Upcoming Anniversary

Next week my husband and I will be celebrating our four year wedding anniversary and I have to say I am just as much in love with him as I was EIGHT years ago when we first started dating as I am now...actually more in love with the wonderful man he is. I guess one would think that the girly crush would fade or that I would be annoyed by some of the things that I found cute eight years ago that wasn't so cute now, but I'm not. I still find the same things he does cute. I look at him and think with a little girlish shrill, "God I love him!" The man has won me over mind, body and soul.

I can recall the early days our dating and thinking him to be the most calm, confident and straight faced person that I know. He still is. He also had some insane guts with speaking his mind about anything and going for whatever he wanted. I admire that about him and from time to time he still shocks me with that characteristic of his. I can still remember a cold day when I was with a group of my boyfriends friends along with my boyfriend walking through Reston Town Center. We decided to stop by the ice cream store where my husband used to manage called Lee's, but then he was only a mere friend and someone who fancied me and I secretly returned the same feelings. For whatever reason the guys decided to stay outside...maybe to smoke or something, but I hate the cold and went inside the empty store alone. I remember my husband watching me walk up to the tall glass counter and he leaned over giving me a boyish grin. His hat was turned slightly sideways, had earrings in both his ears and the purple shirt he wore was stained slightly with drips of ice cream. He started talking to me about various things leaning over the deli counter. He was beautiful and had my attention. The moment between us was quickly broken up with my then boyfriend and his friends coming through the door and the conversation went to cars, motorcycles and whatever else was interesting to 17/18 year old boys.

Now should I have been grossed out by his sick ass pick up line? Yes, but he didn't really mean it...or did he? I took it as his way of trying to push my buttons but more importantly he was speaking his mind about anything and going for whatever he wanted. He obviously wanted me. How much he did I was not sure at that time. It wasn't until the break up with my then boyfriend, us starting to date each other, our falling out, multiple nasty things that I said to him which I do regret that I really found out that the man loved me. That at 19 years old he was without a doubt passionately but maturely (which we all know is big for a 19 year old boy) in love with me. That when he did ask me to marry him the first time...while I was still dating another guy that he really wanted to marry me. I took it as a joke...I mean I was still dating another guy. He saw in me what he dreamed of in a spouse, as someone who was loyal, loving, nurturing, caring and shorter then him. For me it just took a while longer to see him that way. However the man, my man is loved through every freckle, every hair, every fiber of his being.

I can't tell you enough how often I'll glance over at him remembering an old memory or just thinking how cute he looks with his tosseled hair. Usually he catches me mid stare and asks me "what"?!? Its always followed by a grin and a girlish laugh. Its love. He probably thinks I'm losing it.

He's a passionate man that fights and loves his family tremendously. Once or twice some people have tried coming between the Papa bear and his family...and lets just say the claws came out with tremendous vigor to protect his family. More over he is a true team mate in life. He cooks, cleans, takes care of our son as equally as I do. Okay...he cooks way more but he's really an awesome cook. I don't have the mad skills he has. No matter how I try...even making the sandwiches just like he has done for me in the past...he just does it better. I also can't count how many times I come home to a newly designed home. He's a furniture mover, and finds random but cool things so my house is forever changing. I am never quite sure what I'll come home to.

In the eight years I have been with him I have learned a few things about him. He hates it when I put one dirty knife in the sink if everything else is clean and put away. Mascara is certainly not for him. He loves movies like Grease and Parent Trap. He does not like to be awaken to tickling and he looks hotter in a sports car then in a SUV. But more seriously, he is passionate, kind, loving, generous, thoughtful, beautiful, patient, clean (some men are just dirty so its a plus), strong, brave, sincere, a great Dad and a loving husband. The four years of marriage has been a roller coaster but so much damn fun and I can't wait to add decades to that number.

I love you babes!