Seven & Seven

The First Seven Years:

Working together at our local coffee shop while still in high school.  Becoming friends, then good friends, then  'I think I like' you friends. Drinking shots of espresso, sitting around Denny's at 2am. Hanging out, holding hands, my head on your shoulder.  First "date", first kiss, first dance in the back of a closed coffee shop,  Crazy Love playing over the speakers.  First roses, first  real love. College classes, studying late into the night.  You playing guitar. Homemade coffee tables,volleyball at midnight.  Hanging out with your friends, and my friends, that soon because our friends.  My sisters, your siblings, our families combine.  The most beautiful dog in the entire world.  The best Halloween costumes ever.  A surprise birthday trip on the Dinner Train. South Carolina and Mawmaw's kitchen table. A little stone house that needed a lot of work. Watching lightning storms over the gulf in Florida, walking through downtown after an ice storm.  Watching the X-files, watching Futurama, watching Star Trek. Graduating college, finding 'real' jobs.   A golden birthday that ended with a doughnut, a candle, and a question.

The Next Seven years:

I Do, and you do too.  Dancing to Crazy Love surrounded by our family and friends.  Speeches and wine and the best damn cake we have ever tasted.  Using a real map and finding our own way.  A '92 Roadmaster, a true luxury automobile. The best landscaped back yard in the neighborhood.  An addition on the little stone house, built with your own hands.   Hoping and praying and calling in doctors to add an addition to our family as well.  Our first anniversary in DC, Boo, Chris and Missy just make it better.  A skinny Christmas tree in the corner, hand painted stockings over the fire.  I'm pregnant, a boy, our whole life shifts focus. He smiles at us, we smile at each other, our love made him.  Less sleep, less money, lots of love in that little stone house.  Playing with Henry and Ellie in the snow.  New jobs, back to school. Playing Socks on the changing table, Henry's laugh fills the house and our hearts.  My picture obsession, and yours with cooking shows. Romeo and Juliette on stage,  It's A Wonderful Life in the theater. The beach, the woods, finding new places to explore together.   The hardest days we will hopefully ever know, made easier because we held each other up.    

And On and On:

Through good times and bad, in sickness and health.  I could not ask for a better partner, and I do not know what I would do without you.  I love you more today than I did fourteen years ago, or seven years ago, or even yesterday.  Happy Anniversary, baby.  My favorites memories are the ones we make together.