The Joys of the Johnsons: 9 year anniversary

Today, Shane and I celebrate being together for 9 years. We met exactly this day 9 years ago at my best friends house (Krystle) which is Shane's cousin and now we are legally cousins by marriage! Crazy how it all worked out! The added bonus is me and my best friend are still closer then ever and I am so thankful that Shane and I both chose to spend our spring break with our family and friends that year. I think eventually the two of us would have met being that I wanted to go to get-togethers all the time with Krystle and her family , it would have just been at a later time. If you would have asked me at 16 and him at 17 would we still be together 9 years from then I guarantee both of us would of said yes. We knew from early on that we would end up getting married and had the same values on many subjects especially on having children to share our love and happiness with.

It is crazy to think that the first 5 years were spent long-distant. And boy oh boy was it a very hard and trying 5 years to be so far apart, especially when he went to Cisco junior college it was a good 4-5 hour drive from Austin. I look back at those years and I am actually glad that we started that way because we value so much more differently together than other couples might. Every opportunity we had to see each other, we took it and spent the most out of our little time we had together before one of us had to go back home.

The day we got engaged seemed utterly surreal. I really did mess it ALL up and knew Shane was up to something all day (which happened to be my 21st birthday celebration), and I did not know why he seemed SO nervous about my party (so I thought.) I kept asking all day while we were getting ready and checking to make sure we had all of our last minute things before we headed out to hotel if everything was ok, and if I could do anything to help. He finally took a deep breath and proposed to me in my bedroom. I knew something was going to happen, just not that and not in that way. He said he couldn't keep it in any longer, and since I kept asking what was wrong he finally just spilled the beans. He told me his huge plan and that if I just would have waited an hour it would have been in front of all of our family and friends. He did let me know that my mom approved of him taking my hand in marriage and that she gave us her blessing which meant the WORLD to me. As I look back, yes it could have been better, but it was that much more special just being the two of us.

Our wedding happened on 10-10-10 (easy to remember!) and it was in the first semester of my nursing school which was chaotic, but we definitely scaled it down to just being close family and friends and just made it happen in our tiny church St. James Baptist Church with Rev. Lemmons allowing us to join our hands together in marriage in front of God, and all of our loved ones. We cannot wait to do our wedding vow renewal in 10-10-20 and have a huge celebration since we really didn't get to actually celebrate and enjoy everyone's company as much as we would have liked. And maybe, just maybe we can afford to go on an amazing honeymoon in 6 years.

We can't wait to celebrate forever together, and continue to see our family flourish and grow more in faith and happiness! Now we are heading off to dinner just me and Shane. Thanks to my sister-in-law for watching Brielle so we can enjoy a fun date night tonight!