In this episode, we have a special guest – my husband JD! We are talking about how we met, the early years of marriage, hardships, and how we took our marriage from struggling to transforming. Over the years, we have learned how to grow stronger than ever and we want to share what we’ve learned with you!
Show Notes:
1:58 LET’S GO BACK TO THE BEGINNING (HOW WE MET!)
JD and I both transferred to Weber State in the spring of 2007, both to play sports. We met in-person when JD was dating one of my teammates, but we didn’t get to know each other at the time. I messaged JD as he was packing to move home for the month of May and noticed the fancy new truck he was driving. Ha!
Months later, I was living at home and visiting the school for a date with another guy. That’s when I ran into JD’s roommate and ended up hanging at their house when JD came home (all dirty) from cow work and we ended up talking all night! We didn’t officially start dating until July. Within a month, we had both spoken to our parents about getting married. Engaged at 19 and had my first baby at 20!
8:42 JD WAS DRAFTED TO PLAY IN THE NFL
JD was drafted to play in the NFL! JD played for the Miami Dolphins for the first year, then started bouncing around between teams throughout year 2. He finished that year at Tampa Bay but his spot in vet school was expiring and he was ready to move forward with that.
12:33 LIFE AFTER THE NFL
After 2 years in the NFL, we moved to Oklahoma and just had our second child! Once again, we were 18 hours from my family and 24 hours from JD’s family. We fell into our groove with JD fully involved with school and I had started my photography business. We enjoyed life, but the day-to-day schedule was hard on our relationship.
14:28 ROOMMATE STATUS IN OUR MARRIAGE
At this time, we were doing what we could to just get through life and our relationship was put on the back burner. During JD’s third year of vet school and 7 years into our marriage, we slipped into roommate status. We eventually came to the realization that this isn’t what we wanted to do with life forever.
The best thing in front of us was an upcoming cruise that we had scheduled – which we almost didn’t even go on! This is where we realized that we wanted to keep fighting for our relationship.
You NEED alone time to make your relationship work long-term.
Click here to check out last week’s episode with Brad Bizjack, “Avoiding Roommate Status in Marriage and Bringing Your Passion Back”.
18:45 IMPROVING OUR RELATIONSHIP
One of the first things we realized is that we truly didn’t understand what the other person needed in the relationship. JD was fully engulfed in vet school (which he loved) and I was running my photography and Beachbody business (which I loved too).
The first thing that we did is get on the same page. Book Recommendation: His Needs, Her Needs
Another thing we did was make date night an actual priority and have kept that a priority ever since. We also kept making couple trips a priority – where it’s just JD and I!
36:45 NEVER STOP MAKING YOUR RELATIONSHIP A PRIORITY
Even after 14 years, you have to be proactive! You constantly have to make it a priority to meet each other’s needs. You’re always going through seasons in your relationship! If you’re ever struggling, know that you CAN get to a better place.
