Happy birthday to my lovely wife

Today is my wife Carrie’s birthday. She’s a delightful woman, and I’m so happy that we’re continuing to build our family together.

Carrie and I first met on October 4, 2003 at my friend Lou’s 30th birthday party. She won a prize for a contest for kissing the most people at the party, and I was one of the organizers of the event.

Our first date (technically) was meeting for drinks on October 10th, 2003. My evaluation at the time was “we really don’t have much in common, but we got along really well, I think. Which is neat, but weird.”

This isn't from our first date, but it's shortly afterwards...New Years Eve 2003

However, I prefer the revisionist history of our first date being Game 7 of the NLCS at Wrigley Field on October 15, 2003. Our plan had been to go to a bar to watch the game together, but earlier in the day my awesome friend Heather called me to hook me up with press box tickets to the game. I called Carrie during the day and asked her if, instead of going to Parrots, she’d rather go to Wrigley.

“You mean, hang out in the neighborhood around the park?” she asked.

“No,” I replied. “I figured we’d just go sit in the press box instead.”

Needless to say, despite being the beginnings of the relationship with the woman who would some day become my wife, it was the worst night of my life as the Cubs managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Despite the fact that I very nearly cried that night, Carrie still ended up wanting to date me.

This picture was not from Game 7, but several years later - and a much happier Wrigley experience

Carrie and I dated on and off for a few years. But then, for her birthday in 2006, (after much cloak-and-dagger espionage type planning) I proposed to her at the top of Rockefeller Center in New York City (full recap). We were married at Old St. Pat’s in Chicago a little over a year later on May 26, 2007, and celebrated our honeymoon in Costa Rica.

Almost immediately after this picture was taken, Carrie got stung by a scorpion. True story.

Kicking and screaming, we moved out of our beloved city of Chicago into the suburbs in September of 2008. We knew we would miss the city, but we wanted to be able to buy a house that would be big enough for the family we wanted to have, and the suburbs were the way to that. We also wanted to be closer to our family out that way, which we knew would be useful once we had kids (and we were right!)

After spending a long time trying, we finally were successful at getting pregnant. Our two beautiful sons Henry and Joey were born on December 30, 2009 (and they just turned 2 months old!)

The whole family!

I love my wife more than anything. I am wishing her a super happy birthday today (her first as a mom), and I know that this year will bring even more joy and happiness and awesome fun for her than ever.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BABY!