What is love?

What is love?

Baby don’t hurt me.
Don’t hurt me.
No more.

Just kidding. I can’t help myself some song lyrics are just too catchy!

But for reals, what is love?

I am sitting here wondering how on earth to describe such a overpowering yet simple emotion.

Why am I pondering this?

Well today is my wedding anniversary.

Eight big ones.

Today is the day I walked down the aisle towards a man boy who I had previously never seen nervous. We exchanged rings, spoke vows of love and promises of our heart, sealed the deal with a kiss, and walked back down the aisle as man and wife.

And here we are : Eight years married, after four years of dating, three kids, one dog, two cats, two amazing extended families, one apartment and two houses rented, a first home purchased, surviving remodeling projects, three European adventures, one with all three kids, and many local adventures and memories later.

What makes us work? What’s our secret? We don’t have one. There is nothing uniquely special. It’s simply that we are a team. During life’s up and downs and sideways spins we remain a team committed to a common goal. We want a loving marriage, a happy family, and memories that are worth making.

We are not overly romantic and our love isn’t one for the movies. But, it’s true, it’s steady, and it’s real.

We know each other. Our strengths and our weaknesses. Our dreams and our fears.

We love. We support.

We are exactly who we are, never having to change for the other. We accept each other as we come. We love as we are. We remain a team focused on our family.

Do we have hard times and fights? Of course, we are human. Do we struggle to find our way co-parenting through life? Of course. Do we have to make big scary life decisions and wonder if we chose the right thing for us and our family? Of course. A relationship is work. Commitment is work. Parenting is work. But, at the end of the day we are a team, we approach things openly and honestly. If there is a reason we work so well it’s because I married the best teammate for me and he loves me for everything I am and everything I am not.

Love is funny. I always say we don’t chose who we love, we aren’t meant to. I am so beyond blessed that this man was chosen to be mine. I’ll spend the rest of my life grateful that one college night I decided to DD for my girlfriend and in the process I stumbled across my future husband.

For our day date, I decided on this gorgeous and uber comfortable maxi from PinkBlush. I can’t wear many dresses these days as I am still nursing the baby. So to be able to wear this dress was kind of a treat. I toughened it up a bit with my leather jacket and boots. I love that the pairing is a bit unexpected. Ok, let’s be honest, I have not gotten a pedicure in ages and I had to hide my toes. Luckily the jacket went with my boots and it all came together as if I planned it. Occasionally my toes aren’t Fashionable – momlife problems.

PS. Mr. Occasionally Fashionable nixed my idea of a more stylized shoot of us before we left on our date. I think his exact words may have been, “I’m not going to the fields for pictures!” All I wanted was us pretending to be all romantic and in love wandering aimlessly through the gorgeous field around the corner from our house. Yet, here we are on the street with a time limit of two minutes. This man keeps me grounded. This is us. Real. Raw. Unfiltered.