The Story of Us

Jade & I are high school sweet hearts.  We started dating when I was 14 and he was a mere 16.  Our dear friends Melissa & Dan hooked us up.  We went to a small school with about 400 students so we knew each other, but really not well.  We both were adamant that we didn't want to be hooked up - funny how that works out!  I really wish I had and old picture to post for you!  We have changed so much!  We have officially been a couple for going on 13 years! 

We dated long distance for so much of our relationship!  We both went to SIUC and graduated in 2003.  We got engaged November 1st, 2003 and married March 20th, 2004.  We didn't want to wait to be married for long!  Our first home was a nasty trailer.  We fixed up and made it into our cozy space.  Man alive has my home style changed since then too!  Now we have been married for 5 years, have 2 kids, 2 dogs, and our beautiful home. 

We are best friends, we bicker but rarely fight, and we laugh a lot.  We're very blessed to have grown up together and shared so many milestones with each other.  (Sorry if you are gagging over this, but I do love this man!)

He - as you have read - built our home for us.  I will always "owe" him for that one, and trust me he reminds me often!!  We are blessed to have a super handy family that helped along the way -  thank goodness I grew up with a hands on project family!  We literally did all of the work ourselves except the drywall and the carpet.  The best part is - Jade made all the major structural decisions, etc, and let me do all the design decisions.  He often thought I was nuts - AKA turquoise walls, but when it was all said and done, he agreed it was perfect for our family!

So in a nutshell that's the story of us.  I have so many years that if I told you everything - it'd take days!