Just a Little Gushing

Bryan went hunting tonight with his dad until tomorrow night. He was a little late getting home from work, and I was just thinking it was traffic.
He came in the door, carrying lillies, a peanut butter Twix, and a carton of Ben & Jerry's FroYo. 3 of my most favorite things. My first thought was that he was feeling really bad about leaving us for the night. Sweet, right?
But he informed me that it was because of a conversation we had last night.
The other night someone asked how long we had been married. We answered (incorrectly at first), and then he asked what the secret was to being happily married for so long.
Now, 6 and a half years doesn 't seem long enough to be answering that question as of yet, but I guess these days that could be considered long to some people.
Bryan's answer, and he was dead serious, (unusual, I know) was "be nice, and marry the right person".
And it made my little heart so happy to hear that.
So simple. So true.
And then we didn't mention it again until last night, when it somehow came up in conversation during the drive home from our friends' house.
We talked for a little bit about how each of us truly believes that we married the right person, and that's why we're so happy.
And we talked about what we do that makes our marriage work.
So many times you hear people say that marriage is "hard work". And do I think that you have to actively work at marriage to make it work? Most definitely. I think that's true for any relationship.
But what I love about our marriage, is that we don't feel like we have to work hard.
The longer we are together, the more I see how I married the right person.
As time goes by, certain things get harder. Schedules, work, callings, kids.....
But with every added stress and conflict I see what a perfect team we are.
When I'm tightly wound and ready to snap at the kids, he's relaxed and calmly takes over before I even have a chance to open my mouth.
With our ever crazy work schedules, we both have to make so many sacrifices and are constantly figuring out how to make things as easy as possible on the other person.
Bryan practically pushes me out the door whenever I have the chance to go out for a girl's night. Because he knows I need it, and it makes me happy. It keeps me sane.
And at the end of the day, when the girls have finally gone to bed, we can't wait to snuggle up on the couch and watch some meaningless TV together.
Usually there about 5 million things we could be doing around the house at that time, but that's OUR time. And we don't get much of it.
So we snuggle up, most of the time with toys scattered throughout the house, stuff cluttering up the kitchen counter, maybe some dishes in the sink, but those things can wait.
And then we always, ALWAYS go to bed together. We can't crawl into bed without eachother.
He gets up with the girls way more than I do in the middle of the night.
We've learned how to fight. I know that sounds strange, but we all fight, and I think that how a couple handles disagreements is a big deal. I've learned to not hold grudges. I've learned to apologize. I've learned (still learning) to let things slide and not nit pick.
Now, I know this is getting a bit rambly, but my house smells like lilies, I can still tast the PB Twix I just ate, it's 10:30, I'm watching Gray's Anatomy, and I'm dreading going into our empty room alone.
I just wanted to gush a little bit, because my husband isn't the type to bring me flowers for no reason. He doesn't buy me presents after we get in an argument.
But today he did something nice for me because he loves me. Because he married the right person. We both did.