Our Story

This whole blogging thing is a world I have never entered. I want to give it a try tho because I feel like I have so much to share and no one to share it with. I want to clear my mind. I mainly want to use this as a way to share helpful hacks that i have discovered since becoming a mom. I’ll give this a shot. My first blog post will be about how I met Branden and a little look into our journey the past 6.5 years. 🙂

blog background photo credit: http://www.sharonelizabethphotography.com Make-up: http://kristinemarieartistry.com Hair: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Chelsea-Styles/101653283263219

I want to start by sharing how I met my hubby. I’m living a real life fairy tale. If you’ve never experienced true love or what its like to find your soul mate then you will probably think I’m lying or putting on a show. I’m not 🙂

July 2008,I moved to Wisconsin from Virginia because my dad accepted a promotion. I had just turned 17 and was about to enter my senior year of high school. I had met a few friends in the short time I had been there and one saturday morning mid august my brother and I were riding the four-wheeler. I wanted to introduce him to the twin guys that I met, they lived about a mile up the road. We proceeded to leave the driveway. We had to stop because a truck was coming – it was actually the guys that we were about to go see. There were about 3 four-wheelers following. We pulled out after they drove by. We all pulled into the driveway at my new friend’s house one after the next.

Branden was one of the guys on the four-wheeler. I was still wearing the clothes I woke up in and wasn’t wearing any make-up – so embarrassing. He was so cute…he had such a sweet face. He was so tan and his blue eyes just popped! HE WOULDN’T LOOK AT ME! This is going to sound cocky but at that time in my life guys were looking at me-especially since I was the new girl in this small little town. Come to find out he wasn’t trying because he thought I was 13 or 14. WHA?!!? okay…im not that shocked…people always said i looked really young. Anyways he found out i was closer to his age and that night we all went to the fair together. Branden and I exchanged phone numbers. Three days later on August 18,2008, he showed up to my house in his barn clothes smelling like cow poo and asked me to be his girlfriend. I told him before I respond i need to know if he would be willing to move to VA with me in the near future. Without hesitation he said yes, i was pretty surprised. That is a big commitment considering he only knew me for 3 days so of course I said yes!

We spent every day together. We dated through our senior year. We graduated together in June 2009. Branden went on to work on the farm in the morning and at night and went to college an hour away every day. I went on working my part-time job at a plant nursery and I picked up a full-time job at a call center working for AT&T. While working at my part-time job that summer, one of my customers asked me to come work for her at the Lambeau Field. At first I declined she came back a month later and asked me again and I decided to accept. I kept my part-time and my full-time job and worked at the Lambeau field when there was an at home packer game. I worked all the time and so did Branden when he wasn’t at school.We saved up money this way and again we still found time to see each other every day!

Fast Forward…

On June 26, 2010, I got in an argument with my mom over the phone. When Branden came over I was crying. He said “lets walk outside and you can tell me what happened.” We started walking and I’m all like “blah blah blah.” (lol)  By the time I’m done venting we had made it to the large pond in my backyard. He began talking about how much his life had changed for the better since he met me. (I’m still clueless because he always says stuff like that) We made it all the way around the pond he then hugged me from behind and he got reallll serious. Saying how he would be lost without me and how couldn’t imagine going forward in his life with out me by his side and all that cute, sweet, sappy stuff. He made his way down on one knee and of course i start balling and said yes. He picked out the ring that we looked at 6 months ago! He was wearing his barn clothes and smelled like cow poo again. haha. He didn’t want me to know what he was going to do since he knows i have crazy investigative skills.

Once we got engaged, we joined our bank accounts and began paying off vehicle loans and school loans, etc. In November 2010, we moved to VA. Branden got a job as a diesel mechanic and about a month later I got my insurance license and worked at GEICO. In July 2011, we bought our first home! Huge accomplishment for us! I had just turned 19 and Branden had just turned 20! We skipped the renting stage, thank God! We didn’t move in together until after we got married in September. The house was so little – 980 Sq. ft, 3 bedrooms, 2 bath. But it was ours!!

On September 24, 2011 Branden and I got married in VA beach. We rented a beach house because most of the people who were coming were out-of-state or had a long drive. The plan was to have my dream beach wedding. It rained hard on our wedding day and I had to come to terms with the fact that I wouldn’t be getting my beach wedding – i cried like the dramatic bride that I was. But by time I walked down the aisle I didn’t care that we were all crammed in this little beach house, it could be an alley in the Bronx with dumpsters everywhere for all I care… I was marrying my best friend..finally!! 🙂

We listed our tiny house in the summer 2012. We loved that house but we didn’t have any intentions on staying there. We got super lucky and sold it within two days!! We were not expecting to sell it so quickly so we moved into my parents house for about 2 months while we were closing on our new house. The seller flipped houses including ours and he had connections with an appraisor. The appraisal was way higher than the value of the house, thankfully our bank noticed that and sent their own appraiser. This made the buying process take forever!! At the end of November in 2012 we finally closed on our house. It was the last thing on our to-do list before we could start trying for a baby! We live on 5 acres and now have 5 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms. I love our house and this is where i want to raise our babies – we have the space we need and plenty of privacy.

We have been married for 3.5 years now and I can say we have had an amazing marriage. We bicker like any couple but we work great together. I was so afraid of the first year, i heard its the hardest because you have to learn to live together but it was nothing like that at all. We are on the same page about how to handle finances and how to raise/discipline our children which are two things that can cause a lot of turmoil in a marriage.

photo credit: http://www.sharonelizabethphotography.com Make-up: http://kristinemarieartistry.com Hair: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Chelsea-Styles/101653283263219