I could literally fill books with the story of Future Husband and I. In fact, I have. Thousands and thousands of words dedicated to our amazing relationship. It will take me thousands and thousands more, and I am looking forward to living and writing each and every one of them.

Our past isn't the most romantic, or the most clean cut. It's like real life; messy, unfortunate, full of stupid decisions and foolish mistakes. I'd like to think what makes us different, what makes me see whimsy instead of folly, is that we've been smart enough to learn from those mistakes, and to make things better. And that's why I'm proud of where we've been and the dumb choices we've made. It took us a long time to get here, but we've been impossibly happy since we arrived, so it was worth it. That's why I feel like this is the Happily Ever After to a fairytale; we overcame our conflict and slayed the dragons and learned our lessons. We're not perfect, but we're perfect for each other.

We met at the end of the summer of 2004. I was almost 19, he was almost 21. The night I met him I knew he was going to be important to me, I just didn't realize how much or what he would mean to me. For two and a half years, we did the 'just friends' dance. He was always dating someone else, or I was in a phase where I was determined to get over him. We made everyone sick with our obvious flirtation and in-your-face chemistry. We were practically inseparable.

Then, finally, in the Spring of 2007, he told me was in love with me, and always had been. The only snag? He was dating someone, and had been for about a year. We tried to keep up the 'just friends' appearances while we worked together behind the scenes to end his current relationship. It didn't work; we couldn't stay away from each other. The whole thing predictably blew up in our faces seven weeks later, all three of us involved hurt and heartbroken, and our group of friends shattered. We were young and stupid.

In 2008 my family and I moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma. It instantly became my home. I loved it there. I had new friends, a good job, and money to play with. I even dated a few guys. But no one compared to Future Husband. I couldn't stop thinking about him, no matter how hard I'd try. I realized, after everything went terribly wrong in Arizona, that he had been my best friend. The 'just friends' wasn't just a facade for the romantic feelings that we tried to hide. We actually were good friends, in addition to any emotional, hormonal or sentimental feelings.

Sometime that summer he finally got up the nerve to leave the girlfriend he had chosen to stay with, over being with me. So in December of 2008, when his band was on tour and rolled through Tulsa, I decided to go see him. I planned a big, theatrical confrontation, that included him on his knees and weeping for my forgiveness, and me mercilessly casting him into a pit of despair. It didn't turn out to be nearly as melodramtic as I'd hoped. He apologized profusely, of course, for the way he had treated me and how much he had put me through. But we ended up spending three hours talking like old friends. It opened up a floodgate of feelings that I thought I had gotten rid of. But since we were both dating other people at the time, we forced ourselves back into the 'just friends' mold once more.

I knew that night in December that we were on a collision course, again. In September of 2009, history repeated itself. This time, I told Future Husband that I was in love with him, and that I knew he was in love with me and always would be. (Yes, I was fueled by liquid courage, so what?) We decided then that we needed to be together. Within a week he had told me he loved me, asked me to tour with him and his band, and told me he wanted to marry me. But there was still the pesky issue of the girlfriend he lived with now in Seattle. This time around, however, he'd learned his lesson. He ended things the day he got back from tour, moved out of her apartment and moved in with his band.

For six months we we kept up the long distance relationship, and kept Southwest Airlines in business. I moved to Seattle in March of 2010, became a nanny to three grown men, saw the country, went on many a rock n roll fueled adventure, met his parents, got a ring, and set a date.

In November of 2011 we made the merger of our minds legal, and he changed my name. I couldn't be more excited about the adventures and the life we have ahead of us.