Celebrating Five Years of Wedded Bliss

Today is our 5th anniversary.  To say we've been busy is an understatement.  We started off by getting married less than a year and a half after starting to date.  Before we even got married, we were working on a minor remodel of my house in Georgia.  And right before we got married, we decided to embark on an adventure in Knoxville, TN.  Dan had worked for WestPoint Stevens textile manufacturing company (where we met) for approximately 15 years in various accounting positions (tax, internal audit, assistant controller, etc.).  And the time had come to get out of textiles.  So Dan had started interviewing some.  He also started entertaining the idea of taking up an old friend on a standing-offer of being her partner in her accounting firm in Knoxville.  He was extremely interested in the thought of being his own boss and being a business owner... and never having to go through the interview process again.
** Yes, that's a coconut in my hands!

Knoxville, here we come!  We listed the house with a real estate agent in early July and headed to Knoxville to look at houses.  Within an hour of putting a sign in our front yard, our agent had an offer and called us while we were looking at houses in Knoxville!  By the end of August, we had closed the deal on yet another fixer-upper, which we did not want.  But we tried and tried to find a newer house that would work for us and just couldn't find it in the area where we were looking.  So we immediately started work on remodeling our 1959 basement rancher.  And 5 years later, we're still working on it.  But things have slowed down a bit due to babies, lack of time, and lack of money!

In the midst of everything we had going on, such as being newlyweds, living in a new city, Dan essentially starting a new career, me adjusting to life away from family and friends and working from home, we decided to start a family.  Due to our ages, we really didn't have the luxury of waiting and just enjoying being married for a while.  Sadly, our first two pregnancies ended in early miscarriages.  So we started seeing a great fertility specialist and found out the problem ~ I have a blood clotting disorder.  Or in medical terms, I have one of the causes (PAI-1 - Homozygote (4G/4G)) of thrombophilia, which is a disorder of the blood coagulation (clotting) mechanism which tilts the balance toward too much tendency to form or maintain blood clots.  And it is a cause of recurrent miscarriage {which doctors just discovered in the last 7 or 8 years}.  Anyway, I'm talking about this in case anyone experiencing recurrent miscarriages happens to come across this.  We consider ourselves very fortunate because my condition is highly treatable.  I can get pregnant without a problem.  In fact, for all 4 pregnancies, I got pregnant the 2nd month we tried.  My problem is that I can't stay pregnant without some help.  In the early part of the pregnancy, I have to take progesterone.  And I also have to do blood thinner injections in my belly (Lovenox shots) throughout my entire pregnancy.  But again, we consider ourselves very fortunate that's all we have to do to be blessed with a baby.  And now we have two beautiful baby boys.  And they are worth everything I had to go through to get them.

So here we are 5 years later... parents to a 2 1/2 year old and a 1 year old.  Happy 5th Anniversary to my wonderful husband, Dan!  Further proof as to how busy we are is the fact that I forgot to buy an anniversary card for my husband.  A couple of weeks ago, I went shopping for the many, many cards I needed for all the occasions we have in the month of May and somehow I forgot an anniversary card!  So I found a 'backup' Valentine's Day card I've had in a drawer for a couple of years and used that.  Sorry honey!  But as Dan said, it is fitting in regards to where we are in our lives right now.       

And to Peter Island Resort, British Virgin Islands... we'll see you again in 5 years for our 10th anniversary!  One way or another, we're getting back there.  Oh, and to those who remember the contest where I was trying to win a Signe Grushovenko painting of me with my two brothers.  I didn't win the contest... someone else's painting got more votes.  But my very sweet husband did buy the painting for me as an anniversary present.  So now I'm the proud owner of a Signe painting.  And believe me, it is much prettier in person.  But here's a photo of it.  Thank you honey!  Now I want another one of her paintings.  {Signe and her husband, Genna, own 'Artists in Residence' in LaGrange, GA.  Check out their website by clicking here.}