Wednesday, March 21, 2018

Happy 13.

On Monday, this big guy and I celebrated 13 years of marriage.  We decided to celebrate by going to lunch at a brand new restaurant in our neighborhood called Eleven 17 so we could skip those babysitter fees while the kids were in school.  ;)

(Flowery top HERE, wedges HERE, jeans HERE.)

Craig and I met in college when he transferred to Northwestern State from LSU after a "political log-jam" when it came to starting Quarterbacks. I was living my best life at NSU.  NSU was smallish and located in the super quaint Natchitoches, LA where Steel Magnolias was filmed.  I felt comfortable and confident there and it was an amazing time in my life.  #canIgobackanddoitagain?!



It felt like an extension of my high school experience.  I continued dating athletes just like in high school and was teasingly called a "cleat chaser".  

Yeah....#guilty.

I had a ton of friends and was in the best sorority on campus (sorry to the others but...) and was majoring in biology in hopes to become a doctor of some sort.  Life was good at NSU.  I was just coming out of an "it's complicated" style relationship with someone else on the football team when I met Craig.

With Craig, our initial meetings were anything but love at first sight though. He didn't even remember my name for the first few times!  Impressive, right?  haha  

Craig was super rough around the edges and probably the most rebellious guy I'd ever dated.  But this boy had a heart of gold and I could see that at his core.  We started hanging out in 2001...two days after 9/11.  And yes, I think in my mind he was a bit of a fixer-upper for me.  ;)  (Don't worry.  He knows this and is totally fine with me saying it.)  I quickly smoothed out some of his rough edges.  Like wearing your tshirt the right way...not inside out and backward just because.  Why?!  And I'll just say that I was a good influence on him overall.  And he'd say that too.


Our relationship was off and on for years.  I broke up with him when I found out he was going to Denver to train for the NFL draft.  I just wasn't sure I was ready for all that.  But he was persistent and sent me love letters, love emails, called me all the time, worried about my safety while he was states away and just won me over.

We got engaged in Hawaii in 2004.


But had tons of other fun adventures while we were dating.  We always had fun and our personalities were so similiar in a lot of ways (and then totally opposite in others).  It kept it interesting!

We went to the beach with friends of his family and had a blast.




And when Craig was playing in NFL Europe for the Scottish Claymores, I traveled over there to visit for a couple of weeks with his family.



We were married on March 19th, 2005 and honeymooned in Jamaica.


I had two dresses because that was just becoming a thing back then and I wasn't crazy about either one.  Sad, right?



I moved up to Green Bay with him and in the off-season, we took some fun trips.



And then went back to our reality for the new season. 

This was at a kickoff party before the 2005-2006 season.


And since I can't keep y'all here forever, I'll fast-forward past a bunch of stuff and just share some of my favorite pics from over the years.

NSU golf tourny in Shreveport.


Back to Hawaii.





4th of July.


And all the beach trips...









Raise your hand if you think we love the beach.  ;)

It's been 13 years full of ups and downs.  We aren't perfect by any means but we love each other and our little family.  He gets my humor and I laugh at his...even when I don't get it.  He loves to rile up the boys when it's bedtime when I'm trying to get them to calm down and go to sleep.  He leaves his giant shoes everywhere and never replaces the toilet paper roll.  But he also does dishes and laundry without acting like he's doing me a favor which is amazing.

I'm sure I do plenty of things that drive him crazy too but he if he wants to share those he'll have to get his own blog.  ;)

Craig is sweet and goofy and kind and sensitive and a great dad. He's definitely a dreamer while I am a realist so we help balance each other out a lot in that way. We love him so much.

So here's to lucky #13!


Love you, babe.


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8 comments

  1. Love this post! Glad y'all were able to get a day date! Happy Anniversary!

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  2. Happy anniversary!! Loved looking at these old pics :)

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  3. Oh my goodness! I love, love, love all of the throwback pics!! How cute are you two?! Happy anniversary!!

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  4. Happy Happy Anniversary you two!!

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  5. Happy Anniversary! Love seeing ya'll's love story!

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  6. Happy Anniversary !!!

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  7. Happy 13 years of marriage! I celebrated 13 years with my husband this year too. :) All the pictures of you two over the years are great! We love the beach too--so much so that we got married on the beach in Miami on February 26, 2005!

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  8. Happy Anniversary!

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