All you need is love

The first time I saw my husband’s bedroom was in early 2005. I went to his apartment with a mutual friend for some basement drinking and our mutual friend said, “Hey, Bucy likes you and thinks you’re cute, but if you’re not interested, he’s gonna talk to that other girl over there.” I remember laughing and thinking “What?!” before being like, “Nah, that’s ok, he can go talk to her”. The evening went on, and as people left, including that other girl, we ended up talking into the early morning hours. We browsed through music on his computer (remember Limewire?), we talked about movies and shows we liked, exchanged stories about who knows what else, and at a certain point, he showed me around his room. We talked about how I was engaged, and that 19 was pretty young to get married, but we also discussed how I wanted to get married and start a family. He told me he didn’t believe in marriage and that he didn’t see the point. He told me about his plans to move out of state, go to bartending school, instead of continuing with college, and that he had just recently stopped smoking. 

I decided not to pursue anything further with him, at that time, because it didn’t seem like we wanted the same things, and I went through with getting married in August 2005. He ended up dating that other girl for a little while. Life went on… 

Flash forward to 2009: I got divorced, we found our way back to each other, and we moved into a house together in Cuyahoga Falls. We got married on May 4th, 2012 at the Church in the Falls on Chestnut Blvd. The last twelve years have been a crazy ride, to say the least, but everything we’ve been through together has only reinforced that he was who I was meant to be with. He’s been an amazing step-dad, father, and husband to our family, and is the best friend I could’ve ever asked for. 

Something unique about Ryan’s room in 2005, that I always associated with him, was a set of Beatles figurines. He had them set up on a beautiful wooden hope chest (that now lives in our bedroom) and I thought they were just the coolest. I didn’t collect anything like that back then, and had never seen any figurines like them, but was absolutely a Beatles fan. At that point, I hadn’t ever seen Yellow Submarine and he teased me about it, questioning if I even knew who the Beatles were. Eventually, we watched it together and he told me that something he liked about me was that I had Rocky Raccoon on my "favorites" playlist. (My dad played it on his guitar and sang it to me when I was young.) 

Sometime between 2005 and 2009, those figures were given away or sold, but almost 20 years later I still think about them, and how our shared love of music has been such an important element of our relationship. 

For our twelve-year wedding anniversary, I found these (with the help of Rubber City Comics & Magic City Comics), and could NOT wait to give them to him. I wrote this post and have had to just hang on to it until he opened them, but now that balance has been restored, and these are his again, I can finally show you too! Clearly, I love shopping and giving presents, but presents don't make a marriage, all you need is love.

May the 4th be with you, Happy 12th Anniversary to Ryan, Happy Free Comic Book Day and Happy Star Wars Day!