It’s amazing how 5 years can feel like forever and an instant all at once.  It’s amazing how when you feel like you can’t love someone any more than you already do, but you find yourself more in love every year.  No one told me marriage would be this wonderful.  It was supposed to be a challenge.  It was supposed to be hard.  Very rarely it is, and the first couple years were a huge learning curve, but for the most part it’s absolutely wonderful and I can’t imagine my life without Nick.

We’ve done a lot in 5 years.  We’ve lived in three places.  600 square feet with a crazy landlord and the massive “L-shaped” desk Nick just had to have above all else!  417 square feet underneath rambunctious children.  And now our actual purchased home.  Oh, the photographer in me is going to be dying over the quality of 70% of the images in today’s post.  Please know that we didn’t own a real camera for the first 2/3rds of our marriage, lol!

We’ve changed careers 4 times between the two of us.  We’ve bought our first car, our first home, our first fridge.  (Sorry, but buying and owning appliances was really weird for us.  For the first 6 months of owning our place, we would walk into the kitchen, point at a random appliance, and say, “That’s actually ours!”).  We’ve been so poor that we’ve literally lived on beans, and recycled cans from my office’s garbage for the extra spending money.  And we’ve been so well off that we’ve been able to invest a lot of money into gear, travel, and starting our own company.  We’ve been to San Diego once and Mexico twice.  We’ve even gone on an almost month-long road trip all across North America.  And we’ve been through way too many fish.  (I apparently suck at taking care of living things).

Nick, you introduced me to a lot of firsts:  First time renting a camp ground and pitching a tent.  First time picking out a live Christmas tree.  (Thank goodness our strata bylaws put a stop to that nonsense!  Haha).  You also took me on my first roller coaster (and subsequently probably my last!).  You introduced me to berry picking.  You even convinced me to like Nutella somewhat, and I think I’ve managed to give you at least an appreciation for Clamato juice ;).  We went on our first road trip with no destination together (other than driving sea to sea!).  I even played my first Euro-game with you the day we met, and many more since then :).  At least I can say that Disney Land on our honeymoon was YOUR first and not mine.

We’ve grown in who we are as people.  We’ve found a church home and joined in a number of ministries.  We’ve learned to trust God in huge ways.  God, we don’t have any money for groceries this month.  God, we think You’re calling us to quit our jobs and start over from scratch.  We’ve learned to hear Him more and better.  I’m even learning to trust Him which is a huge step from 5 years ago when I trusted no one at all.

This post was actually harder than I thought to write because my heart feels like it’s just bursting with love and memories for this man I’m married to.  I feel like I’m the most blessed girl on earth to have been given him.  Nick Froese, I love you.  I love who you are and who you are becoming.  I don’t love the fact that you still don’t wipe the counters down when you’re done in the kitchen, but hey, we’re only 5 years in.  We’ll keep working on that ;).

Here’s hoping for another 50 years with you by my side and more memories and adventures than I can count!