Through Thick & Thin

{Happy Together}

August 3rd was mine and Aaron's anniversary. We weren't able to properly celebrate because of Aaron's crazy work schedule so we've scheduled and set aside 48 hours to celebrate this weekend! WAHOO!!! To kick the festivities off I wanted to write a post acknowledging our marriage. Which sounds super cheesy and it probably will be so if you don't want to read, I forgive you. ;)

My thoughts are a mess and can't really be organized into nice neat paragraphs that flow easy from one to the next so I'm just going to do bullets of all the randomness.

Lately I've been thinking about:

• The fact that Aaron and I have been married 6 years now and together for 7. This seems crazy to us, but when we stop to think about the first year it feels like yesterday and yet so distant.
• The hour car ride we went on to get peaches to go with our vanilla ice cream. This is when we realized we would be great friends. We were total strangers and shared details of our lives that we'd never shared with even our best friends and it felt safe.
• I'm a sporadic person and I have this habit from my childhood where I hide important sentimental papers in my books. As I've cleaned out the basement I've found lots of notes from Aaron and they're so fun to read. (Did I mention I'm also finding lots of cash?) These notes are a reminder of where we've come from, who we were then, who we are now, and what parts of us are still the same.
• The big sacrifice it was to get married. We had nothing, we were so young, we didn't even have jobs when we got engaged. We lived in a one bedroom apartment with the tiniest kitchen. We paid $450 a month for it and that included all our utilities. It was small, money was tight/non-existent, but our lives were happy.
• We worked our tails off together to make it through school.
• Once I started working we used my teaching income to make some life long dreams come true (i.e. trip to Europe, down-payment on a house, and a modest savings), each an adventure and achievement for us. It's really cool to me that we actually did it, there was a long time where we didn't think we would.
  
• Recently, with the decision for me to be a stay at home Mom and having a child with some extra medical/therapy needs we are remembering what it's like to live on a tight budget. There's something exciting about not being completely secure financially. We communicate better, we get creative with family activities and often have more fun than if we'd spent a lot of money! Don't get me wrong, it's not my favorite topic of conversation and it's stressful but I enjoy working through it with Aaron.
• I can feel a shift coming in our marriage, it's very hard to explain but I'll try. We know this union is a safe and sure place so each of us has allowed the other to shine as an individual. This has actually brought us closer together and strengthened us. For example I remember when Aaron said he wanted to start training to run a marathon I didn't want to give up all that time with him. I didn't want to hold him back so I got out of his way. The result: He's lost 30 pounds, he's healthy, and he's proud of himself every time he finishes a run. It's like the first few years we spent working on proving we loved each other, that we were a good team, that we had a good marriage. Now we've stopped trying to prove those things and we just know it in our bones so we don't fret. If that makes any sense at all.
• Since Porter's birth we feel like we've been tossed into a time warp and we really understand what it means to enjoy the moment. We love taking the time to "breathe Porter in". Last night Aaron was on an elevator with a crowd of people one woman said in reference to Porter, "14 months today, 16 years tomorrow." Aaron's reply, "Don't say that!" We know our time with our children is brief, we don't want to miss it. I hope this strong marriage can cultivate a strong family.

{For Aaron- his favorite}

Aaron, I'm so glad it's you I get to spend this life and forever with! I know that together we can make it through anything and have a good time while we're at it! Thank you for always being there for me even when the only thing you have to offer is a shoulder to cry on and a witty comment to make me smile through my tears. You mean everything to me. It's such a bonus to be madly in love with your best friend.

"Can I keep You?"