Two are Better than One...Year After Year

July 10, 2014. The day I have been dreading all summer long. Future holidays with our families will be difficult, but this holiday was OURS! HE is the only one who could really celebrate it with me.  I don’t really have a lot to say that will be eloquent or meaningful to anyone but myself, but I want to take some time on the first wedding anniversary that I'll spend without him to celebrate this date in years past.

July 10, 2010 was a day greeted with MUCH anticipation and joy! We dreamed of it and certainly counted the days. What an amazing concept, this marriage thing. It takes two individuals and makes them into one, for better or worse. I'm grateful ours was for the better :)  It was a hot, humid day in south MS...but it was the perfect day. OUR perfect day. I'm grateful for every memory associated with it.

 He gave me this precious Willow Tree figurine {I collect those} and I gave him monogrammed cuff links.

Here are some of my favorite pictures from my favorite day:

{photos by amanda scott photography}

 For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh; so then they are no longer two, but one flesh.  Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.

Mark 10: 7-9

BEST.DAY.EVER.

July 10, 2011 was spent on an anniversary trip to Atlanta. We stopped and spent some time in Chattanooga on the way. We ate at Cheeburger Cheeburger, walked around town, and went to Ruby Falls.  We had a lot of fun in the ATL going to Six Flags and the water park.  Bradford had gotten some free tickets to the movies through some kind of promotion at work for selling the most shoes {or something like that}.  There wasn't a Regal theater near us so we used those while we were there.

One thing I learned about Bradford on this trip was that he laughed hysterically on roller coaster rides!  Me screaming + him laughing = the most fun!  What a fun trip :)

Our wedding cake was REALLY good!

Traditional gift for 1^st Anniversary: Paper 

We thought our tickets to everything we went to COULD’VE counted, but that was kind of boring, so we decided to have a caricature drawn of us.  We thought it kind of fit us :)

We went to dinner on July 10, 2012 and decided to wait and do our trip over Labor Day weekend that year.  We had a WONDERFUL dinner at Ruth’s Chris.  Funny story…we were kind of wowed that they cook your steak on your plate in the oven.  We even read the caution sign on the menu.  The waiter placed my plate before me…crooked.  Forgetting everything we just discussed, my OCD tendencies kicked in and I attempted to straighten it, cooking through 5 layers of skin and leaving a permanent scar.  Ok, so maybe it wasn’t THAT bad, but it hurt worse than I could let out at this fancy restaurant.  BTW, they had the best $20 side salad I’ve ever had.

Traditional gift for 2^nd Anniversary: Cotton

He knew how much I loved chevron and purses, so he got me a chevron purse!  Obviously, he had to get a Manchester United shirt :)

During the summer of 2013, I spent a month traveling around TN preparing and training teachers on the Common Core State Standards.  Our anniversary fell on my first week of presenting as a Core Coach and I was out of town in Savannah, TN (about 2 hours away).  We decided we would wait and celebrate the following weekend.  PSHHHH!  Once I got back to my room for the day I called him.  We decided we just couldn’t take it and HAD to see each other!  Guess what just happened to be {pretty close to} smack dab in the middle of us?  Good ol’ Henderson, TN...the place we first laid eyes on each other at FHU.  We met and had dinner at a Mexican restaurant there.  It was really unusual but kind of cool to have to make plans to see him for dinner like that, knowing we would part ways soon.  Absence does make the heart grow fonder.  {Truly.  I thought I understood this then.}

He got me that dress for my birthday.

 After dinner he told me he had another place he wanted to take me.  Since we did not date when we were at Freed we never went on a “Shell date,” so that’s exactly where we went! Baskin Robbins never tasted as good with any other dates, anyways.

 Traditional gift for 3rd Anniversary: Leather

Isn't this wallet so cute?!  I kind of broke tradition and got him a revolver for his "anniversary / sorry I've gotta be out of town so much this summer" gift.  I had good intentions of getting him a leather holster for it, but that seemed a little too Gunsmoke for me.

Something that is weird but we thought was kind of cool is that we always got a newspaper from whatever city we were in on our anniversary.  When cleaning up the office a few months ago I decided that the front page of these papers would probably suffice.  I would never have enough room to store all of these silly newspapers over the years...

Now, here I am…July 10, 2014.

      I spent a lot of time trying to decide how I would spend the day today.  I can't even describe the anxiety, fear, and sadness I experienced yesterday in anticipation of today.  The day started by driving out to the bike memorial in Trenton, TN at sunrise.

 

And just what does the traditional 4th Anniversary gift happen to be?!

 

You guessed it...FLOWERS!

Ok, so I HAD to do the cheesy fake rose in the mix with a note saying that I would love him until the last flower dies.  It's true :) 

There was a sweet little ladybug on the bike.

     Once I left the memorial, I trucked it back to Brownsville to pick up my next flower arrangement and Stacie before heading to the cemetery.

FYI, the vases these flowers are in are from our wedding.  They lined the aisle that I walked down as a Miss and back up as a MRS.! :)

     Every year {excluding last year} we watched our wedding dvd on our anniversary.  My Timehop  from 2 years ago says I love watching our wedding video...we laugh, I cry, and we laugh some more!  Such fun memories!  I won't lie.  I was nervous about this.  Really.  Really.  Nervous.  It was so emotional to watch it.  There are little things that I had forgotten, and there were many more things that meant so much to me.  Ralph told us that if we kept Christ as the center of our relationship and kept Him first, death is the only thing that would separate us.  Wow.  The looks on our faces showed that we didn't even consider that possibility.  I still can't even fathom that reality.  Very surreal.
     Another gift I gave Bradford on our wedding day was a journal that I kept since we started "talking."  In it was every Facebook message and email we sent throughout our relationship, along with personal thoughts along the way.  I'm thankful to have this documentation of our relationship.  Reading through some of it today made me sad, but it mostly made me happy to have experienced this love.  Everyone thinks THEIR love is the most unique and special.  I KNOW ours was ;)

Boy, can I relate to that sentiment now.

{sorry...I can NOT get this picture to rotate!}

     Stacie surprised me with flowers for my anniversary yesterday.  Aren't they so pretty?!  Thank you for the flowers and going out there with me today, Stacie.  You never know what you're gonna get with me these days, and you continue to show your bravery.  It's amazing to have friends that you can totally be yourself with, constantly lift you up, and that can literally have your back as you do your thing in the cemetery. I love you! P.S. Extra thanks for getting out of bed so early, too!

GET ME OUT OF HERE!  IT'S TIME FOR A ROAD TRIP!

My sweet friend Taylor planned a trip to go see her dad in Georgia and invited me to come along.

Taylor and my "niece," Millie :)

Of course Ollie had to come!  {Bless his heart...he doesn't know WHERE his home is anymore!}

I love this girl SO much!

Ollie thinks he can just roam wherever he pleases.  And he can. :)

Taylor made me an anniversary cake.  We got chocolate wasted ;)

      Taylor, thank you so much for everything you are for me.  You hit high notes by Mariah and are always prepared with peanut butter M&Ms.  You are an incredible voice of reason and provide much needed validation for me.  I am truly blessed to have you in my life, today and every day. I love you! :)

     THANK YOU to everyone who took time out of their day to call, text, or message me today.  It was a tough and emotionally draining day, but it was amazing to be reminded of the support system that I have.  I am sad.  I am hurting.  But boy am I blessed.