Our Tenth Wedding Anniversary

Ten years ago today I became Mrs. McMillan.

Well, not exactly.

I didn't change my name until almost a year after we were married and even then I didn't get rid of my maiden name and chose to hyphenate my last name. And yes, my last name is sort of long and both names start with "Mc", but it is my last name. It's how I sign pretty much everything except for anything having to do with my past real estate career.

Anyway...

Ten years ago I married Big Daddy in the Church that I grew up in. We were babies. I was 22 and he was 24. We had a very small ceremony with only the family that we're the closest to and a few friends, but my Daddy did walk me down the aisle. It was the way that we wanted it to be, much to the dismay of my future mother-in-law. I think we planned it all in about three months, but I'm not sure. I had my four best friends from high school and Big Daddy had his three best friends from college. (He would have had four friends there too, but Huu was in New Guinea with the Peace Corps.) I picked out my cake, flowers and invitations pretty much on my own. My mom was always ready to give her opinion or advice, but she never pushed what she wanted. I loved my flowers and I still love my invitations so much. It was not the happiest day of my life and I feel completely okay saying that.

Now, we'll just skip to a few of my favorite moments with Big Daddy that have happened over the past ten years!

• I used to love when we first got married and we had lunch together almost every day. After almost four and a half years of not seeing each other on a daily basis it was an exciting event.
• On Friday evening after work we used to go to Raleigh and eat or shop and I loved that.
• For several months we ate at our favorite Mexican restaurant every Thursday night and then Big Daddy's friend Kevin would come over and they would watch wrestling. I miss Kevin, but not the wrestling part!
  

Fast forward...

• I can go back to the day that Maggie was born so easily. I remember Big Daddy asking Peg if he could "catch" her and then they talked about old t.v. shows.
• I remember how Big Daddy tried to act calm and not look worried when he was paged back to labor & delivery when Maggie was in crisis.
• I remember when the rolled my bed out of the recovery room and the first thing I saw was Big Daddy, surrounded by my family and two of my friends, walking out of the nursery towards me with our baby.
• I remember him taking pictures the first time that I held and nursed Maggie.
• I remember how excited he was to give me a pearl necklace and earrings the night that Maggie was born.
• I remember how he helped me walk and get to the bathroom the first day that I was allowed out of bed.
• I remember thinking that real love must feel like that.
• I remember how much he worried right along with me over every little thing that happened with Maggie during our first few weeks as new parents.
  
• I remember how he would have paid any amount of money and bought anything that would help me or Maggie in any way.
• I loved the way that he smiled when Maggie saw the ocean for the first time at almost 4 months old.
  

And then I go immediately to Ellie's birth...

• He was excited and nervous and tried to be supportive the first day that I was in labor.
• He was just as disappointed as I was when Ellie wasn't born that Friday night.
• He walked and walked and walked with me on Saturday before my contractions were too bad for me to walk anymore.
• He tried his best to make me feel better and didn't get too mad when I said mean things to him.
• He wanted me to get an epidural just so that I would feel better.
• He wanted Ellie to be born by VBAC just as much as I did.
• He stayed with me for every push and helped me when everyone else left the room to discuss doing a c-section. He told me that I had to get her out before they did it.
  
• He smiled so big when he saw Ellie's head and he totally cheered me on when she was oh so stuck,but almost out.
  
• He says that watching her come out was one of the best things in the world.
• I love watching the video of when they handed her to me. Big Daddy was holding the camera in one hand and rubbing my hair with the other.
  
• He was right by my side when I passed out the first time (on the toilet no less) that I was out of bed when Ellie was born.
• He got up with me every time during the night for the first week and he tried his best to help in every way that he could.

Now, my favorite times with him are usually when we're somewhere special. I love going to the river or hiking or to the bog gardens with him. I'm looking forward to going to the beach without the kids sometime (hopefully) soon and spending an entire day sitting in the sand with him. I like going to Church with him and going to a Church that he loves is the best. I really like when we go to ChickFilA and we hear a song and he says, "isn't that the song from Church that we like?". He just realized a few weeks ago that they play some of the same songs that we sing in our Praise and Worship services. I like taking him somewhere that he always wanted to go when he was a little kid because he didn't travel very much with his parents. I (secretly) sort of like when he gets a black eye or a big bruise from fighting because he loves to fight. I like looking at guns and cars with him because he loves guns and cars.

And I could go on and on. I hope that one day Maggie & Ellie will be able to read this and realize that their Daddy and I love each other all there is...even though we don't always like each other.

I'm SO looking forward to going out to dinner tonight. Maggie has been so very four this week and Ellie pooped at least five times yesterday. I would have hated changing any kind of poopy diapers no matter what, but I really don't like poopy cloth diapers.

Happy Anniversary to us!