10 Years Ago...

It's hard to believe that Clay and I celebrated our 10th Wedding Anniversary just over a week ago. Our parents tag-teamed our three E's so that we could go to Savannah for the weekend. We had such a great time reconnecting with each other and just focusing on each other instead of bottles, diapers, homework, dishes, laundry, etc.. We are so lucky to have such a wonderful marriage and have always worked hard to keep each other happy.

We met in July of 1997 and 3 months later we were engaged!!! We met through my Dad who was working for Newton Federal at the time, as was Clay. Clay loves to joke about how my Dad told him about me. He says that he told him that he needed to ask his daughter out. Clay asked how old I was and then said, "She doesn't have a boyfriend does she?" And Randy's reply, was "Well, you know" :-)

When I first met Clay, he came home with Dad for lunch. We had just moved to Dearing Street and Clay's Dad was doing our landscape work. Clay helped Kenneth on Tuesdays when he was off from the bank so I often saw him there working too. I remember him trying to make me laugh once when he was working and it was so not funny. He and Kenneth were putting in a wall at the end of the driveway with cross-ties when I drove up. Dad was standing there talking to them and when I got out I went over to talk to him and he said something like..."We're putting this in so when you come in late you can coast into the driveway." ha ha Very Funny, I thought.

I was working at Belk at the time and a couple of days later I drove up after work and Clay said, "You need to take me shopping so I can use your discount, I need some new pants for work." The next day Clay came over (unannounced) and asked if I could take him shopping. We went to Belk and he didn't buy anything so he suggested we ride up to Uptons. He bought a pair of pants that he never wore! I later found out that he didn't need any pants after all. We then went to Stalvey's for dinner and went to Blockbuster and rented, "One Fine Day." For a non-date it certainly did seem like a date.

The rest is history. We spent everyday after that together. Our first day apart didn't come until he had to go to Athens to Banking School just after we got married. 3 months after our first "non-date" we were in engaged and 9 months later we were married.

On the way down to Savannah we were talking about when were dating and that we could not believe that, it was almost 11 years ago. I had just turned 19 when we got married and Clay was almost 25. We have been blessed with a wonderful marriage and realize that we are very fortunate. We were talking about how young we were and decided that Ella isn't allowed to get married that young. :-)

I married such a wonderful man. He is my everything! Since the babies have been born I really miss him. That might sound cheesy but it's true. We used to spend so much time together after Evan's bedtime, talking and watching tv. Now that time is often interrupted with feedings or a crying baby, but I am still thankful for the season that we are in and so thankful for the interruptions.

He is such a wonderful husband and friend to me and such a wonderful Daddy and friend to our children. Who would have ever thought that 10 years later we would be the Hodges Five!?! When we first started talking about marriage we used to say that we were going to have 3 kids.

He gives so much of his time to our family and does so much around the house for me. To me, he's my best friend, my rock, my strength, my sanity when I don't feel sain, my reality when I'm dreaming, my partner in all things, my calming voice when I'm stressed, my everything, my husband. I don't give him as much credit as he deserves, especially when I get so stressed out about our house. Every morning, he unloads and loads the dishwasher for me and always does the laundry...he's a dream husband...right ladies!?!

To Evan he's a tag-team partner and wrestle buddy, he's a baseball coach, he's a bath time friend, he's a tv partner, he's a snuggle buddy, he's a softy, he's a hero, he's the strongest man in the whole world and best of all he's DADDY.

The 2 hour line that we had to stand in to get reservations for dinner at The Lady and Sons.

Paula Deen's Restaurant

Us Eating at The Lady and Son's

The Best Ever Cupcakes from the Cupcake Emporium. It is a most stop by place if you are ever in Savannah. It's near the square that Forrest Gump was filmed at.

Our Trip...

We even had a great time on the drive down there. We took back roads which was great because I hate riding on I-16. Friday we walked to River Street and ate an early dinner and walked around. We ended up seeing Chocolate Bar while walking back to our hotel. We stopped to find that everything that they served was chocolate!! YUM! Clay had a Chocolate Coffee Martini and I had a Milky Way Martini and we shared a piece of Chocolate Strawberry Cake.

Saturday we had planned to drive out to the beach but they were doing lots of road work so we ended up just riding around and then walked back to River Street. Of course, we couldn't pass up more samples from River Street Sweets. (Yeah, Weight Watchers wasn't a word in my vocabulary that weekend.) We walked through the historic district some more and walked to all of the beautiful squares. And saw tons of Wedding rehearsals and photographs being taken of wedding parties. What a beautiful place to get married. Dinner at The Lady and Son's wasn't until 9:30 so we stopped in a small bar called, "Jen and Friends." It was so tiny but had a great location with tables outside, they call themselves home of the 100 Martinis. We sat outside and enjoyed each other's conversation. We later walked over to The Lady and Sons and had the best dinner ever!!! We both ordered Filet Mignon, which was so tender and juicy! Clay even made the comment that it was worth standing in line 2 hours for. On the way back to our hotel, we walked into a Mexican Restaurant for a couple of drinks and chips.

Sunday morning we walked back to River Street to find something for Evan..."something special that I never had before" is what he requested. We found some "real" pirate money and "real" solider money. (He loved it BTW, and said that it was just what he wanted.) Then we hit the road.

We missed our three E's, especially our biggest E, because he missed us so much, but had a wonderful time. We laughed and said that we wanted to come home just to see our kids but then wanted to stay in Savannah a little longer.

Happy 10th Anniversary Clay, I love you so much! Thanks for everything that you do and for everything that you are.