Thursday, April 01, 2010

A lot can Happen in 17 Years

Namely:
  • 2 miscarriages
  • 4 rounds of bed rest
  • 4 live births
  • 3 of them were premature births
  • 1 of them resulted in a 1 month NICU stay
  • 5 years (cumulative) of raising Lee's  niece, Lindsy
  • 6 surgeries (3 mine, 2 Lindsy's, and 1 Lee)
  • 3 Grandparents passed away
  • Each of us lost a sibling tragically
  • Lee's parent's moved to Lousiana
  • 3 visits to Lousiana--2 as a family one Lee went himself
  • My parents moved to Milford and back again
  • 5 of my siblings and 1 of Lee's siblings got married
  • Planned and paid for Lindsy's wedding
  • 5 baby blessings (4 of ours, 1 of Lindsy's)
  • 4 children baptized
  • 8 places of residence
  • 13 family members have lived with us at one time or another
  • 4 elderly people lived in our home for paid 24 hour care
  • 2 miserable trips to disneyland
  • 1 awesome trip to Europe
  • 4 fabulous trips to Costa Rica
  • 3 Cruises (two together, one writing one for me)
  • 2 Grandkids, sorta (Lindsy's boys)
  • Built 4 Assisted living Centers
  • Managed 7 Assisted living Centers
  • 65 or so love letters
  • 40 or so chickens
  • 2 dogs
  • 3 cats
  • 2 goats
  • 15 cumulative years of kid's orthidontics
  • 2 5K races
  • Half a dozen fights
  • 3 failed business ventures
  • 12 thriving business ventures
  • 17 cars
  • 1 flood
  • 3 car accidents
  • Thousands of hugs and kisses
  • Every place on the financial spectrum from broke to wealthy
  • 1 college graduation (his)
  • 11 published novels (mine)
  • 80 birthday celebrations
  • 17 christmas mornings together
  • Too many falling outs with family members, most of them recovered from
  • 3 beds (ours, not the kids)
  • 4 painful betrayals from people we loved 
  • About 1,000 jars of canned peaches
  • 6 or so spiritual crisis
  • 6 or so re-conversions
  • 400 or so pounds gained and/or lost
  • 1 deep freezer
  • 1000 utterings (at least) of "What would I do without you?"

21 comments:

Kristina P. said...

Wow! Happy anniversary!

Your anniversary is on April Fools?

Carolyn V. said...

Wow Josi, that's a lot! I'm impressed. =)

Unknown said...

I love this post! You should be a writer or something! :)

Annette Lyon said...

Fantastic list. So much history behind every bullet point.

Happy anniversary!

Happy Mom said...

Wow! Quite the list! Tempts me to do the same and see what my life looks like in list form.

Cluttered Brain said...

Wow! is it your anniversary or something? That is totally cool. What a WILD 17 years.
Maybe your next trip to Disney won't be so bad.

Europe sounds fabulous though.
And 11 novels published...That IS fabulous!!!!

Anna said...

I like that you put the good with the bad. I was thinking about this exact same thing the other day. My 10 year anniversary is in 14 more days. I was thinking of all the bad things that had happened, but also of the good things.

Congrats on the 17 years and congrats on all the great things.

Lacy, Cody, & the girls said...

Hi Josi!
You came & presented in my class today (Mr Batezel's). I came home & googled you. :) (Hope you don't mind). I just wanted to let you know how much I enjoyed hearing your story & how much you have inspired me. I don't want to be a writer, but you have inspired me to be persistant in all I do. You are amazing to me & I thank you for sharing with us today. I am excited to read your books!!
Thanks again!
Hope you have a great day!
Lacy (I sat in the front with the pink sweater & black hat). :)

veronica said...

You got me thinking....
What if someone had shown you this list at the start of the 17 years?

Kathi Oram Peterson said...

That's quite a list!
You almost made me think about doing one...almost. Too scary.
Thanks for sharing pieces of your life. :)

Daron D. Fraley said...

Awesome list. And I'd bet you wouldn't trade any one of the bullets for something else (or very few of them). Isn't it interesting how the difficult times become treasured memories of strength gained, love increased, and prayers answered?

Happy Anniversary!

Stephanie Humphreys said...

Love the list. I may do my own just to see all that has happened over the last couple of decades. Thanks for the idea.

Nancy Campbell Allen said...

Love it, Josi. That's good stuff.

Krista said...

Great list of what life is. Congratulations on making it through together!

Cranberryfries said...

What a great list. We're not even half as far along as you guys are and I dont think I could document things like that. My mind, sometimes.... Happy Anniversary!

An Ordinary Mom said...

Happy Anniversary! What an amazing list ... some day you will have to share some of your experiences. Here is to many more happy years together!

Leslee said...

No one can read a list like that and say you've been lazy or that you haven't lived life to the fullest. Congratulations and Happy anniversary.

alisha said...

Wow - I'd say a lot can happen. I'm not sure that our 11 years have been quite so exciting. :) Maybe come September I'll copy you and see what I can come up with.

Kara said...

Finally catching up on my blog reading -- this is a fabulous post! You've been through so much together. So amazing!!

I may borrow the idea for our anniversary. It's coming up in June. :-) So excited!!

Valerie Ipson said...

Wow, when you put it that way...

I like Veronica's question--if you had known before, would you have signed up for that list?

I have about a year and 10 months till my 30th anniversary. Such a list might be perfect for that occasion if I dare to write it.

Hadley Family said...

:) That's quite a liste and I'm now caught up on your blog. Hope you aren't in comment overload from me!