Not always as planned...

I woke up this morning to my hubby being here, but we had no special plans for today.  He had to work tonight, so our celebration will be a little delayed this year.  It seems like at some point in time or another we have delayed or not celebrated different holidays throughout the year. This tends to become part of being in a military family, but also with that comes the opportunity to make new traditions or some really weird memories. 

Our anniversary is later this week, so normally one day or the other is used to celebrate both if we happen to be in the same area.  Earlier this week, I was talking to another spouse as I was trying to come up with a way to celebrate the two.  She was talking about going to a number of different places from out of town to out of state to celebrate...  I brought up driving an hour away to go to Cici's pizza.  Her response was 'please tell me you're joking...'  I wasn't and I think she was somewhat confused.

My husband and I met while we were deployed, about 12 months into a 15 month deployment - but it wasn't until about 13.5 months into it that I really started getting to know him.  He needed a battle buddy to go to the PX and Pizza Hut on the FOB we are on and I was the only one that was in the area at the time, so I went with him.  We shared a pizza and then sat outside the the pods and talked for a good majority of the night.  Over the last six weeks of deployment, we had many long talks and learned a lot about each other and our backgrounds. 

One month after we redeployed, after asking my dad's permission, he proposed while we were on post deployment leave.  We had planned on getting married on the 15th of February, since that was three months after being battle buddies to get pizza that one night.  Given that it was the first day back to work and the only thing between us and a four day weekend, we figured it would be easy to get to the courthouse to be married that day.  Our plans were shifted as we didn't get out of work that day until 5.  So the next day that there wasn't work, which was the following Tuesday - my soon-to-be husband, four good friends of ours and I headed to the courthouse.  My hubby in jeans and cowboy boots, I in jeans and a white sweater were married.  Afterwards, we went to Cici's for our 'reception dinner'. 

Of course, it is the wedding I had always dreamed of and it wasn't until our second anniversary that my husband saw me in a dress for the first time, but it's a great memory.  It's not the typical story you hear, but we wouldn't have it any other way... So Sunday - even though it may not seem like anything romantic to anyone else, we may just drive an hour to go have Cici's pizza, because it's part of the story of us.