Five years as Mr. & Mrs. Dreier. Husband and Wife. Through good times and bad. Richer and Poor. Sickness and Health. As long as we both shall live.
Neither of us can believe it has been five years already. We've learned a lot about ourselves and each other over the course of these five years. We've had many good times with a few doses of hard times too, all makings us happier, stronger and better together. All things considered, we are beyond blessed with the life we have together. We can't even imagine where we will be in five more years.
In 2006 we began our lives together. Never in a million years, would we have thought that our life-long crushes for each other would lead to a marriage! Our wedding couldn't have been more perfect for the two of us- it was just the way we wanted it, beautiful and fun, surrounded by our families and friends. A couple very special family members are no longer with us, and we are especially thankful they were able to share that day in our lives with us.
I was thinking about all of our anniversaries and the years we've had and decided it would be fun to take a trip down memory lane.
The day it all began....
After a wonderful honeymoon to Belize, and a vacation to NJ and a trip into NYC, we came back and started learning what "being married" was all about- sharing space, paying bills, cooking, cleaning, having animals, and going to school... and a fun trip to Cancun for Rachel and Mathew's wedding.
We decided to celebrate our very first anniversary in a special way because Tony was about to leave for Iraq. We had such an incredible time together on our cruse. Two weeks after we returned he left for Iraq. It was a tough year. I lived in Tulsa to be closer to my family and tried to keep myself busy by living in, and remodeling, the home I grew up in. Tony had a really long year hating the desert. After he came home we took a trip to the Grand Canyon to celebrate.
We celebrated our second anniversary during a trip to Michigan with Tony's family. We stayed at the Bavarian Inn in Frankenmuth for our anniversary. It's an awesome little German town with cheese shops, fudge shops, cuckoo clock shops, and even a jewelry store where Tony bought me a pair of diamond earrings. When we returned from this trip we spent the rest of the summer working on our new home in Norman. We moved back to Norman to our new house, and had a year full of house projects, and getting back into the groove of school and life in Norman. And, this was the year our sweet nieces Lydia and Addison were born!
Our third anniversary was during the summer I was taking classes trying to finish school and Tony was officially a college graduate with his first "real" job. We took our anniversary day and spent it discovering Turner Falls for the first time. After my summer classes were over, Tony took vacation from work, and we joined my parents on another cruise. For the rest of the year, Tony tried to enjoy his job while I finished school. Me graduating was a success, him enjoying his job? Not so much. I don't blame him for that, and I really appreciate him working, sticking it out for as long as he could, and supporting me through the end of school.
Well, during our fourth anniversary we both had "real" jobs, took vacation, and spoiled ourselves with a couple days in NYC during our NJ Beach vacation. Upon returning home, Tony put in his notice at work and went back to school full-time to take the classes he needed in order to go to Medical School. I kept working but soon realized, even though I had a good job, Sales/Marketing just wasn't something I found interesting or the least bit rewarding. I decided I wanted to go to nursing school, but couldn't start right away. While Tony continued his classes, I decided to take a leap of faith (and courage) and go to Ethiopia and volunteer in an orphanage. I came back with a totally new and different perspective on life, and started back at school.
And here we are today... both back in school and school wouldn't dare let us take a vacation anywhere right now. We went back to Turner Falls to spend the day relaxing with each other. We laid down by the waterfall and read, and it was amazing- so peaceful and relaxing. We came back to Norman and went to dinner. It was a simple day, but exactly what we needed.... and the thought of a camera or taking a picture never crossed our minds. Oops.
I guess you'll just have to stay tuned for all this next year holds-- there's NO telling where we will be next year!
