Friday Five: Mushy Edition

One
Today is my five-year wedding anniversary! Five years ago today, Justin and I were doing this:

Oh hai, new husband!

Two
Why, yes, we got married on 4/20! Yes, people get a little chuckle out of this. And yes, you may laugh too.

Actually, I wanted to get married on 4/21, but that date was booked so we had to settle for 4/20. Ah well! At least, we can giggle about our wedding date, right?

Three
Five years into this marriage thing, I can safely say that Justin might be the best husband ever. Whenever I feel a little blue, he takes me out for hot chocolate. Whenever I doubt my career, he lets me cry on his shoulder. Whenever I get tired of cooking, he looks at me and says, "Well, that's no good. Wanna go out?" And he's just plain thoughtful. Sometimes, late at night, he sends me an email  just so I have a sweet note to read when I wake up in the morning.

I'm a lucky gal. Very, very lucky. And I need to step up my game!

Four
I can't write about Justin without mentioning how incredibly supportive he has been of my writing endeavors. When we got married, I had to quit my job at the Smithsonian and move down to North Carolina since Justin was stationed there. Honestly, I was ready to leave the museum field---as much as I love museums, I think I prefer to be a visitor rather than an employee---but I wasn't quite sure what to do next.

"Why don't you try writing?" Justin told me. "You keep telling me how you always wanted to be a writer."

So, with Justin's encouragement, I dove into this writing gig and he has always been behind me, even when the times got tough. 'Cause it took me about nine months to get my very first essay accepted for publication, and it took me much longer to write my first book and get it ready for querying. (Oh dear, querying. Poor Justin! I was such a mess.) And I'm still working toward that hard-to-reach book deal.

But he's still my biggest fan.

"You're going to be published one day," he tells me.

And I hope I will, for him.

Five
Happy anniversary, my love! I miss you and can't wait for you to come home. To five years and to many, many more!

Justin hates taking pictures. I still love him.