10 years

This is my hubby, Ben. He has these beautiful piercing blue eyes and a smile that I just adore. Ten years ago today we were sealed in the St. George, UT, LDS Temple by my grandpa. It was 115 degrees, granted, but it was a wonderful day. When I look back I am amazed at how great our life together has been. We're not perfect, but we have done pretty darn well. We will both say the first year was the hardest and when we look back we kind of laugh at the way we were back then.

We met the day after Valentine's Day, 1997. I was going to SUU (Southern Utah University) in Cedar City, UT, and Ben was attending BYU. One of my best friends was dating--or rather, trying to break up with--Ben's roommate. We invited them over for games and the rest is history. They called later that night to see if we would go with them to the fireside at BYU the next night. Laura, my friend, who was really trying to shake this guy off, tried saying no. I think he was getting the hint so he finally said, "Actually, I'm really calling because Ben is very interested in Julianne." Of course, she said, "We'd be glad to come." :) Thanks for the nudge, Laura! We went with them to the fireside and then we walked back to their apartment. Ben gave me his jacket to wear over my dress. What a gentlemen. Something had definitely started.

The next evening Ben had to work and I was going on a blind date with the cousin of another good friend and we ended up at the same place as Ben's ward's FHE--the skating rink at Seven Peaks in Provo. How uncomfortable I was being there with another guy and I was falling for Ben after only knowing him 2 days! I saw Ben skating around the rink. A couple turns later I saw him grab a cute girl's hand and start skating with her. I thought to myself, "I guess he didn't like me as much as I thought." Ok, it had only been 2 days, but you know...jealousy... :) LOL! This is the funny part--it turned out to be James, Ben's identical twin, with his fiance, Lybi. Hee, hee. Ben had not been able to get off work and was not there. According to his roommate, he was pretty bummed he was not going to be there. Remember, I was on a date with another guy! So, the date ended and I headed back to Lehi with my friend and her hubby (the one whose cousin I was on a date with). About 11 pm I got a call from Ben asking if he could come up and bring me something. Of course he could! Why would I say no? :) He drove from Provo to Lehi to bring me a pie because he worked at Frontier Pies. Then we talked until 2 in the morning. Yes, we talked!

I went home the next morning (Tuesday) only to receive a letter on Wednesday from Ben telling me how much he enjoyed getting to know me that weekend and that he would like to see me again. He had been home from his mission for 2 years and had sworn off dating a little while before he met me. Well, I was it for him. ;) We started e-mailing each other several times a day, visited on weekends (remember we were going to 2 different schools, 3 hours apart), and called each other. Five weeks later, on April 1, he called my parents to ask to marry me (yes, it was April Fool's Day--they were tempted to tell him no just for fun but decided that was a little too cruel of a joke) and of course they said yes. We were then sealed on August 8, 1997.

We have lived in Provo (2 apts.), Michigan (3 different places), Indiana (2 moves there), and finally here to TX (where we've moved 3 times as well). I think we are finally settled and stable in Ben's job. He works for Microsoft now and is loving it. We've moved around a lot to find better job opportunities. I think this will be it for a while so I'm really happy to finally be in a place where I know we'll be staying for a while. We have 4 great kids, 1 boy and 3 girls. What a great family we have together. My brother told me when we were going to get married that we were going to have ugly kids (you know what younger brothers say to bigger sisters...) and boy was he totally wrong. Brandon is one handsome little man and the girls are just as gorgeous as they can be. I'm not biased or anything, though. :) We both have really supportive and loving families who we love to be around (we were both very blessed in the in-law department!). Too bad we don't live near any of them, but that's why we savor our family vacations so much. I couldn't ask for anything else in our life together. Mostly, we are blessed by our Heavenly Father and our Savior, Jesus Christ. We have a solid foundation in our family based on the gospel and what a blessing and feeling of peace that brings to us through our trials. We did get married very quickly, but we knew it was right and we have truly been blessed by making good decisions.

Anyway, Happy Anniversary hon! I love you so much and more every year we are together. Thank you for being such a loving and sweet husband and such a fun dad to the kids. You know they love you, too! Many, many more happy years to come. I can't wait to see what is in our future together. I'm glad I will be with you for eternity. Remember, Hawaii for our 15th! :)