Five Things on Friday [Anniversary Edition]

Happy Friday, friends, and happy last day of June!  Can you even believe that?  No?  Ok, me either.  In all seriousness though, today is a special day over here in the Live Well Play Together house because today Hubs and I are celebrating our fifth anniversary!  So, we’re mixing up the Five Things on Friday today.

Since our anniversary is on a Friday this year, and we’re in the habit of posting five things on Friday, and we’re celebrating five years of marriage, I thought I would mix things up a little bit and do a fun little anniversary edition for today.  I hope you’ll enjoy!

Also, be sure to check out lots of other great Five on Friday posts at these link ups:

Five on Friday | Friday Favorites | Friday Favorites | High Five for Friday | Friday Faves

We Met in College and Became Boyfriend/Girlfriend on Leap Day

Hubs and I were in the same group of friends our sophomore year of college.  We lived on the same hall of our dorm and spent tons of time together.  It wasn’t until the end of first semester and beginning of second semester that I really let myself admit that I liked him.  I’ll spare you the whole story, but it ended with Hubs planning an awesome Valentine’s Day banquet for all the girls on our hall (a good chunk of our friend group lived on our hall) in the cafeteria.  He and some other guys were waiting in the cafeteria for us and waited on us during lunch.  It was really special and made all of us girls feel appreciated and celebrated.  Afterwards, Hubs asked me to be his Valentine and I happily obliged.  We went on one date after that and officially became “in a relationship” on 2/29/2008.

It Was 106 Degrees on Our Wedding Day

It was hot.  Remember a couple of weeks ago when I shared tips for planning an awesome outdoor wedding? Well, my friend had a BEAUTIFUL outdoor wedding.  It was in the spring and the weather was lovely.  My brother is also planning an outdoor wedding in the mountains in the fall and I’m sure it will also be wonderful.  Hubs and I got married in the SUMMER.  It’s not usually that hot in the summer in NC, but when I saw the weather report closer to our wedding, you better believe I was thankful to not have tried to risk the heat and get married outdoors.  AC was pumping and we happily tied the knot in a traditional church wedding.

I’m Still Glad We Got a Wedding Video

I debated over whether or not we wanted to have videographers at our wedding.  I just wasn’t sure if I would actually ever sit down and watch our wedding video.  We had a great photographer, so I knew we would have plenty of photos to look back on.  But, I have watched our wedding video, although not always in its entirety every year on our anniversary.  It is really special to me and I’m glad we got it.

 

Marriage is Full of Lessons to be Learned

I won’t even pretend for one second to be a marriage expert.  Just like with parenting, marriage is FULL of lessons to be learned in every single season.  I’ve posted some marriage tips I’ve learned here, but I really feel like I could write so much on things I’ve learned in the last five years – the importance of clear communication, praying for your spouse (I actually might write this one), being intentional with date nights, understanding expectations, going to bed with unresolved conflict (spoiler alert: I don’t advocate for arguing when you’re both tired – this might actually make its way into a post as well), not speaking out of anger or frustration, managing money and setting goals as a team, living in community with others, and the list goes on.  So many lessons.  I feel like I am constantly being refined through marriage and I’m really thankful for that.

I’m Thankful to be Married to My Best Friend

I don’t say that in a cliche way either.  I am thankful every single day to get to do life with Hubs.  He really is my best friend.  He is patient and kind.  Smart and helpful.  He is funny and adventurous.  Hubs is a good listener and an excellent friend (not just to me, but to all his friends). Most importantly, he is a strong leader in our family.  He points me to Christ and encourages me in my own spiritual walk.  He’s a great partner in parenting Little and we love him so much.

And that’s it, friends.  I’m off to celebrate our anniversary!  I hope everyone has a great weekend and happy July 4th!

In Case You Missed It

Finally, in case you missed it earlier this week, I posted 10 Tips for New Bloggers that I’ve learned in the first three months since launching Live Well Play Together.  It was actually one of my most popular posts on publish day and it’s full of some really great tips.  I’d love you to check it out!

 

*All our wedding photos are by Brian Fleming Photography.