Fifty with Adam: a list

1.   Adam, Robbie, Erin, Rachel and I had dinner together at the Cannon Center almost every night of our freshman year at BYU.  The boys’ goal in life was to make us laugh so hard we would “spew” or they aggravated us with a game called snaps. (Seriously, it was months and months of us trying to figure out the game.)
2. Adam sat through biology class twice in a row, one time he listened, one time he talked to me. (I didn't know he went twice and thought he was so smart to get such good grades when he clearly wasn't listening.)
3. As my home teacher, he made me pop a balloon (a futile attempt to make me unafraid of balloons) and taught me how to drive in a city.
4. We wrote lots and lots of letters to each other while he was a missionary in Finland.  We’d trace an outline of our hands on the letters and I don’t even know how that started.
5.   I have every letter he wrote me.
6.  We started dating after his mission and it felt very natural because we were very good friends.
7. Except we broke up, and then got back together.
8. He almost didn’t ask me to marry him the night he did because I was cranky.
9. We wrote letters every day to each other when we were engaged and separated in Nevada and Washington; we called each other twice a week.
10.  We were married on an incredibly hot August day.  It was still a great day.
11. He forgot his suit and had to borrow clothes from my dad for our reception in Nevada.
12. We went to Vancouver for our honeymoon.  I was terrible at navigating and he impressed me with his metric system prowess.
13. Our first apartment was in a basement and sprouted mushrooms through the carpet.
14.  We moved to the third floor when I was pregnant with Braeden and blamed the basement apartment for my morning sickness.
15.  Braeden was born in a snowstorm and Adam has never driven as slowly as he did the night we brought our baby boy home from the hospital.
16.  We moved to Connecticut for him to attend Yale for graduate school.
17. We got over the culture shock of weird shaped butter and weird colored cheese and ended up loving it.  Especially the pizza.
18.  Adam carried me to the hospital bed when I was in labor with Emma because I was in a panic and irrationally wouldn’t move.
19.  He went to playgroup with Braeden the next day and had his own labor and delivery story to share.
20.  We made lifelong friends.
21. We became brief Mets fans and one night I sent updates of the Mets’ games to him on a pager while he was at the stake center working as an assistant stake clerk.
22. He interviewed for a job in Boston and called to tell me that we were moving to San Francisco in 3 weeks.  I immediately started making a list.
23. We drove across the country in our Saturn with our two babies and Melody Time on VHS, which got stuck in the tiny TV/VCR situation we had wedged between the seats.  We bought a set of screwdrivers and took apart the VCR in a parking lot somewhere in the Midwest to salvage the TV/VCR for the rest of the trip.
24. We moved to Pittsburg, which we didn’t even know existed until Adam found a cheap-ish apartment there for us.
25. Adam took the kids swimming on Christmas Eve and we loved the balmy weather and proximity to Safeway.
26. When Adam lost his job, we moved to Washington and lived with his parents.  Braeden prayed that Adam wouldn’t get a job so he could live with Grandma and Grandpa.
27.  After many months and angst, he finally found another job and we moved to a tiny charming old house near the Snohomish River.
28.  Mark was born in the same hospital as Adam.  He outgrew newborn diapers before we left the hospital.
29. Adam’s company went under so we were again without a job and we moved to a little (kind of gross) rental in a beautiful spot on the Stillaguamish River.  Adam and the kids swam a lot.
30. Adam started working for another company but then was offered a good job at Amazon. He told me halfway through dinner in the same casual way you would tell someone you had gone grocery shopping.
31.  It meant we could buy a house.  We moved to Pinehurst and made more lifelong friends and lots more memories.
32.  Adam traveled to London, a lot.
33.  I went with him twice to London; we took Braeden and Emma with us one time. London was not ready for a 5 year old Mark so he stayed home with his grandparents.
34. We did the whole YMCA sports, cub scouts, swim lessons, swim team, suburban thing.  We were happy.
35.  We lost Adam’s dad and it left a giant hole in all of our lives. 
36.  Our kids got older and went to public school and we became the parents of drama kids and our lives suddenly revolved around their schedules.
37. For about a year, one of Adam’s former coworkers periodically tried to convince Adam to move to Utah.  
38. We finally prayed about it and decided to go.
39.  Many, many times we wondered what on earth we had done to our perfectly good lives.
40.  Adam changed companies a few times.  Once, when he had been let go from a job under really unfair circumstances, he put a reminder on his phone to not be bitter.  It popped up every day to remind him.
41. Braeden served a mission, which blessed our lives in many ways.  But we missed him.
42.  Challenging circumstances continued to rock our lives, but they drew us closer. And we discovered we love National Parks. 
43. Adam landed at WGU and is very happy about it.
44. I started working full time, teaching 3^rd grade, and Adam has been my #1 cheerleader and supporter.
45.  Mark was diagnosed with not one, but two autoimmune diseases and we are figuring it out.
46. Braeden married Anna and we couldn’t be happier to have her in our family.
47. Braeden and Emma graduated from BYU and we have actual grown up children.
48. We purchased my grandparents’ house in Nevada, which has felt wonderful and like we’re out of our depth at the same time.
49.  We became grandparents.  It really is 100% as great as everyone always says.  We don’t know how one little person could make us that happy by just...existing.
50. Today we are 50.  It feels old and like we should have more things accomplished, but also like our life together is a gift and I’m glad I get to share it with him.