To my Max! J He woke up this morning as a twenty-seven year old! My wish for him is to have a wonderful and relaxing day… Although I highly doubt the relaxing part will come true because he took the day off and is home with the kids! What a man to want to spend his birthday taking care of a four year old monster, and a 2 ½ month old monster-in- training…. But, that’s just who Max is. Each year I spend with him I find myself wondering what the hell I could have ever done to deserve this man… The other day I was in the car and heard the song, “I thought I loved you then” by Brad Paisley. I’m not a huge fan of Brad, (mainly because most of his songs revolve around fishing and other manish-hick stuff) but I will admit that song is sweet. It made me start to think how very true that feeling is in relationships! I first met Max when I was 17 and he had just turned 20 (big age difference back then, I know, I know). We met through mutual friends and something just kind of clicked. We started slowly spending time together and I guess you could say eventually became a ‘thing’… I had an ‘on again/off again’ relationship ship throughout most of high school and getting to know Max was just so refreshing as I could tell right away that he was just a genuinely NICE guy. In addition to nice, Max was also extremely SHY back then….Although most of our relationship was pretty low-key, we always had so much random fun together whether we were at a party at the ‘ghetto’ or the ‘pig farms’ or just hanging out in the shed (seriously, you know you are from a small town when these are the names of parties you went to). Our relationship was never very serious, but I have such great memories of random things we would do, like camping out in a sleeping bag on a hill outside of his parents house one night, or getting a flat tire on his truck at a party just as we were leaving, and many many poker nights spent in the learning center with friends… After our relationship eventually ended, we still kept in touch, even as we both eventually found ourselves in new relationships with other people.
A LOT changed over those next few years, but at one point or another, Max and I both ended our relationships that we’d been in and we started spending time together again- now, with little Ryder in the picture too. It felt like whatever piece had been missing when we were younger was suddenly there and it just felt right. I can honestly say that right away when we were together again, I was pretty confident that I would marry Max, and somehow, I knew he felt the same. Our first real “date” out of the house was a football game on Halloween. My brother was a senior that year and we wanted to go watch him play, so we dressed up ryder (as a monkey) and headed to the game. I was pretty convinced that I could not possibly love max more than at that moment after spending the night with a crying one year old in the car and watching a high school football game with me and my family, while all of his other friends were out celebrating Halloween in the bars. I was wrong.
In June of that year, Max got down on one knee as we were watching the sunset on our front porch and asked me to marry him… I must have said yes, because on a beautiful September day that fall, I met him down the isle and became his Mrs. After getting to know Max as my husband and father figure to my son that year, I was pretty sure I couldn’t love him more. Wrong again.
In October, Max became daddy to one beautiful little girl, Piper Grace. I am absolutely certain that there is something magical that goes on between daddies and little girls. I can’t describe the way Max looks at Piper and the way she looks back up at him. Don’t get me wrong, I know she loves her mommy too, but she really does light up around her daddy. And why wouldn’t she? He is the most patient man I have ever known, and he knows how to take care of his family in every way possible. From day one (even when I was nursing) Max would get up with Piper in the middle of the night without a single complaint. He comes home from work and is bombarded with requests from Ryder to play with him, and he drops everything to spend some time with him before getting supper started. After supper, he even helps me clean up All in all, I just love him—like crazy. So there.
Bet ya didn’t think you were in for a love story today, did ya?! Me either!! It just sort of happened, my apologies…. Just thought Max has earned a well deserved shout out on his birthday… And for those of you who are ready to puke or punch me for all this emotional talk, don’t worry. Max is not perfect, and neither is our relationship—I’m sure I will have something negative to bitch about soon -- Until then—deal with it!!
HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!
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