Well it's midnight and as usual I can't sleep. I'm watching some shows on the DVR and eating a clementine, which I always thought was a tangerine. Is there actually a difference? Either way they are really good and a much better late night snack that I ate before I started boot camp and this new lifestyle LOL
I am one of those people that can't just watch TV. In my life there has only been one or two shows that have ever kept my attention enough to just "watch". These days I have to be working on a project, reading a book, talking on the phone or thinking while I watch TV. Tonight my mind keeps wandering to Dan. Not something rare - I do think of my husband often, but tonight in particular I keep thinking what a wonderful man he is. With that in mind I decided to share some things about him so you can get to know him a little better.
Dan and I met in November of 1999. He was divorced with a 3-year-old daughter. I almost "ran" - I could just hear my mom up in heaven saying watch out :). But I gave it a chance anyway and fell in love twice - once with him and again with Emily.
When we met Dan was working as a restaurant manager and had a few rental properties. I was working at the time as an Outside Sales Rep. for a local manufacturing company and did a lot of traveling. Over the next year our relationship strengthened and we were married in June of 2001. During this time Dan began acquiring additional rental property. He would get up each morning and go work on the properties - repairs, remodeling, leasing, collections, bill payments, etc. Each afternoon he would go to work at the restaurant at 4:00 and work there until the wee hours of the morning. The next day he would do it again. I was still working and growing my career and traveling alot. We didn't see much of each other and to say the least it was hard on a new marriage.
Time went on and the business continued to grow. Sometime in 2004 we realized it was time for time to quit his job and focus on the property management full time. We were blessed that I made a really good salary so we invested all the rental property profits back into the business and utilized my salary for regular expenses (mortgage, household, etc.). This enabled Dan to grow the business even more.
All of a sudden, with Dan only working 1 job, we were able to start having a marriage. That was another transistion for us, but thankfully a much better one than being apart all the time! Dan was amazing with how he grew our business. He had less than 10 units when we met and now we are close to 80!!
As time went on we decided to have a child. We only wanted two total and since we already had Emily we knew we would only have one child or should I say one pregnancy LOL - if God had wanted it to be multiples - well then we would have had more. God blessed us with David in the spring of 2005. I was still working and planned to continue - we had discussed hiring a nanny, but never me staying at home. I loved my career and had worked my way up to Executive Management before David was born. I stayed home 12 weeks after his birth and then off he went to daycare and off I went to work. And everything was different... I'm sure alot of you reading this can recall those feelings!! So about 2 or 3 months after I went back - it was over. David was 5 months old and I became a SAHM. The best thing that has ever happened to me and my family. I took over all the paperwork, statements, budgets, taxes, payroll, etc. from Dan. That enabled him to have more time to grow the business and for me to still keep my mind in something besides mommy HA HA.
Life went on and couldn't have been better. The kids were thriving, Dan and I were happy, the business was growing... Then in February of 2008 we found out that Dan had Stage IV Adenocarcinoma of the Parotid. I won't give you pages and pages of details on that - if you are interested you can read our CaringBridge site: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/danreeder
Against the odds, literally, my amazingly strong husband beat the cancer!! He is officially in remission now and has repeat scans and oncology appointments every 3 months. This type of cancer can recur, quite commonly actually so we are still praying daily. But we are living and enjoying life and all God has blessed us with. I believe Dan is truly a modern day miracle. During the battle seeing what I saw and hearing what the doctors said - he shouldn't be here today. But he is and doing great. It took quite a while to get back to normal, but he's fully back now.
He's actually even better than before. I mean I always felt he was a great husband and father and provider, but this new, "post-cancer" Dan is amazing. He has a new joy for life and for me and the kids. He is still growing the business and working hard, but taking alot more time for himself and the family.
He and Emily spend their time together riding go-karts, painting (they are both really good artists), playing pool or watching How It's Made. He and David spend their time playing trains, building stuff, tickling and watching anything with vehicles or something blowing up. He has so much patience with them it amazes me. It gets to a point where they are driving me batty and I need a break and he's still going strong. I guess that's why I have my weekly and monthly girls night activities LOL.
As I read back through this I feel I haven't even come close to talking about what a wonderful man Dan is, but now you have the background. I'll have lots of Dan stories in the time to come because he is always doing something that I'll want to share.
Here are a few pictures of some things that Dan has done for David's room. There is only one shot of his walls, but they all have something on them - Dan did all the painting. The car track & garage was several months ago. And the final shots are of the train track and bridge he is building to go on David's bedroom wall (above the windows/doors and right below the ceiling).
No comments:
Post a Comment