6 Years

He taught me to drive his motorcycle on this country road. We caught fireflies and took a walk that night as well. He told me, "Hey, you know you're leading this walk as much as I am, right?" I don't even remember responding. I was willing to walk all night; the night I fell in love with Nathan.





I tried to convince him to date one of my Christian girlfriends. I'm not particularly good at playing matchmaker or anything, I just get a kick out of the imaginary pairings and mock marriages in my brain. Needless to say, he didn't like my idea. And he still doesn't like it when I go playing matchmaker for other people. He calls me "Emma" sometimes. Any Jane Austen fans? It usually means: A.) Badly done, Brittany or B.) Stop it now.

"I've got the perfect gal for you to date," I told him one afternoon while riding on the back of his bike.

"Can you just find me someone... like you?"

He was dead serious. Always so forward. For real- it was a little painful to watch him fall all over himself, making passes at me time and again. It was adorable, but painful. Haha. It was as cheesy as you are imagining. Now Nathan admits to feeling no control over the words that were coming out of his mouth. He's told me that he would say things and then his inner monologue read: "WHAT AM I DOING?!" Love does crazy things to the human heart. Turns people into walking Hallmark cards!

One time I was sitting at the bar at Applebees, where we both worked, waiting on my food, when he just real subtly dropped, "You're really cute!" To offset the awkwardness, I awkwardly replied, "I know." He just pushed further, "No, you are cuter than you know!" Yea, ok, buddy. Ha. I wasn't in a position where I could date him. Heck, I wasn't even sure I wanted to date him! I seriously would get rid of serving shifts when we were scheduled to work together because I just wanted to "be friends".

At least that's what I told myself.

Like the scene from Little Mermaid, when Ariel is in big trouble with her dad, "He's a human! You're a mermaid!" Every girl born in the 80's has this memorized by heart, am I right? But yea, I had something similar reeling through my head, "I'm a Catholic! And he's a Nazarene!" He doesn't like that. He'd tell you, "Christian." Which is true, but he has the vibes of a Nazarene. It paints the picture and adds to the drama here. So I'm gonna leave it.

My mom fell in love with him first. That's not awkward. She MADE me invite him out to this study she was leading called Theology of the Body. Literally, she put the phone book (remember when?) in my hand and told me not to come out of my room until I had called and asked him to attend. Luckily he said "yes" and I got to come out of my room. So basically it was an arranged marriage.

The night of the first meeting he came out on his motorcycle. We sat at the same table together with a bunch of other young adults, including my boyfriend at the time. Afterwards we had a bonfire in my backyard where Nathan shamelessly sang a song that he wrote for me. In front of current boyfriend. I thought nothing of it, but I'm pretty sure my boyfriend told me that he would "rip his face off" if Nathan sang to me again. And my mom was all like, "Oh my gosh! Nathan is wonderful!" #facepalm. I like to think we gave Nicholas Sparks a run for his money.

So after all that, I did the only logical thing to do. I asked him out.

Yup.

The relationship with the boyfriend was rapidly ending anyway and I was hurt, and probably should have waited to officially "break up", but I didn't. And this is exactly why I tell people NOT to date in high school. It just rarely makes for a comfortable story to share. Ha.

Nathan picked me up from my hair appointment that day. And when he dropped me off, he prayed with me. I couldn't see straight between my broken heart and growing fondness for him. I liked this man. A lot. He felt like home. You know what I'm talking about? I just knew, ok?! Cliche of all cliches.

It wasn't a few weeks later, after my previous relationship was officially over, that we stood on my back porch together.

"What am I going to do with this heart?" Nathan asked.

"You're gonna marry it," I prophesied.

Apparently I'm forward too. Match made in heaven.

And just like that, 3 years later, after breaking up and getting back together 3 times, we realized that King Triton was wrong all along. Humans and Mermaids can totally get married if God wants them too.


Celebrating 6 years.
Happy Anniversary to us. XO.


P.S. I'm the mermaid. Nathan is the human. In case anyone was confused.

The Anniversary of Wedges

You know as a kid... when you have your sibling strap on a pair of rollerblades
and hold on to a jump rope so that you can pull them around the neighborhood on your bike?
Yea, hold that image. That's exactly what our anniversary looked like this year!
It was a wild ride as usual!!!

"Go with the flow" sounds so fresh and hippy, but throw some kids
in the mix and instead of "Relax! Party! Do whatever!" it looks more like...

Snag a babysitter for ANY POINT during the anniversary MONTH
and run out the door as soon as she gets there just in case your children pull
out their bag of circus tricks and start crying an ocean of tears because
you even THOUGHT about leaving them with her.

Sick kid? Well sure, queen size beds can technically hold THREE people.
The more the merrier. On a serious note, it seriously melts my heart to look over
at Nathan, with our wedges (I mean children!) in between us, and see him smiling
back at me. This is love, people.

The three year old is having heart palpitations during your romantic dinner at home
for two... no problem! We've had chaperones before, we can have them again!

Oh you can imagine. Our actual anniversary is August 14th, but that whole
day was spent cleaning, working, and taking care of a sick child! And honestly -
I wouldn't have had it any other way. We STILL celebrated... twice actually!
But since our LOVE has grown beyond us and has taken on the form of an Isaiah
and Judah... we have to bend, grow, roll with the punches! This is my party.
And it's pretty fantastic, awesome!



I made up this box of Trader Joe almond windmill cookies for Nathan!
I can hear my little sister in my head as I type this: "Vomit."
Hey! The tiny sentiments, the smallest details are where the L-O-V-E is at!
Am I right?! Can I get an "amen"?!

Nathan surprised me and got us tickets for Six Flags! We hadn't been since before
we were married! We now understand why the park is full of 16 year olds.
Their bodies can handle it!

We made one of our favorite Cheesecake Factory dishes AT HOME
so that we both could enjoy it and not suffer the consequences of our allergies.
I don't have exact details on this recipe - I just wing it every time...

But you can't go wrong with pecan crusted chicken over homemade pesto and rice pasta -
topped with proscuitto, fresh parmesan shavings, arugula, and garden tomato!




Fun fact: Nathan and I basically eloped. We got married in a small town in West Virginia -
where neither of us (or our families) is from. 110 guests. We served Pillsbury funfetti cake
at our reception that I made with my sister the day before! So it's tradition.
Funfetti cake every year. With sprinkles. Still makes my heart happy.



So yes, it was an anniversary of wedges - cute, little wedges -
but we let go and focused on what really matters... celebrating LIFE together.
And that's what it's all about!

1,460 Days

I was 16 and he was 23. I was the receptionist and he was selling cars.
We met at a car dealership of all places. I admired him in a big brother sort of way.
He prayed with his customers. He was different.

But I was still very much a child and he was a man in need of direction.
We worked together for just 2 weeks before he moved on.
I made a note of of him in my journal - for our meeting seemed important.
God let Nathan inspire me for 14 days. Then he was gone.

3 years would go by before we would meet again.

Nathan went to work in China and I served as a missionary in Florida.
God brought us both home at the same time and had us ran into each other at Applebees.
It was my first day as a server and I was shocked to find that Nathan was also a server.
I remember I laughed when I saw him come in the door. Kneeling on a booth
I shouted, "Nathan!" (real lady-like and all!) and he recognized me at once.
Once again, unplanned and completely serendipitous, we were working together.

3 years did wonders for me. I grew up and Nathan noticed.
He unashamedly dropped pick-up lines that most of the time led
me to rolling my eyes, blushing like a bandit, and asking myself:
"Did he really just say that?!" Oh Romeo was good. Real good.

Problem was, I was in another relationship at the time. I would get rid
of the shifts I was scheduled to work with Nathan just to make it easier
on him. Poor guy. He was falling all over himself and I didn't want to
break his heart. It is what it was. And after a messy summer of
high school love gone bad - I broke up with that boyfriend and
found myself spending more and more time with Don Juan of Applebees.

He had a motorcycle which was super attractive in my opinion.
Cowboy of the 21st century, take me away! Only a few weeks after
we started dating he stood with me on my parent's back porch
and asked: "What am I going to do with your heart?"

"You're going to marry it!" I said. I know I know... Romeo needs a Juliet, right?!
He felt like HOME from day one. There was something about him - his heart understood
mine and I'm sure God, in cupid-like glory, was happy to see His plan unfold.

Well, that plan ended up unfolding like a weird cross between a romantic drama
and a sci-fi thriller. It was a beautiful, stressful mess. We loved each other
like crazy, but we argued a lot about our spiritual beliefs. We were on different
pages, but both loving God MORE than anything else in the world.

We broke up 3 times for various reasons only to find ourselves back together
again. Like moths to a light bulb we were. God would have His way.

Nathan finally asked me to marry him after midnight Mass on Christmas Eve.
He had hidden a string of clues in places around town that were special to us.
7 clues with 7 gifts - and 7 short stories about how our love came to be.

He gave me a red dress that night. When a man buys a girl a dress...
a gorgeous dress... you marry him! Brings tears to my eyes just thinking about it.
He's always been so attentive to the small details - the ones that make my heart explode.

The last clue brought us to the church down the street from my house.
By this time, it was nearly 5AM. He asked me to wait in the car. The dawn
was coming, but I still remember seeing the stain-glassed windows
of the church light up and him standing on the steps yelling for me to come in.

He brought me to the altar. Played our favorite hymns. Read our favorite scriptures.
Kneeling down, he pulled out a box... and before he even got the question out, I was saying,
"YES! YES! YES!" For the record, he did actually ask me.
After I finally got over my shock and excitement!
I said, "YES! YES! YES!" all over again!

8 months later, badda bing badda boom, we made an eternal vow before
God, a sea of heavenly witnesses, and our loved ones to be
husband and wife
til death do us part.

1,460 days of marriage.
That's 4 years to celebrate.
Happy Anniversary.
Here's to forever!