You wanted to kiiiisss me, you wanted to huuuuuggg me, you wanted to loooove me.
July 25, 2006
Dear Daren,
As we celebrate our 8th anniversary today, there are some things you ought to know. It’s time.
As a little girl, I always believed that I would marry a wonderful man. I believed in true love, though I hadn’t seen it in my own mother’s 6000 relationships. I saw it in others though. My Granny and Papa have a love for each other that I knew, KNEW that one day I would have with someone else. I knew you would come along, and I knew that I would know who you were when you finally arrived in my life.
When I was working at The Big Un-named Store, I was proud of my status there. I had started as a cashier, and worked my way through the different departments of the store, proud of the retail knowledge I was gaining, as well as my skills in customer service and the recognition I was getting from my peers and my managers. They called me the Poster Girl of our location. I was proud, and happy at work.
Then you were transferred to my store. I was jealous that I wasn’t the one promoted to your position. I was mad at you for already having the experience from the store you were transferred from and I was bound and determined to support you, even though YOU TOOK MY JOB BUSTER. Okay, the job was never mine, but I wanted it and you took it, you job-taker you.
Since you were the newest member of the management team (of which I was not yet a member), I tried to help you when you needed to find things, to figure out our processes, and navigate you through our store since our store was much much bigger than your old store. I didn’t even try to make you look bad, though it was tempting.
In my effort to show off for you, my new Boss-Man-Bing, I made mistakes for the first time in my retail career. I counted the floats wrong at the end of the night, only to have you re-count them and tell me I couldn’t count worth a shit, all the while a smirk on your face. I dropped things in your presence. It was like my brain and hands wouldn’t work while you were near. You were my Kyptonite. Perhaps I was crushing on you then. I’ll never tell. I could tell what you were thinking though.
You wanted to kiiiisss me, you wanted to huuuuuggg me, you wanted to loooove me.
A few months after your arrival at MY store (and it will always be my store, even though I was transferred after you and I started our sordid Big Un-named Store affair that everyone talked about), you and I went to a party. A house party. Where the majority of the guests were co-workers. My friends. I don’t know how you got invited.
My friends. My store. Hmmmm.
Needless to say, we drank way too much. And when I decided to play footsies with you on the carpet of the livingroom of the house of the party we were at, I sure didn’t expect you to play footsies right back.
You wanted to kiiiisss me, you wanted to huuuuuggg me, you wanted to loooove me.
And you did. My face was raw from kissing you that night. I heard people whispering about us. I didn’t care. You were so incredibly kissable. And still are.
We were hot. We still are, baby.
Without giving it all up to the blog-world, I sure didn’t expect to marry you in your parents backyard. I didn’t expect the lovely family that is yours to become ours. I sure didn’t expect a best friend in your mother. I sure didn’t expect your father to treat me as his own daughter. I sure didn’t expect your sister to embrace me as she has, from the very first day I met her. She planned that beautiful backyard wedding, when I gingerly walked down the aisle in too-tall shoes, with my father on one side and my best-friend’s father on the other.
But I got it all.
When I married you, I got it all, baby. I got a man who works hard to put food on the table for our family, a man who supports me in everything I do, from silly sales jobs, to high-powered workaholic positions, to being the mother of our children and running my own business from home.
I got a man who loves me at 120 pounds and 220 pounds. I got a man who sees beauty in me when I feel down, from when I went through infertility drugs that made me crazy, to post-partum depression when I was a faucet not to be reckoned with. Between the tears and the breastmilk, I’m surprised you didn’t drown.
You’ve been there through the birth of both of our children, watching their tiny bodies be born. You’ve been there through Dylan’s bout with Kawasaki’s Disease and through my insanity that is Troll Baby.
You got us to where we are today. We’ve lived in tiny basement apartments, three story walk-ups, a moldy townhouse that made us sick as hell, and here we are today in our own beautiful home, years later. You built our family room this year, and I watched with pride as you painted Dylan’s and Thomas’ rooms in anticipation of our sons.
I never expected to be this happy. Though I always knew I would meet the right man, I never ever in a million years expected to be this happy.
I thank you for all the things you are. All the things we are together, and all the things you have helped me to be. You are the best father in the world, the best husband in the world and I fall in love with you over and over each day. Just when I think I couldn’t possibly love you more, you say or do something that blows my heart and mind away. You are a special, amazing person Daren, and I want to kiiiissss you, I want to huuuug you, I want to looooovee you, and I want to be married to you forever and ever and ever….
Love,
Me
xo
July 25th, 2006 at 2:06 am
What a sweet tribute to your 8 years together. May you have many more!
July 25th, 2006 at 2:26 am
*melting into a big goooey puddle*
Happy anniversary and godbless you guys always.
July 25th, 2006 at 8:27 am
That was absolutely beautiful! (I wish I felt that way about my DH right now
) You have such a way with words.
Happy Anniversary!
July 25th, 2006 at 10:08 am
Happy Anniversary Karen & Daren, You married him cause you rhyme eh?!!
May you always be so happy!!
July 25th, 2006 at 11:08 am
Oh hell.
This is beautiful Karen.
Happy Anniversary….
July 25th, 2006 at 11:09 am
Thanks for the well wishes everyone! And yes Delite, I so totally did. That and for the sex. Ha ha.
July 25th, 2006 at 12:20 pm
SO FUCKING CUTE! LOVE IT! happy anniversary!!!!!!!!!!!
July 25th, 2006 at 12:59 pm
Completely AWESOME post, Karen.
Hey … pop over to my site and read the comments I am getting about YOUR design! I have had some people over from someone else’s site this morning, and they love the look of it!
July 25th, 2006 at 3:03 pm
That was absolutely beautiful!
Here’s wishing you both decades more of happiness together!
July 25th, 2006 at 4:12 pm
Awww ! You got married in the backyard!! Ilove that the most of all!! Very sweet & wonderful post, Karen. Congrats to the both of you:)
xo
July 25th, 2006 at 8:45 pm
What a beautiful letter Karen.
Happy Anniversary to you both. You and Daren are and were meant to be together. You both are an inspiration to many around you. The love between you is infectious.
I wish you a life long of many many more happy anniversaries.
Big hugs and kisses to both of you.
Your friend,
Nicole and family
July 25th, 2006 at 10:48 pm
This brought tears to my eyes. Congratulations and Happy Anniversary.
July 25th, 2006 at 11:38 pm
Karen that was beautiful. Both of you are so lucky to have something so special. Happy Anniversary!
July 26th, 2006 at 10:56 am
Tried to post yesterday..MSN sucks.. but anyway
happy belated anniversary…ain’t love grand and children are the frosting to a wonderful delicious life!
July 26th, 2006 at 11:51 am
Wow! I love a great love story! Happy Anniversary!
July 26th, 2006 at 11:55 am
That was really touching!
July 26th, 2006 at 3:24 pm
Happy Anniversary. That was so funny and sweet! Thanks for sharing!
July 27th, 2006 at 3:11 am
Something appropriately snarky, yet sweet.
Happy Anni (belated).