It's our anniversary

I was suppose to post this yesterday on Monday November 17Th....Today is mine and Royce's 13Th wedding anniversary. We love to celebrate our marriage and the love that we have for one another. We were married on a Friday in the Seattle Temple. We invited only those that we felt close to and love to attend the Temple with us. Brother Britt was our officiator and read the most lovely poem for us, it was more counsel than a poem, we have read it more than once or twice in the time we have been together. I am so thankful that I listened to the holy spirit and gave complete trust in our Heavenly Father. I wasn't looking for a relationship let alone marriage so to have Royce come into my life was in my opinion, an unexpected bump in the road. I had been married for a few years then was divorced for about 2 and a half years and a single mother when Royce came into my life. Long story short I was still a scorned woman, with a few issues when it came to men in general. Royce hung around and worked a few bricks loose out of my walls. We also (while freshly dating) attended this 6 or 8 week course by Dr. John Lund and it was in one of his seminars that a light bulb clicked on for me and I REALLY got the bigger picture on my past relationship...very healing seminar. After Royce and I married he took off back to Hawaii with the military for a couple of weeks then was home then off to Hawaii again. We post-poned our "honeymoon" until June partly due to Royce and his time with the military training stuff... holidays etc. He then surprised me in late May that we were finally taking our honeymoon to Hawaii which he completely planned all on his own, made all the reservations, flight arrangements everything!! we flew over in a C-14 with the military and paid a whole 5 bucks which was for our lunch that we ate..otherwise it would have been a free flight. :)
Here we are ready to go out for dinner to celebrate the 13 years that has been shared together. In the time we have been married there have been many things come to pass. Royce left the military a few months after our son Zachariah was born. We moved from Lakewood Washington to Grand Junction Colorado where Royce began his College education. Less than a year later we moved to American Canyon California which is in Napa County (truly beautiful) and Royce continued College (by now he had decided he wanted to be a chiropractor) we lived there until Royce had pretty much maxed out what Napa J.C. could offer. I had gotten a job with Outback Steakhouse and later Royce joined the crew too, the restaurant was over 30 miles away from where we were currently living so I found us a house less than 5 miles away from the restaurant and Diablo Valley College which Royce had transferred to and had been attending for close to a semester, so we moved to Concord Ca. to be closer to everything. While living there I got pregnant with Janelle and took on a job with Bank of America as well as the restaurant at night a few days a week. The bank offered fabulous medical benefits that we needed. I hated my bank job but stuck with it until I left for maternity leave..I never returned to the bank job. I did go back to the restaurant and started school for myself. At the same time Royce began Chiropractic College so for the next year we played tag team and took turns being at home with the kids. I finished massage school and Royce plugged away at school too. We then got news somewhere in the midst of my massage school time that I was pregnant again (a total miracle) some know the story behind that but anyhow..Malia was born in January of 2003. In July of 2003 we packed the entire family up and moved us out to Ponca City Oklahoma. Royce's uncle had a farm house sitting on 7 acres that was offered to us to live in and cut down on expenses, we could see Royce's grandma and grandpa's house from our dinning room across the horse pasture, it was a lovely place to live and so enjoyable to be close to family. Royce went back to Oakland, Ca. and lived at his dad's house in the separate entrance apartment of the house to continue his schooling flying out to Oklahoma as often as possible which was about every 5 to 6 weeks.
We finally after a year of that couldn't stand it any more so in August we moved all of us back to California, now in Hayward Ca. and less than 5 min away from the College where Royce was now doing his clinical hours and internship. I took a job in San Francisco and rode the Bart train into work everyday (I really liked working with all the different doctors there) plus it was really pretty cool to work in such a fascinating city.

This is us at lunch on our anniversary, we had a tail gate lunch down at the water front and listened to the end of Rush Limbaugh and the beginnings of Shawn Hannity (romantic huh?) lol the sun was out and really any time together is good time spent.

Royce finished his internship and we moved far far north to a coastal town still in California. We are about 100 miles south of the Oregon boarder. Royce has been practicing Chiropractic here in Eureka for almost 3 years now. I opened my own massage studio 1 year ago next month. Royce's patients absolutely love him, he is a fantastic doctor, I see several of his patients and in time our goal is to practice under the same roof, they would really appreciate that. (my clients love me too) :)

This is a quick picture Royce took of us yesterday at lunch time as well, since the sun was out we soaked it up and took the opportunity to catch us in it! (It had been raining for 2 weeks here) so the sun was very welcoming.

We are so blessed to have one another and to be blessed with our children that are growing up so fast. We love being together and spending time together as a couple and also as a family. We can often be found hiking, camping playing disc golf and playing games together, as a couple but more often as a family.

Some of the things that I love about being married to Royce are:

When it has been our anniversary EVERY YEAR Royce grabs me and dances me around singing the first song on this play list (this year I hobbled due to my broken toe and very painful foot) he often sings it off and on the rest of the day ( it's very sweet and cute) The 5 other songs are songs that are "us" the doors song has a story behind it..Royce likes the doors and at one point in our relationship he said "We need to have a doors song that can be called "Our Song" so this is the one that became "or song" out of all that they recorded, it fits us and meets Royce's criteria of being an official doors song. All the songs on the play list are us but the top six songs today are solely Royce and I songs.

I love how Royce makes me laugh and how he finds me funny too and finds humor in the things that I do. I love that he appreciates all that I do for us and our family. I love that he supports us, our family our dreams and our goals. I love that we all go to church together as a family. I love that Royce enjoys his calling working with the Young Men and that he serves with honor. I love that he is an honorable priesthood holder and leader. I love that we are a team and always stick together on things (even if we disagree behind closed doors) when it comes the kids we are definitely a team that is on the same page. I truly love that he supports me in my calling. I love that we don't fight or argue, we sometimes have to agree to disagree but it is always done peacefully. I love that Royce has always supported me in being a mother first and for most. I have had to work outside of the home off and on in our marriage, and that is something I took on so that he could go to college, it was a deal made between us when he left the military. I love that he supports me in my own quest for knowledge and has so willingly shared his knowledge with me, from scripture to text books he is always so willing to share. I also really appreciate him helping me study for hours on end so I could graduate with a 4.0 (that was important to me at the time) I love that he asked me help him study so I could learn as much as I have about a ton of science stuff and about our bodies ( I am not a science fan) so I really appreciate that Royce could bring it to my level of understanding. I love that Royce can cook (he's a REALLY good cook) and is happy to help with craft projects (he's really talented and creative) I love that we have our own seasonal traditions and Royce "gets into" them just as much as I do. I love that Royce is developing his talent with singing (he has a gorgeous tenor voice) I love that Royce truly enjoys being a Daddy and is an amazing father. He is so good to take time when he gets home to be a dad and play with the kids (he ALWAYS plays with the kids) I love that Royce loves me and loves me for who I am and hasn't tried to change me to accommodate him or change a view point that may differ from his. I love that he respects me. I love that he honors our marriage. I love Royce and I know that he loves me more than I truly understand (that is mutual though) I love that he tells his patients how much he adores me and how he speaks so highly of me ( his patients always tell me how much he adores and loves me) I love that Royce is truly a genuine good man, he is a wonderful husband and companion. I love that we are crazy enough to drive half way across the country and we still love each other once we arrive. I love that we went to the Grand Canyon together as a family, that we have gone to Yosemite together, all have such good fun memories. We have gone camping and hiked more miles than I care to admit. I love how much we both enjoy taking our family and making all these good memories together. I look forward to the day when we can go together and serve a mission together. I look forward to getting scuba certified so we can do that together. I love that we continue to set goals and to work together to accomplish them. I also love that we can call each other on things when we are lacking in productivity of accomplishing goals and we don't make it into a huge ordeal or a mountain out of a mole hill, I love the honesty, trust and devotion that we both have for one another. I love our marriage, I love my husband, I love our family, I love all that we have accomplished and created together and am happy to celebrate the 13 years that have been so well spent, I look forward to many many more years.