8 Years

Everyone,

8 Years ago today I married Juice. With all the cleaning we've been doing, I pulled out my scrapbooks and we looked over our wedding pictures together. We laughed at the picture of Flower (who was 7 at the time) catching the bouquet. I had fun remembering doing line dances with my friends, and watching my niece, Beautiful Rabbit (who was less than 2 at the time) dance along with us. I remember being left behind for the ceremony and seeing the relief on Juice's face when we finally showed up.

Our first year, I remember our tiny apartment at BYU and how I hated walking home to that place. It was all up hill. I remember doing a lot of studying and sleeping in front of Juice's classes. He did the same to mine. I remember graduating from college that year and trying to figure out what in the world I was going to do. I remember working at the MTC that summer and I just kept working there.

Our second year, I remember still being at that BYU apartment with the strange neighbors and the ward that I didn't feel a part of. I remember doing laundry and cleaning the whole place top to bottom on Tuesday, my day off. It didn't take me all day. I remember hanging our clothes to dry on our balcony even though we weren't supposed to. I remember working at the MTC in the cafeteria for 2 shifts, often breakfast and lunch. I remember working 2 Sundays a month and being happy I had an excuse not to go to church for those Sundays. I remember Juice doing A LOT of studying and me doing a lot of scrap booking. I remember he graduated from college that year, and I was chomping at the bit to leave. We spent that summer in my mom's house because grad school didn't start until fall and BYU wanted us out the day after graduation. That was also the year we drove across the country and ended up in Virginia.

Our third year, I remember loving our apartment in Virginia but being alone a lot. I had a full time job at an infertility clinic answering phones and questions. It was nice. I really liked it. Juice also had his first full time job and was going to grad school full time in the evening. His commute started at 6am, took two hours to get him to work (metro/bus rides all the way). He stopped on campus for his classes (which happened to be on his way home) 3 days a week. I picked him up at the metro stop about 20 minutes away from our apartment around 11pm those 3 days. We did this for about 7 months, and decided it wasn't worth it any more. Granted, he had great study time on the metro and hardly ever had homework when he was home. But it was just too far. We needed something closer. I was a little sad to leave because our apartment was by some really great restaurants and near Mount Vernon which I loved. We went there at least once a month. Our place also had work out machines so I used those every day. We moved to our current house in Maryland that year. It was the biggest place we've ever been in! We bought a puppy.

Our fourth year, I started this blog. I started being sick all the time. Oh wait, that was because Butterfly was on her way! My grandpa died that year. We flew to Utah for the funeral. We flew to Utah a month later for Christmas (the one Christmas we've spent there since. Holiday travel is awful.) and I had a baby shower with my family and friends there. Butterfly was born in the spring after I threw up every single day while pregnant with her. I quit my job. I totaled my car. We bought a new one. We took Butterfly to the ocean when she was 3 months old.

Our fifth year, we were busy. Juice graduated from grad school and I made him do the graduation ceremony. Butterfly was growing in leaps and bounds. We flew to Utah a few times that year. We had several visitors. We complained about the humidity in the summer and the lack of snow in the winter. I got a new washer and dryer after fighting my dying one for months. Butterfly took swimming lessons with me. Life move forward at a rapid pace!

Our sixth year, we went to Hawaii with my family. It was great. We took Butterfly on a cruise and had so much fun exploring Hawaii through a toddler's eyes. We became even more active (if that is possible) and Butterfly turned 2 years old. I got pregnant again. Butterfly and I went to Disneyland with my family. I lost the baby and got pregnant again. This time with twins. I spent the rest of that year being pretty miserable and sick. Juice got a promotion at work. I finally convinced him we should buy another car.

Our seventh year, we had the twins. We bought a van. We decided our house was too small for 5 people. We had visitors all summer long to help with the boys; Juice's parents, Flower, Bee. I spent over a month in Utah with my parents. We took the kids to the presidential inauguration. We moved forward with life.

Our eighth year so far, we've exchanged gifts. Sort of. Juice couldn't think of something to get me so I ended up ordering some movies for myself. I got Juice a video game that doesn't work (sad, have to take it back). We went out to dinner tonight while Flower watched the kids. Juice told me all about his performance review he had today and how his boss said that he spent the most time on his review. Why? Because he feels that Juice has the most potential of all his employees and Juice will be his boss's boss one day. Juice is feeling pretty good after that! We also spent a lot of time cleaning our room which hasn't been cleaned probably since our sixth year. Boy does it need it!

Happy anniversary Juice! Love you really really!

Safire