1577846.298 minutes

1577846.298 minutes. 1577846.298 moments so dear. 1577846.298 minutes. How do you measure, measure 3 years?

A little over three years ago Andrew and I were doing what any normal engaged couples does. We were going over our finances and making plans about how we could pay for school and rent and insurance and food and fun and...

How many hours would I need to work? How many hours would he need to work? How much money could we afford to spend on rent? On groceries? How in the world were we going to earn enough money to fund that crazy study abroad in Jordan? How would we ever be able to afford textbooks let alone children? How were we going to merge our schedules so that we didn't have to be driving back and forth from campus all day? How were we going to afford to put gas in our car at all?

In short, we were budgeting. You get the picture, I'm sure.

I don't really know if normal engaged couples do this, but we're both kind of nerdy and I'm a major stress case so it had to be done. Andrew is not a major stress case, but he is a nerd and is as unfond* of the idea of going into debt as I am, and so was very willing to go over finances with me. It probably was not the first time we'd drafted a budget. I think we did this several times before we actually got married. Leaving the nest was a little difficult for me.

I don't quite remember the circumstances but Andrew made a promise to me.

"Give me three years," he said, "In three years I will be a millionaire."

Now, I knew at the time this wasn't a serious promise, but it kind of became one of those things we started to say to each other all the time. Whenever we'd wish aloud something both of us knew wasn't possible we'd say, "Three years!" Kind of like code for, "You wish!"

It's been three years now and although we aren't technically millionaires (ready for the mushy line?**) we are millionaires in love and happiness.

Besides, we've recently added another "You wish!" phrase to our familial dialect. It goes like this, "After Egypt!" It gets used after a certain someone mentions a desire for a certain iPhone, but I'm not going to mention any names.*** Our original "three year" plan has been extended to include a rather indefinite time period known as "after Egypt" which is a subcategory of an even larger-scale indefinite time period known as "grad school."

We're happy, even without the iPhone, and that's what counts!

Andrew is so amazing! He works so long and hard to take care of me and Rachel. He stays up late doing homework and gets up early to go to school and still takes time to make sure that we're happy. He is such a great Daddy for Rachel. Her first word in the morning is usually "Dada!" They play so cute together. A little too rough for my taste, but still cute. Rachel loves him! He's so great with kids--even after taking care of 5 extra kids all week he's still happy and has his sense of humor about him.

He is always helpful around the house and will do the dishes or clean the bathroom or cook dinner or put out the laundry to dry or whatever I ask him to do. I don't even mind that I have to ask him to help out because a) he always helps willingly and happily and b) he's really too busy to notice that things get left undone. That said, I don't mean he never helps out without being asked, because he often surprises me with a clean kitchen or folded laundry. He's so wonderful!

Sometimes he just stares at me with an awed expression on his face until I say, "What?" and he says, "You're just so beautiful!" I love that he thinks I'm beautiful even in my sweat pants and an old t-shirt. And I love that he sometimes will pick out a necklace or earrings or a favorite shirt of mine and ask me to wear them. I think it's cute.

And I love how absolutely smart he is. He has taught me so many new words and expanded my world view and is most definitely the ridiculously good-looking knight in shining armor of my dreams. I'd go on but I've used up my quota of mushy lines for this entry. In short, I love him!

Thanks for making me a millionaire of happiness, Andrew!

*Technically not a word.
**What good is an anniversary post without a mushy line?
***Andrew, it's Andrew! Andrew wants an iPhone!