I Guess we are Getting Serious

(One of our awesome engagement pictures!)

Wednesday marked Lauren and my 3 year anniversary.  It truly is amazing how long it has lasted, but then when I look back I can't remember much before we were together.

I always looking back (especially around some sort of milestone) and analyze things thus far.  It is great to be able to see the progress we have made, and the things that make us successful.  As we are together more we have more of the same goals and hurtles, but it is interesting to see the individual ones we have faced as well.

Year 1 was, of course, the beginning of it all.  We had more fun than anything.  Of course, there were nervous moments....the first sweaty hand hold, the first kiss, and the first Christmas.  During this year we really got to know each other inside and out.  We stayed up late at night playing 20 questions with each other just to learn the tiniest detail or each others life.

In year 2 we turned a corner in the seriousness of our relationship.  We both saw marriage on the horizon, but probably didn't have any "plans".  We were very involved with each others families, rarely traveling to either of our homes alone.  Year 1 was really the time where we got to know the details about each other, but in year 2 we really learned what the other was like.  Their tendencies, what they are really passionate about, what they truly love and hate.....now of course some of these things come out in the early times, but year two was when our relationship matured.

Then there was year 3.  Year 3 has been the most grown up one so far.  I graduated college and got a job, which caused to figure out this long distance thing (which is a beast bigger than either of us to tackle).  Lauren is finishing up the bulk of her school work, with just a little bit in year 4.  We got engaged and are now looking   at wedding plans and houses.  It is amazing how we have evolved over the years.  How two lives have become intertwined.

It is so cool to know someone inside and out, how I usually know what she is thinking.

I joked (kind of) with Lauren the other day about how she only has three feelings or thoughts.
1. I am hungry
2. I am tired
3. I am tired and hungry

I am pretty sure this is true, but it took me three years to figure it out.