Love (and other junk)

10 years and one month ago, Rob and I sat down with a counselor to discuss our "marriage preparedness" test scores. We had waited about six months too long to sign up for the counseling, as my grandpa (a retired pastor and the one officiating) had requested we be done a few months prior to our wedding. So, in true Rob and Cob form, we signed up with one month to go, Rob waiting (for months) for me to take charge, and me procrastinating until the very last possible minute.

So (finally) we took a personality/marriage expectations/future parenting/spiritual beliefs survey to give our counselor something to work on. And apparently she about had a heart attack at the results, for this was our awkward first conversation:

Counselor: "Ahem. Wow. Well...when is your wedding again?"
Us: [looking at each other guiltily]
Counselor: "Because if it's in the next five, six months, I'd highly recommend you postpone it for the time being. If it's further away, I'm pretty sure we'll have enough time to work through all this."
Me: "It'sinonemonth."
Counselor: "I'm sorry, I thought you said it was in a month. When did you say it was?"

And that was the first and last counseling session we attended. (Sorry, gramps.)

We had dated for roughly four years. I knew Rob only thought I was funny when I repeated his own jokes back to him. Rob knew I needed a wide wide angry berth after a fight and the following apology. I knew the aforementioned apology would usually come from Rob...because I also knew I was in the right 99.9% of the time (although I'm not sure Rob knows this even still). Rob knew I was perfectly, boringly content to curl up into a hole and read for nine hours straight. I knew that Rob thought the presents my family exchanged were the worst presents ever. Rob (fully) knew that I was bossy. I (fully) knew that Rob was passive aggressive. Rob knew that I was exceedingly stubborn. I knew that Rob was deplorably so.

Imagine. Even with all that knowledge, we actually bombed the test. (cough)

So, of course, we got married one month later. And then we really, truly (no sarcasm here - I know, it's hard to tell) enjoyed ten following years of marital contentment and laughter. Obviously we've had our fights (all Rob's fault) that were hashed and rehashed during three-hour "Rob tries to apologize and I want to still complain about it" sessions (all my fault). But far outweighing all that were cozy camping trips and couch snuggling sessions and hilarious children and Rob-only-laughs-at-his-own-jokes-told-back-to-him laughter. Turns out I married my perfect mate.

So take, that, premarital counseling.

Happy 10th anniversary Rob! I love you!!!