Growing a Family: A very Marty post!

Today is our 3rd wedding anniversary (warning that this is a photo filled post)! The best surprise of the day is that my doctor is giving us permission to go to a movie! So I get to get a little break from bed this evening and that makes me very, very happy! I figured though for our anniversary this blog should be about the other half of this parenting duo. I know I mention him often, but he doesn't necessarily get the credit he's due while I share in the joys and lament all the woes of a multiple pregnancy.

Marty and I met in August of 2002 and if you ask anyone what the first thing they notice about Marty is, they will tell you it's his laugh. It's truly very unique and completely contagious. I will say in 2002, though I wasn't sure about this laugh...it was so catchy I wasn't sure I could get past it, but I did and a few months later I was reminded of it when a friend who hadn't met Marty previously said "wow, he has the best laugh ever!" and I realized that I had not only gotten past it, but learned to love it! Now, I imagine our life in 2012 with 3 more of Marty's laugh surrounding me and it's about as happy a thought as I can handle!

Our early days worked out perfectly, timing wise, but I look back and laugh that it was probably Marty's unemployment at the time, that got our relationship off to a start. I had just started a new job in social work in a teen shelter and it was 2nd shift so when I got done with my first day on my own with a very rough group of boys at 11:00pm, a cocktail was in order, but when you have gotten off work at 11:00 on a Tuesday and all of your friends have day jobs, it's not always easy to find someone who's willing to hang out that late on a "school night" let alone find someone who won't be crabby just because you called. After thinking about it for a bit, I remembered I had this unemployed guy's number (we had met the weekend before when I was out with friends and ran in to a coworker who happened to be his roommate) and I figured "he was pretty cool" and wouldn't have to be up in the morning so yes, I called him at 11:00 at night and we hung out. He even came with a very cool gift: 3 CDs. We had talked a bunch about music that first night we met and were out watching a local band. He gave me a Mason Jennings CD, a Sleater Kinney CD and a Cat Power CD all based on music that we had talked about the first night. Well he definitely won himself a few more dates, even if he was unemployed.

As our relationship grew, one of my favorite traits about my husband came in his complete zeal for whatever he chooses to learn about. If Marty is going to take up a new hobby, you better watch out because he will come home with all of the gear to be a pro and there is no question he will be completely dedicated to it for a good 3-6 months (after that there's a good chance it will be time for a new hobby and this is not to say the old one will go away, it just won't be the center of attention). I saw this first with photography. We wandered all over Minnesota led by his camera. He has a great eye! Here are a couple of his shots.

Self Portrait-never an entirely straight face...

one he took of me at Minnehaha falls I believe

but he has a real eye for nature

and architecture!

Then we got a wii and Marty decided that he (and I) should take up real tennis as well. He came home with a full on tennis bag, 2 rackets, balls and even visors and sweat bands. We went off to the little local cracked tennis court at the closet park looking like tennis stars (in a Saturday night live skit).

(I have no pictures of this, thank goodness)

His MG came next and "The Grin" as it was affectionately called, certainly showed us a good time until he started taking it apart for the rebuild, now it's in pieces and in storage and will either be resurrected one day or sold to the highest bidder to make room for triplets (I vote for resurrection).

This has given way to smaller engines (after a brief stint with fishing and an ambition to learn to play the concertina and I do recall a fish tank and plant obsession in there somewhere too) and our small army of mopeds (we have 5, 3 are complete) that he has rebuilt from the ground up.

Marty's Motobecane

My Swinger

Tomos

So Happy Anniversary to my very quirky, but very loving husband, I know that you will take that head over heals zeal for everything you do right into fatherhood and be fabulous at it! We've had many good years, even if only 3 are on the books and I can't imagine them without the memories we've made together!