Decade....

As of tomorrow I will have been married for ten years. TEN YEARS! A whole decade. Seems like such a long time...and then again it doesn't. I met Rob when I was 19 and he was 18 - though he turned 19 a week later. We were students in Leicester. I had purple hair. He had a leather jacket with a map of the world in the lining. I was loud. He was quiet. I was (and am) an extrovert. He was (and still is) painfully shy. I did performing arts. He did biology. I had lived all over the world. He had never left the country. In fact had never been on a train until he came to university.

We were opposites.

We got together...well I don't know if I want to tell you how exactly we got together(Moxie knows - shhhh)...but put it this way - he made a move, a very bold physical move - he was a bit drunk - I was a bit of a tart! I thought he'd be a one night stand. He moved in the next day. We have hardly been apart since. We skipped the whole dating thing - just moved in. And that was that.

15 years later....we're happy, we're a family. This last year and a half with Oscar in our lives has been the most emotional of our long relationship - the most amazing and the hardest. We've had to work at our relationship more than ever and we've still got to work harder.

But 10 years ago tomorrow, I married him.

We had two weddings - both on the same day (I picked May 4th so he'd always remember it - May the Fourth Be With You...). We had a registry office do in the morning - here's my favourite pic of the day... My dresses were designed by a drag queen (hence the boobage)

Then we split up - gave each other the rings back - and met a couple of hours later at Charlton House and had a humanist wedding - it wasn't legal (hence the morning ceremony) but it was the ceremony I wanted - walking down an aisle on my Daddy's arm - wearing a huge frock, bridesmaids - the whole caboodle. My friend Gina sang "Dream a Little Dream of Me" instead of hyms - it's our song - and we read this poem to each other - taking a verse each..

I promise to give you the best of myself...
And to ask of you No more than you can give...

I promise to accept you the way you are...
I fell in love with you
For the qualities, abilities,
And outlook on life that you have,
And i won't try to reshape you
In a different image

I promise to respect you
As a person with your own
Interests, desires, and needs,
And to realize that those are
Sometimes different--
But no less important--
Than my own

I promise to share with you...
My time, my close attention,
And to bring joy and strength
And imagination to our relationship.

I promise to keep myself open to you...
To let you see through
The window of my personal world
Into my innermost fears and feelings,
Secrets and dreams.

I promise to grow along with you...
To be willing to face change
As we both change
In order to keep our relationship
Alive and exiting

And finally,
I promise to love you
In good times and in bad,
With all I have to give
And all I feel inside...

In the only way I know how...
Completely and forever


He's the only man I've ever known. My only boyfriend. My only love. We've grown up together. He's amazing. As I type this I can hear him singing "Skinny Marinky Dinky Dink" to our son as he puts him to bed.

I can't remember my life without him. Soon, in about 5 years, I'll have been with him for longer than i'll have been without him. And I love that.

So to my husband. You're amazing. Here's to 10 more...

(of course he doesn't read this blog - he doesn't know where it is....but I might show him this entry!)