared the land for it himself, contracted all the subs to get the structure up, then sold it

We lost my dad

We designed and built another house- most of which was built by Mark's two hands

We had another baby

We moved into that house {at my urging} a little pre-maturely - running water came soon after and really, who needs door knobs...? [SO SORRY I RUSHED YOU HONEY]

We had yet another and final baby

Mark promoted to Lieutenant

We built (are building) a "barn"...

That's just to name a few things. 

There's all the first days of school (coming up on a fourth grader, first grader, and two pre-schoolers), sports, more special, special people lost, learning to ride bikes, first sleepovers, a family trip to Disneyland, boats, campers and travel trailers, and all the fun annual traditions we can think of to squeeze in.

I can't imagine sitting twiddling my thumbs. 

I really don't know if that day will come, with the fast pace we've set for ourselves- it's looking doubtful...

But if ever there was another soul I'd like to navigate these white waters with, it will always be my better half.
There's no one more funny, kind, or generous.  I couldn't have asked for a better husband, best friend or father for my children.  He's ambitious, with an enviable work ethic, and able to do or build anything we dream up.

Time and time again, I will always choose him.

Here's to another 10 years of whirlwinds.