Wow. I can’t believe I am writing this. 8 years of marriage. 8 whole years since Jose & I have vowed to God that we would spend the rest of our lives together. 8 years since I told my best friend that I wanted to be with him forever. 8 years since I ran off with my marine to North Carolina the day after we got married. 8 years of a beautiful life that we built together. 8 years of Marine Corps life, 2 deployments, 4 homes, 6 miscarriages, 2 states, millions of phone calls & texts, 11 years together total, thousands of kisses, & 8 of the best years of my life. Jose literally is the best husband that God could have ever given me. I am so blessed with the most giving, handsome, patient, courageous, strong, passionate & loving husband on the planet. He is everything that I have ever needed & wanted. He makes the bad days seem like nothing & like they never happened. He makes everyday good. He makes every morning seem like it’s the first day ever together & gives me a reason to try to better myself daily. He tells me everyday how proud he is of me & I tell him daily how loved he is. How has it been 8 years? I still feel like that young 16 year old couple who are young & free, but with a little bit more wisdom, & a lot more strength & love. He is my best friend, my rock, my most precious gift from God. I can’t wait for the rest of our lives of spending everyday together & days filled with adventures. You are my greatest adventure Jose.

I thought it would be fun to do 8 random facts about our life together…

1. We dated for 3 years before getting married 1 1/2 of those were long distance while he was serving int he military. He joined the Marines when he was 18 & I was a 17 year old high school senior. Long distance was the first thing we accomplished as a young couple in love & it truly made our bond stronger. Also, the first 4 years of marriage we spent more time separated due to the military than together. We adapted to life apart & it made us the strongest I think we could ever be. Two 7 month deployments, countless month long work ups, days away training, & more really taught us how special the time is we have together.
2. The day after he came home from bootcamp he gave me a promise ring in the carwash. Car washes are still special to us.. I know weird, but such a great memory that we will never forget.
3. Our wedding was SUPER small not because of money, but because that’s what we both wanted & we have never regretted that. We were married on a local golf course & the weather that day was the most gorgeous fall days you ever did see. The only thing we would have changed would to have spent more on a photographer, but we have the memories in our head which is all that matters.
4. We have lived in 4 homes since we have been married. 5 if  you count us living in a hotel room for a month on base when we moved to North Carolina because they had no room for us in base housing when we first moved there. Two 19 year olds in a hotel room eating spaghetti  O’s every night for dinner for a month I wouldn’t change those days for the world! So many fun memories like getting our first dog together [bella who is now 8] & sneaking her in our room every day. After the hotel we lived in base house for 3 years. It was a brand new townhouse that we loved dearly. Our second house was our North Carolina home that I built while he was deployed on his second deployment & surprised him with when he came home after 7 months [he didn’t want to see any photos so he would be completely surprised.. now that is trust! haha]. Our third home was our historic downtown rental in NewBern North Carolina that we lived in after we sold the home that we built. & now our 4th home is our Michigan house that we have been making our own for the past year. All of those homes are so special to us & hold some amazing memories that we will never forget.
5. Our favorite things to do together are: Drive around aimlessly & find things to do along the way, go junkin’, DIY projects, find new places to eat, go to the movies, watch baseball, & basically just making everyday an adventure.
6. We have visited 14 states together and only have flown one time together, but have flown a million times in the 8 years separately.
7. We share an anniversary with my mom’s birthday. We were actually supposed to get married in October [Jose proposed to me in July under the fireworks & we wanted to get married soon after.] But I come from a family of hunters & October was out of the question, so September 28th it was! My mom was thrilled to share & I’m honored to share the day with her. Happy Birthday Mom!
8. This year we bought two of our dream vehicles. A Jeep Wrangler & our newest, but oldest is a Jeep Grand Wagoneer. Since we love road trips & adventures this was pretty fun for us. We have had so many adventures in our Wrangler including moving from North Carolina to Michigan with it packed down with our belongings & we truly can’t wait to have more adventures in our Wagoneer. In the short  two weeks we have owned it we have already put some fun miles on her. Today we took her on some back roads & enjoyed the beautiful fall day & also filled the back with our junkin’ finds from the day.

I mean. That’s just scratching the surface of our time together & doesn’t count all the large & small moments, but just a few fun facts about us. Of course marriage is work, & there is not marriage that is perfect. I am stubborn, difficult, & I sometimes don’t know how he stays so calm with how all over the place I am, but being married is my favorite thing ever & I would work forever and a day for this marriage. Marriage is truly the greatest adventure. I am so thankful for him & I really don’t know what I deserved to have such a happy life with him, but I thank God everyday for every second with him. Something fun we did to celebrate our 8 years of marriage was that every weekend in the month of September we took turns surprising each other with surprise dates such as baseball games, the circus, hotel stays, massages, & more. It was a fun way to give gifts to each other that we could both enjoy. We are so thankful for all of you & that you take the time daily to check in a very small portion of our daily lives here on the blog, on Instagram, Periscope, Facebook, & check in on us in email & more. Thank you for supporting us, & just caring. We are seriously thankful. That is is. Thank you for stopping by my little blog. xx

Read 20 facts about our Marriage [here]