You know what’s a cute thing about marriage? You pick a person you love so much that you decide that you want to spend your life with him.

DUH. This is an easy “No shit, Sherlock,” moment. But I’m in my feelings and want to elaborate, so I started with my tl;dr.

First, you like someone. And you enjoy spending time with him. Maybe, if you’re like me, you enjoy it a whole lot and want to have a longer date.

Then, you decide you love him. This is all butterflies and blinding rainbows, and you can’t get enough of him. You don’t know everything yet, but you want to.

Finally, comes “in love.” The “in love” stage is kind of insane, really. You love the person so freaking much that you decide you want to merge your life with his. He is your favorite person in the world and you’re cool with letting everyone and their mom know it. You share things, responsibilities. You share joy, laughter, and you share the hard stuff, too. You decide that someone else’s heart is as important — if not, more — as your own, and you vow to fiercely protect it with everything you have.

When you’re in love with someone, they’re always on your mind in some capacity. You go to work and have other responsibilities, but the thing that warms your heart most is knowing he’ll be there at the end of the day to give you a kiss and watch the same episode of The Office for the fiftieth time again, and you’ll still feel like your heart is full. You can do nothing together, and just feel an overwhelming peace.

Marriage is thinking you love someone with all your heart, then realizing that your heart grew just a little bit more to fit in how cute it is that your husband made your favorite dinner or put together new furniture to surprise you. It grows when you see new passion and when he tells a joke, just for you. You are always learning new little things about your spouse, but still know his heart even better than he does.

Over 2,500 days, and I still feel warm and fuzzy. This time of year makes me really nostalgic; I will tell you why in my next post. For now, I love that I have just a tiny bit of our love story documented here.