Now that Jason is underway and isn't here to read what I write, I'm going to write about him.  These past three weeks have opened my eyes even more to how truly blessed I am to have a husband such as he.  Not only has Jason been strong in a very emotional situation, but he has been my foundation, too.  I honestly don't think I would have made it through those first two weeks without him holding me up.



The first time Jason and I dated, in the fall of 06, he got serious pretty quickly and it freaked me out.  We had only been together maybe a month when he asked what size ring I wore.  I was still hung up on someone else, and to be honest, I wasn't used to being treated the way he was treating me.  I was used to being pushed away, not chased after.  I liked the game in it all, and there was no game with Jason.  He was up front with what he wanted, and he wanted me.  So I broke up with him.  I remember calling my mom and telling her what I was about to do, and she told me how crazy I was.  She called me out on pushing him away because he wasn't doing the pushing himself.  "You just want what you can't have."  Yep.

October 06

Jason didn't talk to me for a very long time..  Like, two years.  Apparently, he wasn't accustomed to being dumped.  When I finally got him to speak to me again (over Facebook, of course), I knew we were going to get married.  I specifically remember telling a friend that Jason was the one that got away, and I fully intended to get him back.  Get him back I did.  He drove to Jackson to see me again for the first time on New Years Day 09.  By the next afternoon we were officially together (like, Facebook official.. serious stuff) even though he was going to Guam in only a few months.  He told me he loved me the next night, and I knew I loved him, too.  I knew I loved him two years before this, but hey.. better late than never, right?  When Jason left to go to Sub School in Connecticut three days later, he told me to start looking at rings and give him an idea of what I wanted.  A week later I flew to CT and hung out with him in Groton for 10 days, where I got to meet all of his buddies from Power School and Prototype.  Then came Valentine's Day in Groton, and then a month later I made the road trip down from CT to meet his family in TN.

January 09

The very first time I partied with Navy boys.. What a long night!

Valentines 09

Road trip from Connecticut to Tennessee - Fun times!

The rest of that story is that we were married 95 days after seeing each other again for the first time.

Jason proposing.  Somehow, he and my best friends managed to keep the secret, so I was floored.

Mr. and Mrs. Frederick

Jason is probably the most patient man I've ever met.  I mean, seriously, he puts up with some crap from me. I can be difficult, as a few exes will readily attest, and he just deals with it.  I've honestly never felt loved the way he loves me.  He's strong when I need him to be, and when I need sensitive, he's that too.  He never let me see him pause with everything that went on with myself and Katie Beth, though I now know he did.  He knew that I needed him to be strong so I could be strong, and so he did it.

New Years Eve 09

I got to actually watch Jason fall in love with our little girl, and it was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.  The first time he held her, she got a good grip on his finger, and he told her that she was beautiful and that he loved her.  I have never been so happy in my entire life as I was watching my love meet our daughter.  After that, he stepped right into Husband and Father Of The Year mode.  He changed diapers, he burped and fed her, he read her stories and rocked her to sleep.  When we got home, he took care of me too.  He helped me shower, got me snacks, kept me comfortable when I wanted to cry.  Then when I did cry, he cried with me.

Katie Beth meeting her Daddy

I am one of those "Everything happens for a reason" people.  I'm pretty sure God knw that I would never have been able to handle this NICU situation alone, so when He decided that this was going to happen to my body, He sent me someone who could handle it for me.

I always miss Jason when he's gone, but this time is a little harder for me.  I know he loves his job though, so I can handle it.  Now I just have to keep him away from this blog once he gets home, and trust me, I'm counting the days.