one dozen

Yesterday marked 12 years of marriage for Tom and I. A dozen years. I'm pretty crazy proud of that. Early, early on in our marriage I told Tom that I wanted to be like Paul and Linda McCartney and never spend a night apart (I think they spent three nights apart over their entire marriage). We haven't quite managed that, but we are pretty darn amazing.

We met at a record store in 1996...

We both had significant others, but there was just something about him. I look back on it now and the way we started out was really a recipe for disaster. But we just kept creeping on to the next step...never really in the "right" order. Sneaking around, breaking up with the significant others, sort-of dating, sort-of moving in together, really moving in together, adopting a dog, buying a house, adopting a second dog, and last but not least...

...getting married. We had THE most amazing wedding. It was exactly everything I wanted. We got married in my parents back yard. They worked for months planting roses and building trellises to make it gorgeous and yet not over-the-top. It was a beautiful evening, there was a giant white tent, orange-vanilla candles, we danced to Nobody Knows Me by Lyle Lovett, and most importantly everyone I love most in the world was there. I walked in barefoot in my handmade (by my mom and my other mom) dress that was layers and layers and layers of yellow tulle. ohhhhh, I could do that day over and over and over again...
And now here we are, 12 years later and I love him more today than I did on that perfect night. I could say all of those cheesy things like we complete each other and we fit and we are perfect for each other and they would all be true, but they still aren't enough. I adore him with every fiber of my being. And I am grateful, insanely grateful for every one of the 4,380 days I've spent married to him. And I'm looking forward to the next 4,380.