Hi Friends! On Sunday my husband and I celebrated 5 years of marriage! So, you know what that means…it’s time to celebrate! This week on the blog I’m going to share 5 reasons I’m celebrating 5 years of marriage.

A Marriage built on Friendship: I met my husband in 2006 during our freshman year of college, and guess what? It wasn’t love at first site, fire works, or some mysterious force that drew us together. Instead, our relationship developed and flourished from a simpler concept. Friendship. That’s right, friendship. From 2006-2008 that’s all we were…friends… regular smegular friends. Our marriage is built upon friendship, and I truly believe that’s why it works. Prior to becoming my husband, George was someone I genuinely liked and trusted… but only as a friend. Nothing more. Liking and trusting someone can go a long way. Believe me, I’ve come across A LOT of couples who struggle with simply liking each other. That’s why I am so grateful that as we went from being just friends, to dating, having a “situationship”, romantic relationship, and now marriage we can always look back on what brought us together initially. The building block of our relationship. Our friendship.

Laughter is good for the soul: When I tell you my husband is a clown! That is a understatement! Even though there are times where he can be a bit corny, I think he is absolutely hilarious! Even after all of these years he still finds ways to make me laugh so hard that I’m bent over holding my stomach with tears in my eyes (we had one of those moments two days ago). Laughter always reminds me to lighten up, have fun, enjoy my husband’s company, and to not take myself too seriously. And since I love to laugh I am the perfect person for George to practice all of his dad jokes on. Yup, he’s already planning on embarrassing teenage Remy with corny jokes so it’s only natural for me to cosign.

Be nice to each other: Have you ever heard the saying, “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me”? Well, I believe that phrase is one of the biggest lies we have ever been told. Words hurt. Words hurt A LOT. Especially when these words come out of the mouth of someone you admire, love, and trust. Throughout our relationship George & I have tried to be mindful of the words we use towards each other. And I believe we have been pretty successful in this area. We are not perfect by any means, so we have had some slip ups here and there. Who hasn’t? But in moments where we disagree I can truly say that we are both slow to speak and make a tremendous amount of effort to choose our words wisely. When we disagree we try to show each other respect by avoiding the use of insults, hurtful words, and low blows. I’ve found that practicing self-control and cautioning my words during difficult times has made a huge difference in our relationship. It’s hard as HECK to do, but it makes a huge difference.

The power of cuddles: My husband is a big time cuddler (I don’t think that’s a word but just go with it). If he could snuggle all day… he would. Now back in the day I was a super touchy feely person and all about the cuddles, but the older I’ve gotten the less affectionate I’ve become. So, if showing affection is not your thing… I GET IT! But trust me on this one… Cuddling is pretty powerful. Whenever I feel like we’re turning into a “old married couple” I use cuddling as the remedy. When ever I snuggle up to my husband I’m instantly calm, at peace, and feel like our relationship has been rejuvenated. If you’re familiar with the benefits of cuddling you pretty much just read that my husband & I are walking statistics. Cuddling releases the hormone oxytocin (the feel-good hormone), increases\ intimacy, connection, bonding, decreases anxiety, heart disease, and even relieves pain. So, if you’re open to becoming a statistic go on and get your cuddle on.

Grow together: George & I have not only grown as a couple but as individuals. Even though our core beliefs and values are still the same I have to say we have grown quite a bit from the girl & guy who met in 2006, started dating in 2008, and got married in 2015. We’ve gone from friends, boyfriend & girlfriend, husband & wife, to now parents. Every phase of our relationship has had its own set of unique challenges that we have been able to overcome together. And since change is inevitable I know we will be faced with other obstacles as the years go by. And I am confident that as long as we confront these challenges together we will continue to prosper and grow together.

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Thanks again for stopping by the blog and listening to my real life love story. If you have any tid bits on how you’ve kept your relationship going, please share in the comment section below. And if you like what you’ve read don’t forget to like, subscribe, or share with a friend.

See you next time,

Patience

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