Seven Years

On April 18, 2004, Brand and I had a 17-month-old daughter and a 4-day-old newborn son.

So you know what we did?

We got married.

Ryan was supposed to attend the wedding in utero, but my body had other plans.

We had a lovely little ceremony in my parents' living room.  I wore a maternity dress, and my feet were still so swollen from being pregnant that I couldn't even jam a pair of flip-flops on my feet.  So my maid of honor and I went barefoot.

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Brand and I have been together since 1999.  We started dating in high school.  He was a senior and I was a junior.  Even at the ripe old age of 16, I knew I'd found "the one."  I know it sounds silly and downright crazy, but I was right.

We have literally been best friends ever since.

We both saved every single note that we ever wrote to one another in high school, and I laughed my butt off this morning reading the one where he asks me if I wanted to make our relationship "official" on March 1, 1999.  He even drew me pictures.

Let's take a stroll down memory lane, shall we?

Senior Prom 1999

Graduation 1999

1999

June of 2000; Wildwood, NJ

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Like all couples, we have our disagreements.  We don't always see eye to eye, but the one thing that keeps our relationship strong is absolute trust and the fact that we are truly best friends.

There has never been drama in our relationship, even from the very beginning.  If something is bothering one of us, we talk it out (or yell it out) and we don't hold grudges.

We give one another space.  If he wants to go out with his friends without me, I have no issue with that...and vice versa.  And we make each other laugh on a daily basis.

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I love you, B-Nobes.

Happy Anniversary.