remember-the-date

I cannot believe a year has already come and gone. Gosh, I feel so lucky. Short of salvation, there is nothing more fulfilling in life than waking up next to the love of my life each morning and walking through each day with him. I look forward to the life that lies ahead of us - the life we're planning together. I look forward, but at the same time I'm going to try not to do the 'cant wait' thing. I've spent the last 2 years in grad school maybe a little too focused on the light at the end of the tunnel - I need to slow down and re-remember that our life together has definitely already begun, a house or a handful of kids doesn't mark the starting line... I don't have to say I can't wait, because I know that if every day up until then can be just like these, just this wonderful, then I want to enjoy the journey... One of my greatest joys is simply sharing the day-to-day with you - sure, the vacations and the holidays are always full of smiles and fun, but the real bare bones of life are in the patterns of our everyday lives - the errands, the cooking, the just sitting on the couch...what would seemingly be unexciting and monotonous, is anything but that with you - it's peaceful, it's warm, it's shared. This is starting to be very incriminatingly Lifetime-movie-esque. But, thank you, babe, for being so incredibly generous. so hilarious. making me light up and bringing a permanent smile to everything...and I'll get all this, always. I'm definitely counting my blessings as I reminisce of the year gone by.
On our trip, we decided on 'our thing'. We're going to take a commemorative anniversary picture and each year spell out ' ___ years' in whatever we have at our disposal to 'celebrate' with. Now, on our honeymoon it was the sand...and for year 1 it was also a beachy-message. But, who knows, one year it could be river rocks...the next it could be a plate of our 3-year-old's corn kernels. In the spirit of this new tradition, we both ended up giving eachother the exact same anniversary card. I know, how obnoxiously cute, right?
The first anniversary is the 'paper' one...so, naturally, we exchanged books... and Aaron threw in some 'waste-not-paper' stationery. so fitting. To relive our excitement of 05.27.07, we're going to pull out the wedding DVD. :) We've yet to eat the top tier of our wedding cake - it's been in my grandma's freezer, and we haven't been able to get back home recently... but, I've been thinking about you mr. vanilla & jack daniels chocolate chip cake with fondant and buttercream icing and chocolate mousse and raspberry filling. I sure hope you preserved well.

I am challenging us both to reflect and compile a list of 25 things we've learned after being married for this first year. 25 may be an incredible understatement. I actually wish I'd kept more of a running-tab all along... Our life is certainly not perfect, but at times our life together just seems so very. I take no credit for this peace and this comfort, it's clearly divine design. I almost, almost, feel guilty for such a blessing....or at least baffled as to why we were chosen to experience love like this, something so unique and special, but like any great blessing - I simply have to guard and appreciated as the most valuable thing I have. I'm sorry, I've never had a way with words like you have, babe...I'm always at a loss when it comes to articulating my tangle of emotions. I'm going to have to write a love thesaurus and just invent all new words. My two readers are going to 'gag' if I don't stop it.