Our Anniversary

February 3rd was our two year anniversary! A couple of months ago, as we were planning a cruise to celebrate, I had to ask Jason how long we have been married! Sometimes, I feel like we have been married forever and can't believe it has only been two years!

Tara and Jason Rickards

Some of our friends say we still act like newlyweds, and I don't see us ever changing. We knew completely what we were getting ourselves into! :-) Here's a little history:

We had been dating pretty seriously when Jason took a job here in town to be closer to me. We were both logging a lot of hours in the car! He spent almost every weekend here and we had started to make some friends that we really enjoyed. We had talked about marriage, but we both knew we weren't ready yet.

We started looking at houses for him and couldn't help planning for the future. After looking at several houses, we came across some models that we really liked. I think it was October and the house wouldn't be finished until February. We thought we would be ready to get married by then, so we bought it. Jason hadn't sold his other house yet, so I put down the deposit. We were both so excited! Jason moved in with my parents, which was just around the corner from me.

We loved watching the new house go up! The kids all put their claim on what room would be theirs and we picked out carpet, cabinets, paint, etc. Sometimes at night, we would hop on the little 50cc motorcycles and drive over to see it.

It was fun dreaming about the future, but as the days got closer, we started to chicken out. We needed more time. Jason wanted me to move into the new house with the kids and he could just stay with my mom until we were ready. I didn't think it was a good idea. We bounced around, back and forth, for a few more months until we decided we were finally ready and a summer wedding would be so fun!

I had been renting a house and gave my landlord notice that I would be moving out. We had already been spending so much time at the new house and had slowly moved a few things over. As we tried to narrow down a date, this time it was Jason that seemed like he wasn't ready! Having been married before, I knew what I needed. I couldn't marry anyone who wasn't head over heels in love with me and ready to move heaven and hell just to be next to me! :-) Somehow it was always okay if I wasn't sure, but if he wasn't sure...

I ran! I'm such a chicken! Luckily, he didn't let me get very far! I suppose that wasn't very fair of me. We knew how happy we were with each other and couldn't imagine our lives without each other, but would we still feel the same way when the butterflies went away? It is hard not to question yourself when you have been wrong before. I understood that and gave him a break. ;-)

My house had already been rented, so we played musical houses I suppose. I moved in with my mom and put some of my stuff in storage. We still spent most of our time and the new house, and continued to drain the storage unit when we needed this or that.

We had a great summer and even went to Italy with my family! Marriage came up ALL the time! Our families would ask us what our time frame was. Our friends would go between forgetting that we weren't married and giving us a hard time and telling us to just get married already! We still talked about it, but I had become more hesitant after our last insident with cold feet.

By early fall, we started looking at rings more often and talking more seriously setting a date. Jason said he was really ready. He had already said that a million times, so I just went along for the ride. Who doesn't love looking at rings?! We found the ring we wanted, but heard we could get it directly from the vendor in a few weeks.

It was hard not to be excited! Jason took the day off of work to go pick it up and asked me to go with him. It was October and we thought we might be able to get married before Christmas. When we got there, the vendor wasn't there yet. We waited for a little while and then had someone call to find out what time he would be there. We were so disappointed when we found out he was sick and not coming. We left without a ring.

Jason continued to look for the center diamond to put in the ring, but the wedding talk had lost its momentum. He really wanted to have a ring and actually propose. I thought it was kind of romantic and annoying at the same time! I had decided that I was ready again.

Sometime in November, I found a reciept for the diamond in his car! When I was a little girl, my sister and I used to sneak in and unwrap and rewrap our Christmas presents. I've never been very good at waiting for things. So, yes, I looked all over for the ring, but couldn't find it! I didn't tell him that I knew and pretended not to notice when he stop asking me to look at rings with him.

Early December, Jason came across a travel deal we couldn't pass up! It was a 7 night cruise in Hawaii! We had always wanted to go to Hawaii together! He called me to tell me about it and see if I wanted to go for our honeymoon. After we got off the phone, I laughed to myself because it was kind of typical of us to do things so backwards! We were planning our honeymoon before we planned our wedding. We decided to go the week of Valentine's Day. At the time, it seemed pretty far away. We still were not officially engaged...

Christmas morning, I was a little nervous. Each time he handed me a present, I wondered if the ring was inside. Once, he handed me a huge box that felt empty and I thought for sure it was inside. Nope. After we were all done and all the presents had been unwrapped, I started to feel confused. Just then, Jason said there was one more. He sent me into the kitchen where I found the ring in the back corner of one of the cupboards. I couldn't believe it had been in the kitchen! I didn't even look in the kitchen because I am in the kitchen all the time!

I brought the box back into the livingroom. I sat on the floor next to Jason and opened it while the kids watched. The ring was beautiful. He asked me to marry him and of course I said yes.

I love being married to Jason! He is so much fun to be around and he really is my best friend.