My dh and I were talking last night about yesterday’s post filled with memories of my son, and we got to talking about memories of just the two of us – when you have kids, sometimes it seems like they consume you and your life and memories of just you and your spouse do frequently take a backseat, but today I’m going to think of my top 10 memories of my husband, the man who keeps me sane.

1. The day we met – I think it was 2003 or so, we were both working at a small independent bookstore in the area, which is sadly no longer in business. I had been working there little more than a week when my manager asked me to train two new employees on the register – my husband was one of them. I remember thinking he was picking things up far quicker than the second guy (who didn’t stay there long if I recall), and that he was very, very tall. I’ve always loved my husband’s work ethic, I know it sounds strange, but it was one of the initial things that attracted me to him.

2. The bookstore occasionally did cute little hokey things to attract business, like their big Tent Sale, in which they threw all of the terribly old products into a tent outside and marked them down to next to nothing in a last ditch attempt to clear them out of inventory. They then assigned a few good workers to essentially “run” the tent, my now husband and I included – it was a lot of fun and felt kind of like being mini store owners for the day or days we worked it and I actually remember having a very strange vision of my husband and I being married, running our own bookstore, even though at the time we weren’t even dating.

3. A couple years later I graduated from college and took a job full time at the bookstore as the children’s manager and for weeks mooned over dh, wondering if he liked me (all the signs indicated he did, but we were both slow pokes, afraid to make a move) until finally I asked him to a 4th of July party at my friend’s house – a sort of test run so see how he fit in with my main group of friends (wonderfully, btw). Even at the end of the night though, we had still not confirmed if this was a romantic outing or just being friendly. He dropped me off and my heart sank – why couldn’t I just SAY something? I’m not normally this terribly shy about things, but dh apparently ALWAYS was, which is why we both just kinda dug our heels in and dragged, until I called him a few minutes later, mustering up all my nerve and said, “do you like me? Because I like you, and I thought you should know…” [insert too long silence here] until he finally announced that he did indeed like me, had for sometime, etc. all the cute awkard stuff and we finally made plans for a real date the following night.

4. From here on out it was like making up for lost time, we’d both liked each other for 2 years without saying anything but it felt now like we’d been dating for those 2 years the whole time in slow motion. Making up for lost time we suddenly found ourselves {gasp} pregnant and a little shell shocked. But dh was the most wonderful guy ever, and stood by my side the whole time while we got to know each other better and slowly announced things to our families. I was terrified that any minute he’d decide he didn’t like me, but our relationship has always been a kind of miracle. Together we have always been stronger than apart.

5.That fall we took our first vacation as a couple, a day trip to Boston. It was a long day – we had lunch at an Indian restaurant near the T Station, where I delightedly tried Indian food for the first time and didn’t even mind that I didn’t like it – the point was I had tried it! My husband loves Indian food and enjoyed showing me something new. We walked the streets of Boston taking pictures of interesting things and enjoying a chance to get away from our normals lives together. I still love traveling with him, seeing new places through his eyes.

6. That winter he proposed. He took me to Olive Garden, our favorite restaurant to this day especially. We had a wonderful meal and then in the parking lot he started to stall. The weather was dismal and he was so nervous, but he did it – he proposed, with a gorgeous diamond that I would have picked out myself if shown the selection. It was adorable and very him, simple but honest. And of course I accepted.

7. In April of 2006 our son was born and my husband was the cutest father in the world. He was my advocate and my strength and just so in love with our little boy. I fell in love with him all over again when he became a father. It was beautiful.

8. In August we married. We went back in forth for awhile deciding if we should marry before the baby was born, but ultimately we wanted to make sure that his birth and our marriage were two separate things, not one caused by the other. We were able to share our special day with the most important person in our lives, our 4 month old son, MLM.

9. On our honeymoon we discovered that while we love trying new things (like gnocci at a small italian restauraunt) we loved our old loves, too – our first dinner was at Applebee’s, a restauraunt we’ve always loved frequenting together. We also loved going to a very cool restauraunt / bookstore where the price of your meal included getting a few books as well. We met at a bookstore, and honeymooned at one, too. Perfect.

10. Since then, I’ve continued getting to know this man I call my husband. Every day sometimes it seems we learn new things about each other and continue to grow in our marriage, as I suspect we always will. I love surviving the world with him – from living together with both of our parents at different points, to finally getting our own place together (a good good choice) – from experiencing parenthood at all it’s stages thus far and dreaming about the future – traveling together, renting movies together, learning to cook new foods – I love growing with him and can’t wait to be old people together, but also love knowing we have years and years and years to get there.

I love you sweetie.