This is What 8 Years Together Looks Like

Though we may have just celebrated our 1st wedding anniversary last month, Mark and I have been together as a couple for 8 years this Saturday, November 15th.  This Saturday also marks 2 years since Mark popped the question and I said "Yes" to spending the rest of our lives together.

The decision to date Mark wasn't the easiest... in fact I wanted to set the guy up with a bunch of my friends and sorority sisters before he and I started dating.  It wasn't that I didn't have feelings for the guy, it was that by the time I had admitted to myself that I had feelings for him, I felt it was too late to do anything about it.  See, Mark and I met our sophomore year through my sorority twin and bff, VM, on one crazy night after a party at Chi Phi.  Chi Phi's house was next to Mark's dorm building and when the party was over, VM called Mark's roommate to come and get us from the party because we didn't want to walk across campus to our dorm.  Somehow we ended up going back and hanging out in their room for a little bit before heading back to our dorm.  Goldfish, Cheez-Its and ramen noodles were involved in this first meeting and let's just say it was a night that produced many laughs both back then and even today as we look back on it. ("Cheez-it downnnnnn!!!!)

After meeting each other that first time our paths crossed as being friends with VM meant that I saw her and a lot of the Chemical Engineers that she was friends with.  Plus, most of her ChemE friends were in the fraternity Sigma Alpha Mu (Mark included), so we spent a lot of time together.  VM and I both went abroad in the Spring of 2006 and I didn't see Mark again until my return to the U.S.  When we got back to the U.S. all of us headed back to Bucknell for Reunion Weekend... I was there to actually work, while my friends were there to just have fun.  This weekend also happened to coincide with Mark's 21st birthday.  I am pretty sure that his birthday was when I really started to realized that I had a crush on this guy, but I knew that I shouldn't do anything about it because I had planned to graduate from Bucknell a semester early, which meant that starting to date someone just wasn't in the cards for me.

Yet somehow, despite it all we continued to hang out a bunch that Fall of our Senior year and somehow in November I agreed to be Mark's girlfriend.  The best part about it all was that Mark never actually really officially "asked me out"... he changed his Facebook relationship status to "In a Relationship" and I got a Facebook message saying that "Mark has said that you two are in a relationship" and I had the option to accept to deny the request.  Obviously I hit accept and the rest was history!  The best part about all of this was that he changed it while I was in class, so by the time I got out of class I had text messages from friends asking if Mark and I were officially dating and I was so confused because I hadn't seen Facebook yet!

So in celebration of 8 years together... here is what 8 years has looked like for us!

year one//

Before we started dating

First Formals Together

Date Party

Chi Omega Formals

Our Graduation from Bucknell

year two//

Back at Bucknell for a Sammy event

Matching each other and totally not on purpose

Jersey Shore for July 4th

year three//

year four//

Hanging with the Bison at Hershey

We survived Law School!!!

year five//

Nisha & Matt's Wedding

Liz & Jeff's wedding

Jacksonville Zoo

Amanda & Andrew's Wedding

year six//

Longwood Gardens with my Love

TSO Concert

Flyers Game

Bucknell Reunion

And we are engaged!!!

Engagement Weekend in Williamsburg

year seven/

Philadelphia Brewery Tour

Trying to get me with cake at my bridal shower

And we are married!!!!

Honeymooning 

year eight// 

1st Married Christmas in NJ

1st Married Christmas in Millerstown

We have had a lot of great times together over the past 8 years and I am looking forward to all of that good times that we will have in the future!

Do you have any milestones that you have celebrated recently?