Let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start!

I’m not sure if a blog should start at the beginning or pick up where we currently are… typing on the sofa whilst one daughter watches Brave and the other has her morning nap upstairs…utilising the hour of peace I get in the morning after the breakfast chaos of nappy changes, milk, breakfast and getting dressed.

The living room already looks as though the plastic tide is coming in and I’ll soon be surrounded with naked baby dolls (why she won’t leave their clothes on I don’t know!) covering the floor along with their pushchair, bags and bottles! Not to mention the tent, the trampoline, the castle, the puzzles, random play food and not to forget Mr Potato Heads hand… a friend of the infamous Lego which also causes severe swearing and yelling when stood on!

I’ve not written a blog before but after recently working on a Podcast with Anna Louise - I Don’t Do Small Talk’ (available on IOS & Android Podcasts) - lots of questions seemed to arise from this.

Mainly about how my wife and I met, through to our wedding, Our First Story and how we got pregnant. 

So although I’m not sure where to start, I guess the outcome of this blog is to share our journey as wives, to becoming parents, how we are surviving as child owners and the hurdles that come with it! 

My name is Jenna & my wife is Lydia.

We met in 2008 at the University of Gloucester. A renown university for education yet an outstanding university for social activities!

I was studying Creative Advertising and Lydia was doing her Post Graduate in Landscape Architecture.

It was an amazing summer, looking back I remember it as a surreal music video - we were sun kissed, the weather was amazing and I was smoking and slim. We were enjoying late summer evenings, Desperados & Ponche Caballero, relaxing in the Cheltenham parks, rollerblading, Global Gathering Music Festival, Brighton Pride and last minute concerts to see The Ting Ting’s! We would spend our days and evenings just laughing and enjoying each others company. It was the perfect start.

We both have such fond memories of 2008!

Care free and never saying no. 

We did the U-Haul!

By the December of 2008 we had done the typical lesbian ‘u-haul’ and I was living in Kent!

Lydia and her twin had brought an amazing town house and so I moved in! This was the beginning of Hotty Way! 

We had so many parties, laughs and wonderful times at Hotty Way!

It was the perfect house for us twenty somethings starting our careers and still enjoying our evenings and weekends… oh how times have changed!

We’re now excited at the thought of being in bed by 9pm with a cup of tea and watching Kirsty & Phil!

During our time here, Lydia had a tumor in her spine and ended up in Kings College Hospital to have it removed, resulting in a spinal fluid leak, air bubbles on her brain and multiple trips to Kings College.

Whilst all this was going on Lydia also taught me how to drive! In her flashy Tigra with the roof down! Great way to learn! Once I’d passed my test I was able to return to University and finish my degree. Then within a year of finishing - I was in hospital with Hip Dysplasia and had both sides of my hips moved and pinned!

Turned out we must really love each other because we cared for each other through all of this and still managed to have fun and enjoy life.

Lydia’s Ibiza Proposal!

In 2013 Lydia proposed to me whilst watching the sunset on an inflatable in the Ibiza sea … after a brilliant day of boating, lunch and water sports.

We’d been dragged around the clear waters of Ibiza on an inflatable (I did enjoy this part!) and dodging jelly fish.

I then noticed Lydia was swapping her shorts on the boat and I was waiting like a drowned rat on the dingy for her… I knew as soon as she did this that something was going on!

As Lydia got back on the inflatable we slowly drifted away from the boat… apparently music was playing but I couldn’t hear it…Klangkarussel - Sonnentanz ft Will Heard. 

I can’t really remember what Lydia said but she slowly pulled out a ring attached to a piece of red string which was tied to her shorts. All I kept saying was ‘Are you for real’. Thank goodness for the piece of string! Otherwise my beautiful ring would have fallen to the depths of Ibiza.

It was a wonderful special moment & luckily Lydia’s family were there to capture it on camera. 

On the route back to the villa I couldn’t wait to ring my family and tell them before we were off out to celebrate! 

Lydia and I knew we wanted to get married on June 21st (the day we became official and the longest day of the year). Luckily in 2014 this was on a Saturday! 

So once we were home from Ibiza, the wedding plans were well under way!

You can now just call me ‘DJ Fanny Pac’ :)