I Got the Boy and the Man.

Yes, this post was totally inspired by the Jana Kramer song.  I thought of it the first time I heard it, but am just getting to writing it now.  I thought it kind of makes sense now anyway - you know, with Valentine's Day around the corner and all!

As many of you already know, Tyler and I are high school sweethearts.  To be exact, we started "dating" (if you can even call it that) during freshman year of high school - 14 and 15 years old.  Since we're now 26 and 27, if you do the math you'll find out that we'll soon approach the mark when we've spend half of our lives together.  I know, kind of crazy to say at our age.  It actually seems like longer to me. ;)

When I tell people that we're high school sweethearts, I almost always get one of two reactions:

1.) a genuine "oh, that's adorable" heart eyes emoji reaction,

2.) a not-so-genuine "oh, that's adorable" what are you thinking only being with one person for your whole life reaction.

I've actually even gotten a "oh, so you're really only going to be with one person for your whole life?" reaction before, which definitely takes the cake.  Yes, creepy guy who I barely even know.  Thanks for asking.

While I'm certain ending up married to your high school sweetheart is not for everyone, it seems to be working out pretty nicely for us so far. ;)  In all seriousness, it's totally understandable why not everyone who starts dating when they're 14 years old ends up spending the rest of their lives together.  There is so much growing that occurs in your high school, college, and post-grad life, and sticking together through it all required the two of us to grow together.  I have no secrets on how we've spent the past almost twelve years together without killing each other (or getting sick of each other or even having "a break").  It's really been about working together to grow our lives together.  We spent a lot of time learning and figuring each other out before we even got married, and I also think that has helped our relationship a lot.

To say we've been inseparable since 2004 might be considered an understatement.  When I say we're best friends, I mean it, and we have been best friends since pretty much the beginning of our relationship.  In high school, we spent every second in school we could together - meeting in the parking lot a half hour before school even started to hangout in Tyler's car (we always parked next to each other, obviously), meeting up in between classes (which meant sharing whoevers locker had the best location), and even signing up for as many of the same classes together as we could.  We also spent every Saturday afternoon at his house, and Sunday afternoons at mine.  After high school, we went to the same college in Providence, RI, and adapted (as best as we could) to city + dorm room living, before getting our very own apartment together the day after sophomore year ended.  Tyler proposed on May 15, 2010 on the beach in Newport, RI.  After I graduated the following year (Tyler graduated a year early because he's a smartypants), we moved out of the city and rented our first house together.  We adopted our two first fur babies, worked hard at our jobs and figuring out what grown-up life is all about, and bought our first house in June 2013.  We got married on August 3, 2013 and decided to get serious about adding another member to our family during Summer 2014 (best decision ever).  We found out we were expecting on September 1, 2014,  and welcomed our baby girl on April 26, 2015.  We have spent the past nine months growing and learning more together as new parents than probably the rest of our relationship combined.

While it's certainly not for everyone, I've come up with a few reasons why I think being married to my high school sweetheart is the shit:

1.)  We were part of each others families long before we officially became part of each others families. You know the awkwardness of going to your significant others big family gathering for the first time?  Well, that happened almost twelve years ago, when pretty much everything in our life was awkward anyway.

 

2.)  Speaking of awkward... we've been through some awkward times together and still think the sun shines out of each others asses.  How fun is it to look back on some of the pictures from our first years together?  Extremely.  Braces (me) and bleached hair (Tyler) for the win.

3.)  Hands down, he knows me better than anyone else and he has for many years now.  This makes communication pretty easy, and a lot of the time words aren't even needed.

4.)  We have SO many shared memories together already. That's arguably one of my favorite, if not my favorite, parts of our relationship.  It is so cool to be able to reminisce about the "old times" and see how much we and the things around us have changed.  There are seriously endless "remember when"s when we get to talking about anything and everything - from getting our driver's licenses and going to prom, to staying up late to study together for college exams, to celebrating our first real jobs, buying our first house, getting married, and having a baby.  I seriously can't even begin to explain how happy it makes me to know that he's been by my side through so many new + different life experiences.  Both good and bad, he's been there without fail, without questions, without judgment.
 

5.)  I got to wear his high school football jersey (that he so kindly spritzed with his "cologne" for me), and now I get to wear the ring that he gave me when he asked me to be his wife.  This is kind of joke, but also not really.  Getting to wear that jersey was my fifteen-year-old self's dream come true. I even slept with that thing on Friday nights.  Having Tyler get down on one knee, ask me to be the person he would spend the rest of his life with, and give me a ring that I know he worked hard saving up the money for?  Five cagillion times better.
 

 I asked Tyler what his favorite part of being married to his high school sweetheart was, and he said it is that we got to know each other during different stages of our lives.  To say that we have changed since we were 14 and 15 years old might be an understatement, and we've loved each other every step of the way.

 

All that being said, I will just say that this guy is more than the man of my dreams.  I love having him as a husband and daddy to our baby girl.  Ellie and I are beyond blessed to have you and look forward to making many more memories together as our family grows.

Happy Valentine's Week! XO