Our Love Story

I am hopping on the bandwagon and linking up with Becky at from Mrs. to Mama to tell you our love story this Valentine’s day.

1. How long have you and your significant other been together? We have been together since April 20th 2002 (he asked me to be his girlfriend on AIM lol oooh the good old days), so 10 years this April! Wow!!! Alex just turned 28 last week and when we met he was only 18. It is amazing how much we have grown together.

                **dying over these pictures!!! the first one is us when Alex is 18 and had just graduated and I was 17**

2. How did you meet? {What's your "love" story?} Alex and I shared mutual friends that were a couple. I was looking for someone to go to the prom with and Melissa decided to set me up with Alex. He asked me to prom (on AIM of course) on April 11th 2002. We decided we should probably hang out before the prom to get to know each other and my the 20th we were officially a couple.

The prom we got set up for in 2002

My senior prom 2003

    Alex graduated in 2002 and went to college at Penn State Hazelton. I only wanted to follow him so PSUH was the only school I applied to. I graduated in 2003 and went to the same college as him, we both still lived at home and commuted. In 2004 Alex moved to State College and that December we got engaged (as a commitment to one another because we were going to be living together the next year) and a year later I moved down as well and we have lived together ever since. Crazy to think we have been living together 7 years already. Our first apartment was a 600 square foot studio apartment so you best bet we got a chance to work out all of the kinks in our relationship real quick. We lived two more years in State College in a larger apartment that was further from campus and all the hustle and bustle; sometimes I’d give anything to go back to those days, we had a lot of fun living there!

My college graduation 2007

3. If married, how long have you been married? We will be married 4 years this upcoming May.

4. If you are married, where did you get married at? Big or small wedding? We got married at the church I grew up in and our reception was at a local golf course. It was a medium sized wedding; lots of family and a few of our really close friends.

5. Do you have any nick-names that you call one another? Do share! HAHA yes we do and my family always makes fun of me for it. I have no idea when or where we came up with this but we both call eac hother “Pook” and have forever. When I am talking to Alex at work and I say “pook” Liam will say “ooooh its Dada, Hiiii Dada”.

At the Philadelphia Zoo in 2004

Orioles game in Baltimore in 2005

6. Name 3 things you love most about your honey. I love that he would rather stay home and watch Lost then go our to a bar on the weekend (and drink tea and have cookies). I love that he is an extremely dedicated Dad, he would do anything for his kids and will totally be one of those Dads beating down the door to get his kid the hottest/most hard to find toy of the season. I love that I can be totally completely honest with him and he would never judge me on some of the crazy things I am thinking, most of the time he is even agreeing with me. I love that we really are two peas in a pod.

My high school graduation in 2003

7. Tell us how he proposed? We wanted to get engaged because we were moving in together in a few months and it was a commitment to ourselves that we would get married once we graduated college. I had always wanted a Christmas time engagement because I love the season so much, so I knew it was coming. He proposed at his house on Christmas Eve with a hand painted sign that said “Will you marry me?” clearly I said yes!

The Christmas we got engaged 2004

New Years 2004

8. Is he a flowers and teddy bear kind of guy for v-day, or strawberries, champagne, and rose petals? Neither..we actually don’t do Valentines day and never have. Not because we think it is a dumb Hallmark holiday or anything but because last Wednesday was his birthday and next Wednesday is my birthday and Valentines Day sits right in between the two. We usually do cards and I will make a nicer dinner but that is about it plus I hate flowers! If you are going to spend that much money at least buy me a vegetable plant that I can plant in the ground and get eventually eat something from!

Vacation in 2005 in Atlantic City

9. Are you a sunset dinner on the beach kind of girl, or pop a movie in and relax on the couch? Don’t get me wrong I would give a lot to be at the beach having dinner right now but that isn’t very realistic so we settle for a pop in a movie and relax date very often, like every weekend often BUT we love it!

Dinner on the beach in 2007

10. Tell us one thing you'd like to do with your significant one day. If you could do anything? Go anywhere? I would love to travel anywhere with him! We have been on a few vacations together but I would love to go somewhere together that neither one of us have been so we can experience it together.

Christmas 2008 … we took a pictures with our cats … HAHA a true sign we needed a baby

11. Tell us what you plan on doing on this Valentine's Day. Nothing much….Liam and I made some sugar cookies to give to everyone and I made up little gift bags for the kiddos and got Alex a card from them. We talked about doing take out for dinner but haven’t decided yet.

My 21st birthday and Christmas 2007

12. Are you asking for anything this Valentine's day? Nope since my birthday is next week I am asking for stuff then  

This is one of my favorite pictures from vacation in 2004, we’ve gone through a lot of phases …. look at the hair on us!

13. Give us one piece of advice of keeping a relationship strong and full of love. If I am being 100% honest it would be to live together before you get married, I know I know SO against being politically correct but it helped us so much and Alex agrees we talked about this last week actually. Also to be honest and talk about something that is bothering you instead of holding it in only to eventually explode, so much better to put it on the table and sort it out then and there. Also never go to bed mad (stay up and fight), we just talked about this tonight that in the 10 years we have been together we went to bed once mad at each other, once! Oh and neither one of us remembers what we were mad about. And lastly, don’t take life too seriously. There are days when both kids are screaming, the house is a disaster of scattered toys, dishes, stray goldfish and the cats are probably puking or something and all we do is look at each other and laugh.

Horrible quality of this pictures, pre digital camera days, but the look on my face just sums it up … roll with it.

14.  Show us a picture of what love means to you.

Hands down, no doubt my favorite picture … it is true love all around, through and through.

 

and just for fun lets throw some side by side