A few years ago...

Damon & I were married a few years ago. 2 1/2 years ago.
We met in 2001.
Got engaged 2002.
Got married 2003.
Bought a house 2004.
Got pregnant December 2004.
Found out about the pregnancy 2005.
Had a baby 2005.

Now, it's 2006.

Ginger posted about her engagement pictures...and it got me to thinking about going out & about when we took our engagement pictures...

This picture was taken on the porch area of the Scottish Rite Cathedral where we got married.

At that time...we lived in a loft in downtown Dallas. The pictures were taken the first weekend of June 2003. (How in this world do I remember that?...I can barely remember my debit pin number...but I can remember that unimportant detail!!??)
Here we are in the interior stairwell of our loft building. (Building A to be exact!)

Now, that's not the best picture of us...but, it takes me back. And, it's like when I look at that picture, and reflect on our life at that time...I can practically smell the building! It's not a bad smell--just the Station smell. The Kirby (where I used to live) has a unique smell. Every place has a smell. Anyway...I digress...

This picture was Damon's favorite...

It was taken outside of Campisi's downtown.

I loved living downtown.
I miss loft living. I really, really, really do.

I told Damon that if we win the lottery, we are going to buy the penthouse suite on top of the new W Hotel that they are building in downtown. Then, I want to buy some old run down building & change it into lofts. And--there's some old building in Dallas that was used as a psychiatric hospital at one time. There is still a brick/concrete sign on one of the sides that reads "Sanitarium". How fun would it be to buy that & change it into lofts, and call it something like, "Asylum Lofts"!!?? (I'd be too afraid to live there...spoooooky!)

Anyway....
Oh, I just found this picture...
It's from our engagement trip. We went to Aruba with my parents, and that is where Damon proposed.
Here we were the night after getting engaged. Or maybe 2 nights after getting engaged. Anyway---there was a drag show, and we had a good time with the Queens!


So anyway...Life was different then.
We paid rent instead of house payments.
We slept late on the weekends.
We didnt know about the ginormous cost of diapers & formula. I mean, we knew they were expensive in concept...but we didnt really KNOW.
We could hang out late with friends on the rooftop deck.
We could have the TV as loud as we wanted it.

But...we had no idea what our son would look like.
We had no idea if we'd have a son for that matter!
We had no idea what blessings life had in store for us...