Tab and I are celebrating FOURTEEN YEARS of marriage today! Every year I share something about marriage on this day. To change it up a bit, I thought I’d share FOURTEEN little fun facts/stories about us.
#1 We met in 2003 at Arkansas State through a mutual friend and I actually got his number. The church I attended while at college was hosting an “Arkansas State Sunday” {I’m pretty sure they called it something else but I can’t remember.} so it was all themed around the university. I invited he and our friend to church and guess what….they didn’t come! {Spoiler alert-two years later Tab was regretting that decision. ha!}
#2 We bumped into each other two years later at our campus apartment pool and this time was a bit different. My roommates and I invited he and his friends to our house for “Taco Night”. Unbeknownst to us, he never extended the invitation to his roommates. So that evening Tab walked into an apartment with four girls…well played, Tab.
#3 We started dating and texting…do you remember cell phones back in 2004? I stayed at school that summer taking a couple classes and I remember texting him all through class. I didn’t know how to space properly and my texts all looked like this…
Hi.Do.you.wanna.meet.at.the.cafeteria.after.my.class.I’ll.be.out.in.ten.minutes.
#4 Tab graduated December of 2004 and at that point we were one hundred percent sure we were getting married. The only thing missing was a salary for a ring to seal the deal. He contemplated staying in Arkansas for a job there or moving to Dallas to start a career in the city. The prospective company flew us both to Dallas to check it out {which as technically just the girlfriend I thought this was super cool}.
#5 That’s how we got ourselves to Dallas, Texas, and eventually made our way to the beautiful suburbs of McKinney. When we began house shopping we pretty much looked at every suburb in the area before landing here. I’m so very glad we did-you know how much I love McKinney. Our top contenders were Rockwall, Frisco, and McKinney.
#6 Our very favorite show to watch together is Dateline. Give us a Friday night with a Dateline episode and we’re HAPPY.
#7 I’m backtracking a little here but Tab proposed on top of the Peabody Hotel in Memphis, Tennessee. You know the hotel where the ducks march through on the daily? That’s the one! I was shocked and had no clue he was in town…it was absolutely perfect! One of my college roommates hid in the background and took pictures for us. We really should take our kiddos on a Peabody Hotel at some point.
#8 I typically tag along to one of Tab’s football games solo every year. This year we’re hitting up a new-to-us-stadium and I’m super pumped about it!
#9 Tab and I both have birthdays in August. Ebby Lee and Nixon both have birthdays in April. Bowen and Britt both have birthdays in November. Apparently, we work in pairs around here.
#10 When we brought newborn Ebby Lee home from the hospital, new mom, Erika, fit into NO CLOTHES. Tab said that he’d stay with baby Ebby Lee so I could run to the store to grab a few things. I remember leaving and hearing Tab say they were gonna read a bible story. My newly hormonal self could NOT handle that-I’m pretty sure I cried ALL THE WAY to the store.
#11 Tab has a hidden talent…he can beat box. Now he’s very picky about when he shows this secret skill. If you met him on the street and asked, he’d pretend like he doesn’t even know what you’re talking about. But he can…trust me.
#12 We once had Thanksgiving dinner at the same table as Joe Buck, TROY AIKMAN, and Cris Collinsworth. I’m not gonna lie…I had a really hard time focusing on my meal. 😉
#13 It’s safe to say when we started dating that old saying, “When you know, you know” just rang true. Everything felt a little different and we were talking marriage just a few months into our relationship.
14. Marriage is HARD, trust me-I get it. You’ll never hear me say it’s easy. Tab and I both come from broken homes…let me add-our homes were super loving and we were blessed with amazing parents. But I think they’d all agree that divorce makes the family dynamic tough on everyone-kids and parents alike. Even now at holidays, instead of having two sets of grandparents to juggle seeing, we have way more. This is something Tab and I work very hard at it. Do we always get it right? No! We fight and argue just like everyone else, but we’re committed to making this work {and if you’re committed to something-you should make it fun, right?} and making it successful. Needless to say, FOURTEEN YEARS is something to celebrate. We’re gonna do just that tonight…at a first grade flag football game. In honor of the day, maybe we’ll spring for an icee and a popcorn.
HAPPY FOURTEEN YEARS, TAB SLAUGHTER!
I LOVE YOU!
XO
