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This year James and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary. I am so lucky to have been married to my bestie for a decade. James and I met in January of 2000. It was the first day of the new semester of our senior year in high school. I walked into Mr. B’s photography class and there he was. Sitting in the back row, tall, dark, and handsome in his (fake) leather jacket. “Who is this boy?” I thought. He was sitting with a boy that I kinda sorta knew, so the wheels in my head started to turn, setting up a plan to meet him. I pursued him the only way I knew how, by acting like a ridiculous teenage girl. Finding out where his locker was and making sure to walk by it 10 times a day, leaving anonymous notes on his car, that kind of thing. We became friends and started dating just before graduation. My first boyfriend ever came in just under the wire, we were high school sweethearts. We fell in love very quickly and knew we wanted to get married someday, but were in no rush. We dated for two and half years before we got married. During that time we went through so much together. We grew up, transitioned from teenagers to adults. Ideas we were so sure of when we were young started to change as we matured and faced the future. We started making plans of buying houses, having kids, and James having his own business. The biggest change came when I joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. James was a member but hadn’t been active in a while, we decided we needed the strength, purpose, and blessings the church gives in order to have a strong marriage and family. On October 4th, 2002, we were married! It was an awesome day. Everything went off without a hitch, the ceremony, lunch, and reception all went so smoothly and we had so many family members and friends who celebrated with us. We had a really fun honeymoon in Bear River, coming home just a little early to start setting up house before we had to go back to work. A year later we were sealed in the Salt Lake City temple. The next nine years we spent buying houses, having kids, and James starting and successfully running his own business. We have gone through a lot over these 10 years, ups and downs, but I can honestly say that now we are stronger than ever. He is my best friend, the person I want to spend all my time with. The best times are when James, Savanna, Miles, Avery and I are all together and laughing. Like I said, I am a lucky girl. We celebrated our anniversary by having what has come to be know as a “stay at home date”. After the kids were asleep we ate our La Casita take-out and watched The Walking Dead. Well, technically, we watched The Office while we ate then turned on The Walking Dead because it’s hard to enjoy your enchilada’s while zombies are being taken down in front of you. Best night ever!