ten years.

ten years ago this week, popeye asked me out on a date.

he did it in front of family and friends by the Jamba Juice in his college town and I was so giddy with anticipation I could have burst.

a few days later he picked me up in his parents yukon and took me to a pizza place where i proceeded to be terrified to eat in front of him and he performed magic tricks to try and impress me.

i still have the tickets we won playing arcade games that night.

we stayed up talking until after 3 am.

i am pretty sure i was in love from the moment he came to my door.

the past ten years since that first date haven't always been easy.

we lived hours and hours apart.

we turned our lives upside down to move home and be with each other 

only to break up for a whole year just a few months later.

we've bickered.

we've cried.

we've been stubborn.

we've ignored.

we've rolled eyes and talked back and been defensive on more than one occasion.

we've been hurt and hurt each other.

we've been through more trials than i could have ever imagined as a love-struck college girl.

we've been ugly sinners in desperate need of forgiveness from God and each other.

but.

we've grown and changed and matured.

we've sought after God to guide us in our walks with him and each other.

we've trudged through the hard stuff 

not always knowing if there would be something beautiful on the other end.

we've fought hard fights for each other and with each other.

we've clung to this little family when it could have easily slipped through our fingers.

we've remembered our vows to Christ and to each other.

and it has truly been an honor being married to such an incredible person.

someone who can frustrate the dickens out of me one minute and make me laugh until i cry in the next.

a person who knows me often much better than i know myself.

who isn't afraid to call me out on my crap while still defending me to anyone who tries to hurt me.

who loves me unconditionally.

who has forgiven me and loved me far more than i deserve.

we have had a million special moments together.

and a million more that were just regular moments that somehow 

are just more wonderful because we did them together.

we've traveled.

we've laughed.

we've sung lots of Michael Jackson and watched way too much 

Seinfeld and Arrested Development for anyone's good.

there are a million differences between us but somehow we've made it work.

he hates leafy greens and soft cheeses.

i find most fried foods repulsive.

he could listen to comedy stations twenty-four hours a day.

talk radio is more my speed.

he is extremely into privacy.

i don't understand why i have to shut the bathroom door just to pee.

he enjoys action movies and sleeping in.

i prefer to read a book and wake up with the sun.

he argues just for the sake of having (and winning) an argument.

i am defensive and can never seem to get around his circular logic.

his idea of a perfect vacation is laying on a pool raft doing nothing.

i might just drive him crazy with my plans to drive cross country 

and hit every national park along the way.

and we both like to have the last word.

but somehow, amongst all those differences, we've found a sweet and special love.

i depend on him to keep me sane and strong and sensible when i'm acting like a crazy emotional fool.

he depends on me to keep our sheets clean and our lives organized and our child educated and fed.

we both have a special job in this relationship and i'm thankful for the fact that popeye regularly acknowledges and appreciates the jobs i do to keep our family and home running and functioning.

our marriage isn't perfect.

but to be honest, the hard stuff is what has made this marriage so sweet.

we've risen up many valleys and climbed many difficult mountains.

and at the end of the day, i can truly say i would rather hang out with him than 

anyone else on this planet.

popeye.

you've seen and known me at my very worst.

you've loved and forgiven me more than i deserve.

you've been patient and kind with me through so many obstacles.

you drive me nuts.

seriously.

but i love you unconditionally through that nutiness.

i admire the freedom you have to live worry free.

your confidence.

the fact that you always believe everything will turn out fine.

and your tenacious spirit.

(except when you are using it to try and wear me down.  then i want to just throw a pillow at you.)

thank you for putting up with me when i seem to have a one-way ticket to crazy town.

thank you for laughing with me about ridiculous things and quoting Seinfeld at the perfect moments.

thank you for putting up with my shenanigans and allowing me to have a free spirit, even though i know i regularly drive you nuts with my piles and messes and projects galore.

thank you for loving me enough to take me traveling and hiking and exploring to my heart's content.

for knowing me well enough to know that pancakes and museums are my love language.

and for enjoying meat buffets and hotel beds and blended margaritas as much as i do.

i appreciate the ways you show me you love me.

by never giving up when i so desperately wanted another baby.

by being patient through my days and weeks and months of mourning over the ones we lost.

by encouraging me and praising me in my parenting and schooling of swee'pea.

by truly putting me above all other people and things.

i have loved you and still love you more than i ever thought possible.

i have prayed for you... for this marriage... more than anything else i've ever prayed for.

i have fought for you.... for this marriage... more than anything else i've ever fought for.

you are still one of the cutest boys i've ever laid eyes on.

and i still swoon every time i see you in your uniform.

you may not like to cuddle with me or let me touch you with my feet.

but until the day we grow old and senile and can't remember each other's names or faces,

 i will never stop having the hots for you.

well.  even still.  because i think you will probably be a super hot old man.

i love you more than harry potter and zweibach and rosemary's ice cream and NYC combined.

times a million.

thank you for loving me in return.

it has been the greatest decade of my life being with you.

and i can't wait to see what the next decade has in store for us.