10 Years

Ten years ago today Stephen and I officially started dating. Well, we weren't technically boyfriend and girlfriend until the next weekend...according to Facebook we made our relationship status "It's Complicated" ten years ago.

I remember driving to Greensboro, where Stephen was in school, for our first date. I had on a Cheerios t-shirt and we ate at Panera, which neither of us really liked. I'm not sure why we chose there to eat. I remember sitting at a stop light getting ready to turn onto UNCG's campus when I called Steph. She didn't answer so I left her a message. I told her how nervous I was then distinctly remember thinking, "I'm actually not nervous; I just feel like that's what I'm supposed to say before a first date." I never was nervous around Stephen. We started out as friends and it's always been like two friends hanging out. I'm pretty sure that's the best way to be in a relationship.

The weeks leading up to this first date and the following weekend where we made our relationship status "In a Relationship," were drama filled. We kind of brought that on ourselves with the history of Stephen's previous girlfriend, who we were both good friends with. I am not a fan of drama and wasn't even sure I really wanted to date him so I almost just walked away from it all because I didn't think it was worth it. Thankfully all other parties involved were committed to working through the drama instead of just brushing it off and the rest is history.

A look at the past 10 years...I tried to do a Top 10...do you know how hard it is to go through 10 years worth of pictures and only choose 10??

Here are our Top "10" (with a little fudging on the 10 part)

First, two pictures pre-dating:

2006

 2007

 2008

2009

 2010

 2011

 

2012

 2013

 2014

2015 

2015 was a big year for us so there were lots of favorites!

 2016

Here's to the next ten!