5

Here we are five years later. Two kids and dog (who, let's be honest, brought us together because I love dogs).

We've hit a lot of the emotional and physical milestones in marriage, both good and bad. I know a five year anniversary may not seem like a big achievement to some. However, like a business, marriage has a lot of struggles in those first five years. Many which may cause some to throw in the towel, but not us!

I'm not saying in any way that Chris and I are perfect, because we aren't perfect individually so there is absolutely no way that we can be perfect together. We have flaws, annoyances, and preferences.. all of which tests the strength we have in our marriage.

I'm prideful, and quick to anger (if you don't think you're the exact same, remind yourself of every single time you drive behind someone slow), and lately my health has been kicking my butt which has made our budget a little tighter and requiring Chris to step up more in that realm and also with the kids. He's tired and I'm tired and sometimes that reflects in our attitudes towards each other. Even the kids. But that's because we're not perfect.

We don't have it all

together. We have a hot mess marriage. But to me, that makes it real. Things aren't Disney picture-perfect. I don't have fabulous hair (nor

does Chris.. sorry hun), an amazing wardrobe, and the perkiness that is ONLY found in Disney movies at 6am. There are times it feels like we have more issues than Vogue.

But through all the craziness, we fight. We fight for each other. We fight for the vows we made. We fight because loving someone isn't easy, but it's always worth it. He's my boo. Some people might have thought we got together pretty quick, but we didn't. When you know, you know. So here's the story..

Two years of friendship that included talks of dating and then not dating, dates with other people, and some international longing, all led to us FINALLY dating. We both knew on that long drive from Crawfordville to Graceville, that if we did date then there would be a very real chance of us getting married.

A lot of thought actually went into our decision to date. It was scary, but the good kind of scary. The kind of scary that you know involves a lot of unknowns but also involves you facing the unknown together.

From dating to engagement to marriage was a total of eleven months to the day. Chris proposing is one of those stories we love telling because it's pretty perfect in how un-picture perfect it was. But to me it was real. It reflected our friendship, our relationship, and now our marriage perfectly.

With Chris living five hours away from me at the time, I had a pretty GOOD hunch he was planning on proposing, especially since he said he wanted to be married by the end of the year and at this time it was July 27th.

With him driving over, I made the correct assumption in buying a dress and looking ballin'.

He said he wanted to go get something to eat, and I assumed he meant in Pensacola (where I grew up and was living at the time) and so I didn't eat. Turns out he planned to get dinner in Destin, which is where we had our first "date" (up for debate). Figured out he was trying to recreate our first "date", so that was sweet but I was hungry.

Now, I hadn't eat all day and didn't see a reason since I thought we were eating in P'cola (close by) and it was four in the afternoon (I worked late so I'd wake up late). It was around 5:30 in the afternoon before we arrived in Destin, but we still had to make it P.F. Chang's...

THE most complicated place to find after two years, five o'clock traffic on a Friday in the summer, hunger, and proposal anticipation. It honestly must have been at least 6:30-7 before we located P.F.C. and whooooo it was packed. Not even the I can wait it out (which we tried to do) packed. They had a two hour wait.

I didn't want to ruin the night, even though I was STARVING. Plus, I could tell Chris was wanting it to go better than it was. Besides the hunger that was screaming at me, I was having a pretty fun time. Around 9 or so (possibly later) we decided to call it quits on waiting, and find another place to eat. We wound up at Outback close to ten.

And they had a twenty minute wait. We decided to give it a try and were about to legit go to waffle house when we got paged to be seated. We both practically inhaled our food as soon as it came and left. At this point I knew it had to be coming because what else was there to do?

We headed to the beach we went to on our first "date" (we sat and listened to music playing at the marina across the way) and headed to the shoreline... where all these boats were moored with their generators going.

It was so loud and smelled like gasoline. At this point I wanted to die laughing, because I could tell he was trying so hard. But recreating something is never going to work, because things change.. even us. But by the fumes and loudness we sat.

He asked me what my favorite thing about the beach was.. and I legit thought it was a trick question (I don't know why, I just did) and said palm trees even though it would be the ocean. Should've stuck with that because when he pulled out the ring it had to do with that.

He then proceeded to ask me to marry him, and I responded with "yeah" which if he could've seen my face (really poor lighting where we were), it would've been adorable... however, he couldn't, and it didn't help that the way I said it, it sounded like a question. So then I just kept saying "yeah" because the biggest question I get asked in my life and for some reason I couldn't get out a "yes" and one that didn't sound like a question.

Face palm moment on so many levels. He proceeds to put the ring on my hand (way to big.. but honestly, how is he supposed to know that. Especially living five hours away), and I tell him it's beautiful! Remember that poor lighting I mentioned? Yeah, couldn't see the ring to save my life because it was dark but I didn't want to make it any more awkward especially after my "Yeah".

Here's the thing though. I wouldn't change a single detail about that day. I didn't even want to then. It was real. It was rough. It had some crazy moments. But we did it together. We fought through all the moments that could have made us throw up our hands and say forget it, let's try for another night. But we didn't. Because that's not life. It throws you curveballs. Thankfully, God put that man in my life that understands that as well, and is willing to keep going and not let hard times stop us. That doesn't mean we don't get frustrated at times. It means we know that those times won't last forever, and acting like they will won't get us anywhere.. it will only hurt us. So we keep going. Embracing the unknown. Together.