11 years!

i've just gotta say...i'm married to a really good man! God has allowed me to spend 11 years married to kenneth and they've been happy, funny, hectic, crazy, blessed years for sure!

for those of you who don't know, i'll tell you how we met. way back in 1995, my friend kristi literally MADE me go to an NLU football game with her. yes, back then it was Northeast! we sat in the BSU section. we were either winning really well...or losing really bad....because people started leaving the game early. the stands where we were got kinda sparse, and suddenly we were left with a handful of loud-mouth nuts a few rows up from us! kenneth was, obviously, one of those nuts! we all introduced ourselves and cheered the rest of the game together.

kenneth was, without a doubt, hopelessly smitten with me from the very moment he laid eyes on me .... or so i tell it! (wink!) he and his friends were about to leave to go to his house to watch a movie and they invited kristi and me to come. well, we were idiots who apparently had a death-wish and we said yes! i mean, come on. he could have been a serial killer luring us into his torture chamber, but we decided if we were gonna die.....we would die together! turns out, they were all very sweet Christian people and we had a great time.

i gave my phone numbers to kenneth that night but really didn't expect to hear from him. yeah, right. this is what happened the very next day! i worked in the customer service phone center at Entergy, where lots and lots of calls come in every day. i later found out that he took out my number and decided that if he called the center and i happened to answer the phone, he would ask me out for a real date. you know, what are the chances that i would actually get his call with all of those operators there?? so he took a deep breath and pushed 9 to speak with a representative----"Thank you for calling Entergy! This is Tess. May I help you?" hehehehehe! how funny is that??!! (cue the light shining down on us from heaven!) so, we went out that very night! and the rest, as they say, is history!

we met in 1995, got married in 1997, had blake in 2002, and brady came in 2005. we've had such a blessed marriage and i thank God for kenneth and my sweet boys everyday. hopefully the best is yet to come!

today is our anniversary but unfortunately, it was just kinda blah! i was up and at work at 7am and kenneth left right after lunch to go out of town. this morning at work, one of the babies in my care started getting really bad so i had to ride with him in the back of the ambulance to another hospital on transport. that's really NOT a good thing for a nurse that gets CARSICK! ha! i was feeling sort of icky when i got back to my unit but there in the nurses station sat the prettiest bouquet of roses! (cue the light from heaven again!) they were sent from my precious husband at just the right time! the rest of the day was uneventful so i was able to stare at and smell my flowers all day. i suppose it was a good day after all!

kenneth, if you're reading this, please know that i love you til my heart gets sore! you do so much for me and the boys.....and i can't tell you enough thank you for being the best daddy and husband ever. you're the BEST!