I am sure you are all getting pretty sick of hearing about how it is almost our 1 year anniversary and about how much I love my husband. Don't worry, I will be back to my regularly scheduled blogging next week. I just feel that as we approach our anniversary it is important to share some of the things that make our marriage work. Everyone always says that year 1 is the hardest year, and while our first year of marriage hasn't been perfect, it has been pretty close. I also think that it is important to take the time on here to let everyone know how important my husband is to me and how much I love him... just in case you ever doubted it. So in honor of 12 months of marriage I am going to share with you all today 12 reasons why I love my husband!
one// He drives me crazy... but in a good way. Boy does that man know how to push my buttons and as much as I say I am mad at him, I'm really not. He knows how to get to me, but he always knows just how far to push it so that I don't actually get mad at him... and that makes me laugh.
two// He is ALWAYS there for me... and I mean ALWAYS. He has been known to bring me home flowers and my favorite ice cream because I had a bad day. He is willing to talk to me at 2am when I get home from work and just need to vent. He is there for me whenever something goes wrong. He lends me his ear and his support whenever I need it.
three// He is a PHENOMENAL cook. Seriously, this man knows how to cook and I love it. Sure I love to cook to and I love to cook meals with him... but I also love that I don't always have to do ALL of the cooking. It is nice to know that M can fend for himself if I am not around.
Homemade pumpkin roll M made me for my 29th birthday last year
four// He is nerdy, but oh so cute. He wears shirts that say things like "I'm an engineer... I'm good at maths" or "This guy loves his wife". He knows all kinds of stuff about science and technology that I can't even begin to explain (or to even understand for that matter). But he is still so stinkin' adorable that it isn't even funny. And he gets this goofy grin on his face every time he does something nerdy that he knows I don't understand even though I am trying really hard to. Makes me melt.
five// He can fix anything. I feel like he may disagree with this one, but yeah I am pretty postiive my husband can fix anything.
six// He knows how to make me feel like the most beautiful girl in the world even when I am sick, in my pajamas and feel like poop... he still manages to make me feel beautiful.
seven// His "baby blues" If you ask him, he will tell you that they are why I started dating him in the first place... he claims I couldn't resist them. I beg to differ, but if that is what he wants to think, we're just going to roll with it.
He does have some pretty baby blues... doesn't he?
eight// I always feel safe in his arms. When M has his arms wrapped around me I feel like nothing can hurt me. It is so comforting.
nine// Along the same lines as number eight, I love the way that a hug and a kiss on my forehead from M make all my problems go away and seem insignificant. It is like in that moment when he does that I forget about everything that is bothering me and just focus on the fact that I know that M loves me with his entire heart and that he would do practically anything for me.
ten// He constantly supports me. He may not always understand my decisions and we may argue over them and I may feel like he isn't supporting my decision, but he always comes around and ends up supporting me whether he thinks I am making the right decision or not.
eleven// He always encourages me to reach for the moon. When I get down about not being able to find a career oriented job he is constantly telling me that any employer would be lucky to have me. He tells me to apply for things even though I think I might not be qualified because someone could see something in me that they like and give me a chance. He always encourages me to do my best and tells me that I can do anything I put my mind to.
twelve// I love that M is just as wacky as I am and that after almost 8 years of being together, we still know how to have a good time.
What are some reasons you love your significant other?
I previously published this post as a guest post over at Elizabeth Loves, but in case you missed it, I figured this post is a wonderful way to start off my "Wedding Week" series as every day this week I am going to try to blog about something wedding related as this is the week leading up to M & my 1 year anniversary!
// When you marry someone who is one of your best friends
they accept you for who you are… the good, the bad, the ugly… and they love you
no matter what.
// Speaking of the good, the bad, the ugly… when you marry
your best friend they have already seen you at your worst and they STILL love
you for it (for me one of my worsts would probably have been the first time my
hubby & I met… so surprised he even wanted to date me after that!).
Me & the husband from back in the early days
// You are spending the rest of your life with this person, so
it is important that you see them as your friend and not just your spouse. While seeing them as your spouse is obviously
important, you don’t want to lose sight of why you wanted to spend the rest of
your life with them and why you find them so fun, amazing, etc. and part of that is obviously your friendship with them.
// When you are best friends you understand each other’s need to spend time with your other
best friends. My husband totally gets
that sometimes I just need a girls’ night with some of my favorite ladies and
he doesn't judge me for that. Just like
I don’t judge him for the fact that he wants to go go-kart racing with the guys
sometime soon. We are allowed to have bffs besides each other.
// When your spouse is your best friend they just get you
when no one else can. They understand
all the ins and outs of you and know what makes you tick. They have seen all sides of you and know when
sometimes you need to talk it out or when sometimes a giant glass of wine will
do the trick.
& when sometimes you just need the whole bottle
// They aren't afraid to act silly with you when you are out
in public.
Acting silly at a Flyers Playoff game
// When you are best friends you have some of the same interests, but also respect each other's differences. I love to read, my husband doesn't. My husband likes to watch car racing, I don't. What do I do when he is watching car races, read. It works out perfectly. We both absolutely love hockey and craft beers, so we spend a lot of time watching hockey games and touring breweries. Also works out perfectly.
// You are comfortable being in each other's presence and just doing nothing. Sometimes all my husband and I need to do is sit out on our patio and chill. We don't need to talk, we don't need to be doing anything besides enjoying being in each other's company.
// You love this person like no other. We all know that we love our best friends in a different way than we love our significant other. But when your significant other is also your best friend there is just that much love for them. You love them with your whole heart for so many reasons and that is what makes the love so special and like no other.
What are some reasons why your spouse/significant other is also your best friend?
I normally listen to country music (I know, strange for a girl coming from the suburbs of NYC), but decided that as long as I am still bartending I should probably know what is going on the the wonderful world of music. People are always talking about new songs, new artists, etc. and usually I have NO idea who they are talking about unless it is someone like Luke Bryan (mmmmm), Florida Georgia Line, Blake Shelton, Keith Urban, Miranda Lambert, etc. So today while listening to the "Today's Hits" station on Pandora the song "First Love" by Jennifer Lopez came on, and the song really got me thinking.
The chorus of the song says, "I wish you were my first love. 'Cause if you were first. Baby there would have been no second, third or fourth love." This is the part of the song that got me really thinking.
It is no secret that I love M... I pretty much profess my love for him on here constantly and let's be real, if I didn't love the guy I never would have married him. BUT that being said... if M had been my first love I am not sure that I would be where I am today because in dating and "loving" a few different guys I was 200% sure that M was the guy for me when I did finally meet him and date him and fall in love with him.
But that got me thinking about my other "loves" and what I learned from each one of them. Sometimes I even wonder if what I actually felt for these various boyfriends was actually love, but deep down I know that I loved them all each in their own way (although some of them made a bigger impact on my life than other boyfriends did). I just hadn't found my one "true love"
My first "love" if you could call him that was a guy that I am ashamed to say that I met on the internet, in a chatroom, while I was in highschool, and he was like 5 years older than me. It was my senior year, I was feeling insecure about myself, nervous about going off to college without ever having had a boyfriend or even a first kiss for that matter and this guy, we'll call him "A" made me feel special. I never really told anyone about him because well I knew no one would approve. We mostly met out at various places... the mall, restaurants, places like that... and we were never together for long periods of time. We e-mailed a lot... talked on the phone a bunch... and texted even more. I don't know that we ever actually broke up... although I basically just stopped talking to him, so I guess he eventually got the hint. As insecure as I was, he was just as insecure as he would call/text me obscene amounts when he knew I was cheering at a game/competition or knew I was at practice or knew I was with some of my other friends because I couldn't let me parents know I had a guy, so I did every so often actually have to hang out with my friends so my parents wouldn't get too suspicious (sorry Mom & Dad if you are reading this... I promise this was the only time I didn't share a boyfriend with you... and you should know that cause I definitely shared some with you that you did NOT approve of). I thought I loved "A" and I know I even told him I loved him, but looking back I think I more of loved the idea of him and loved how he made me feel. A small minute part of me will always love him because he taught me how to love myself (something I have always struggled with my entire life) and showed me that there was someone out there for me.
One of my other loves, we'll call him "B" was a guy that I had known for a good portion of my life. We had grown up together and decided to give dating a try when we were in college . Our relationship was rocky at times... we started dating, broke up and then got back together like a few weeks later and then dated for a substantial period of time. I loved this guy more than any other guy I dated besides M. B was my best friend... he had been with me through so many things in my life and he knew me better than anyone else. I am 100% sure that I was in love with him and when we were together I was convinced that we would be together for life. People warned me that we shouldn't date because dating your best friend is always risky. But I didn't listen. I loved him as a friend before we started dating so I was convinced that our love could endure anything. Unfortunately our love didn't last and neither did our friendship. I will admit that I went kind of crazy after we broke up... a breakup hurts just so much more when you not only feel like you are losing your boyfriend but like you are losing a friend that you have had for a good portion of your life. A small part of me will always love B and always wants the best for him. Losing him definitely put a hole in my heart and although M has filled my heart with so much love that it could burst, there is definitely a little piece that still misses B as my friend... not as a love, but just as my very best friend.
After B, I was in a bad place. I got really sick (had a bleeding stomach ulcer... not from the breakup... but I am pretty sure it was a contributing factor) and was just really down. Joining a sorority and having so many fabulous sisters helped matters... there was never a dull moment when I was with my Chi Omega sisters. Eventually I fell in love for a third time with, well we'll call him "C". C was everything I needed at the time, but he was oh so wrong for me. He was a nice, strong guy... or so I thought. I don't even want to go in to all the details of my relationship with him on here because well we'll leave it at that he was in fact NOT a nice guy and I'm not sure if I was really in love with him or scared of him. Loving and being with C made me realize that there was definitely somewhere better for me out there... in fact he was my last boyfriend before I finally started dating M.
Having dated a bunch of other guys and having been in "love" a few times when I met M there was no question in my mind that he was the one for me. The way I felt around him was nothing like the way I had ever felt around any guy ever before. With M I knew I was safe. With M I knew that in his eyes I was the most beautiful girl in the world. With M I felt like I could take on the world. I was always able to be myself with M and I never had to pretend to be something I was not... he loved me... flaws and all. Even when I was freaking out because we had been dating for almost 6 years and he still hadn't proposed to me, I knew I still loved M and I knew that he loved me... I never doubted our love for each other for even a second. I told people I had set deadlines for him proposing and that I was going to leave him if he hadn't... we all know I never would have done that because I don't think my heart would have ever healed (Thankfully he proposed before my deadline, so I didn't ever have to worry about that). Having loved others before falling in love with M allowed me to love him with my whole heart and to know what true love feels like. Had M been my first love, I honestly don't know if we would be where we are today.
Since my post started with a song, it is only fitting that I end it with a song that really describes what it took for me to discover my one true love and to begin what has so far been the best days of my life being married to him!
As corny as this sounds, listening to this song always brings tears to my eyes because I know it was a broken and rocky road that led me to M, but I thank God every day that He led me to M because I truly can't imagine my life without him. I love you honey!!
Do you think your life would have been different if your first love was your only love?
