Valentine's Day 2021

Gifting is not my love language. I like gifts and I like giving gifts but I feel like I'm just terrible at it and especially when it comes to Landin. It seems we are at a point in our lives where if we really want/need something, we usually just buy it for ourselves yet at the same time, I'm pretty frugal so unless it's something we really want/need, I hate to spend money on something we don't need just for the sake of buying something just because the calendar says so. If I'm going to give a gift, I want it to be thoughtful and meaningful and useful.

So...I didn't get Landin anything for Christmas 🙈 I knew he didn't need or want anything (except a Tesla but ya know...) and I really wanted to get him SOMETHING because he absolutely deserves anything and everything he wants (even a Tesla but ya know...) but alas, I couldn't come up with anything and the next thing I knew the day came and went and I had nothing to give him. I decided I was going to redeem myself for Valentine's Day. I had a couple of gift ideas in mind of things I knew he wanted and then he called me the other day and told me he had ordered them all online. So I was back to square one. I roamed Target for like an hour trying to come up with a gift for him. And seriously, I didn't find ANYTHING except a funny card. Ironically, we both kind of HATE store bought cards but I bought it anyway. So at this point, all he's getting for Valentine's Day is a store bought card!

(Sigh)

But I remembered this blog that I created for our first anniversary. I wrote a post of 100 highlights from our marriage in that first year. I thought of all of the fun random stories of adventures and little insignificant but meaningful memories.  They were mostly fun, funny, and lighthearted and I was thinking about how although our marriage is still fun, funny, and lighthearted the tone and depth of our highlights have changed. They aren't all exact moments in time or single events but more of a collection moments, feelings and regular occurrences that have defined who we are a couple. And I must say, I am so in love with and so grateful for who we are and who we have become as a couple and as I've prepared this list of highlights the recurring theme that I love the most about our marriage is that we CHASE DREAMS TOGETHER, with emphasis on the TOGETHER part.

1. The birth of our first child was THE most exhausting experiences of my life. We, unfortunately, stayed up until 1am the night before I went into labor at 5am followed by 24 hours labor. He was born at 5am the next day, which was followed by a whole day of providers coming to see us in the hospital room, followed by a night of little to no sleep as we were waking to every sound of our new baby. Just before we left the hospital a couple days later, I pulled a stitch down there and was in a lot of pain by the time we got home.  I went straight to the tub to a "sits bath" to try to relieve the pain and found myself stuck because I could not get myself out of the tub. I felt so tired and so broken and yet at the same time feeling the new weight of the most important responsibility of my life, caring for our baby. Landin had to rescue me out of the tub, literally pulling me out and we both just cried. It felt like the lowest low of my life but there was an indescribable mutually felt force that pulled us together and bonded us even more strongly together over the course of those first few days. At a time when the typical intimate relationship between husband and wife was completely OUT OF THE QUESTION we felt an immense sense of closeness and intimacy that I don't think we had ever felt before. 

2. Marathon. While we were students, we went from not being runners at all and Landin actually despising running, to not only completing dozens of 5ks, 10ks, half marathons, sprint, olympic, and half ironman triathlons, but completing a marathon. Of course, that was all before we had kids :) It felt like the marathon was the crowning achievement of all of the races we had completed before and although we didn't have plans to run the entire thing together (Landin was capable of running it much faster than I could), Landin ended up staying with me which I really appreciated because I was dealing with a hip/knee issue and really suffered through the last few miles and we were able to cross the finish line together. It's unfortunate now that at the time, we we were too broke to feel justified in paying for the professional photos. ACTUALLY, I assumed they were long gone at this point but after writing that last sentence I just found, paid for and downloaded them. HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY LANDIN! I bought you a meaningful gift :) :) :) 

3. Graduation. I tried to get lucky again and find our graduation photos online so I could purchase them but didn't have luck this time. Anyway, yet another highlight from our marriage is an accomplishment that we achieved together, which was graduating with our bachelor's degrees together. In our first 4 years of marriage, we both worked and studied to get ourselves through school. And even more excitedly, we worked together to payoff all of our student loans last year. We now own our educations free and clear :)

4. Exiting W2 jobs. Not long after having our first child it became clear to us that working typical 9-5 jobs, commuting to and from daycare and work each day, furthering someone ELSE's objectives in life, and then being left with just a few hours each day to spend together as a family was NOT the life we wanted to live. We always knew that we had entrepreneurial spirits and realized it was time to make the leap to find our own path. So we started researching ways to make money, reading books on investing, building wealth, and talking to people who had their own self-employment gigs. Pretty immediately after we started exploring (Spring 2016), Landin quit his advertising job and started training as an appraiser with my brother, Sam. In January of 2017, I started reading a real estate book that challenged the reader to buy a real estate investment property within the next 12 weeks. So, we took the challenge. We bought a second home at the end of March and turned our first into a rental. Those were the first actions we took that eventually lead to where we are now. I quit my job in 2019, and dedicated myself 100% to real estate as an agent, and to manage our real estate portfolio. Landin and I get to work side by side every day in our home and with the help of a wonderful nanny at home, we get to overhear our children laughing and playing, hug and comfort them when they get hurt, and receive sporadic visits, hugs and snuggles from them throughout the work day. And often, we get to take typical work days off completely and spend them with each other and our kids however we want. Sure, it was a little scary in the very beginning to take those leaps, but I am so grateful that TOGETHER we had the courage to shape and build the life of our choice rather than living miserably without taking risks. 

5. Adventures. As much as I enjoy a quiet evening or weekend at home, I love the many many quick lunches dates, nights out, weekend trips, and outings as a family that we've enjoyed together and I think what I love the most about them is that they are frequent and sporadic and not just for special occasions. From the big adventures like traveling to China, Uruguay, Florida, San Diego, Park City, or trips to Disneyland, Washington or Idaho, camping in Moab, or Payson Canyon with family, or the littlest adventures of taking the kids to museums, jump places, to get ice cream, to the zoo, or just to the neighborhood parks, I just love the fact that we take the time to explore and enjoy life and have fun.

6. Good Food. I used to not understand why anyone would spend ridiculous amounts of money on food. I thought why in the world would you spend that kind of money to fill your stomach when you can pay .99 cents for a Wendy's JBC, right?! WRONG! One of the highlights of our marriage has been discovering good food. Whether it's checking out the unique hole in the wall restaurants or getting dressed up nice and splurging on fancy expensive restaurants, we have learned to really enjoy good food. At home, we have progressed from boxed meals to gourmet homemade meals, cooked primarily by Landin and usually including a fancy smoked meat. And I must admit, that Landin is 100% the catalyst for this highlight because if it were left up to me, we'd still be eating boxed meals and eating at cheap chain restaurants. In conjunction with good food, we really enjoy hosting in our home and enjoying good food with good company which has become one of our favorite pastimes.

7. Kayson, Luke, MeiLi & Baby #4. This pretty obviously goes without saying but the greatest accomplishment and highlight of our marriage has been the blessing of becoming parents to our amazing beautiful 3.5 children. From the initial challenges of physically carrying and bringing them into this world and the sleepless nights, to the proud moments of watching them learn to walk, talk, think for themselves and most recently, even ski down a mountain, or the overwhelming journey of navigating the endless books, theories, unsolicited advice and trials and error as we try to figure out how to parent, discipline and raise our kids. It's challenging, stressful, joyful and rewarding and most importantly, its something we've done 100% TOGETHER.

8. Our Cats. Landin had no interest in cats when we got married which was fine for the first couple years of marriage because we couldn't have pets in our apartment. As soon as we bought our first home in 2013, getting a pet was the top of my list. Originally, we thought we'd get a dog but quickly realized between our 7am classes, 8-5pm work schedules, followed by 6pm night classes that having a dog was not going to work. Landin was not very enthusiastic about the idea, but complied with my insisting that we got a cat instead. We brought miss Luna home, he immediately fell in love :) within a few months of getting our first cat, Landin convinced ME that we needed to get a second one to keep Luna company. Luna and Apollo have been our beloved furbabies ever since. They were our babies before our babies, and have continued to show us love, affection and loyalty despite us dragging them through 4 homes, and subjecting them to 3 children who tug and pull and sit on them. 

9. Best Friends. Marriage for us has been incredibly easy and I think it's because of the fact that we have developed a strong friendship. We are best friends. Even after almost 10 years, we love to be together, we can laugh and cry and stay up late talking for hours. We turn to each other for everything. Knowing that I have Landin by my side and that he loves me and cares for me in spite of any and all of my imperfections gives me the strength I need to get through any hard day, challenge, or disappointment that I face. I can't imagine accomplishing ANY of the things we've accomplished together without him. I feel so lucky to get to call him my best friend and partner in life.

10. The little moments. Perhaps, the best highlight of our marriage are those regular recurring moments when we're surrounded by or snuggled up to our precious little people (and even our sweet kitties) and we catch each other's eyes and smile and we don't even need to say a word because we both know we are feeling the same overwhelming gratitude for the beautiful family and life we have built together and we realize how incredibly lucky we are. 

Thank you Landin, for the amazing life you have given me. I am so grateful for you and love you so much. Happy Valentine's Day honey!