This is what I was watching:

It was June 12, 1998. It was Game 5 of the 1998 NBA Finals. The Chicago Bulls (with Jordan, Pippen, Rodman were playing against the Utah Jazz (Karl Malone, John Stockton, etc). I honestly don't remember who I was cheering for. Probably the Jazz. I was anti-Bulls and anti-Jordan. Not because he wasn't arguably the best basketball player we'd ever see, but because everyone loved MJ. And that was just my M.O. (still is) -- to go against the grain.

In hindsight, man.... what a decade to live through.... being able to watch Jordan play on any given night. A treat, I tell you!



If memory serves, Jordan retired after that season (well, in January of 1999). So we really got to watch him.... 11 years ago today.... at the peak of his career. Not in person, mind you... but on TV. I will say that when he came back out of retirement and played for the Wizards, Jon and I were able to watch him play against the Sixers in Philly. Now that was awesome! Sure, he wasn't at his prime -- but he was still just AMAZING to watch.

So why the basketball diary?

Well... because the REAL thing that was going on 11 years ago today (not that the basketball finals weren't real).... is this...



Jon and I were a day away from being married. We were at our wedding rehearsal. We were hanging out with those people who were (and are) most important to us in our lives. Our parents, Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles, many of our Cousins, our best friends. We were about to embark on the first day of the rest of our lives.

Jon, Brian, Bridget, Tara and I stayed late at the Lantern, where we had just set up for the reception. We stayed to watch the game -- Game 5 of the NBA Finals -- the game mentioned above. The one game I actually remember who was playing (Bulls and Jazz), who won (Jazz that game, Bulls the series), where I was sitting (in the lounge area of the Lantern), who I was with (already mentioned). It's just one of those "frozen in time" moments in my life. I remember Brian sneaking the M&M's from the tables we had just decorated into his pants pockets. I remember talking and laughing. I remember the feeling of hope and excitement about the life that Jon and I were about to begin together.

And here I sit -- 11 years later. I'm SO THANKFUL that God has blessed me with Jon... with our family... with our life together. I look at all that has changed in the last 11 years. I think about the dinner we're going to tonight to celebrate our anniversary -- not an intimate candlelight dinner -- but a feiry Japanese Steakhouse that will be fun for the kids to experience, but slightly more fancy than our normal fare.

And I still hold onto that hope and excitement about the life that Jon and I HAVE together. I love living my life with my husband and our family. I'm blessed more than I deserve to be blessed on a daily basis. I'm grateful for the life I've been given.


"For wherever you go, I will go; And wherever you lodge, I will lodge; Your people shall be my people, And your God, my God." - Ruth 1:16

“For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” - Ephesians 5:31

"I will betroth you to me forever; I will betroth you in righteousness and justice, in love and compassion." - Hosea 2:19

"Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. - 1 Corinthians 13:4-8