What Surprises Me After 10 Years Together

We're still currently on vacation celebrating our 10 year anniversary, gathering inspiration from our hotels and eating delicious food in Italy. One piece of luggage has found it way back to us (still waiting on mine - thanks Air Canada), but I wouldn't want to be with anyone else navigating a vacation with so many left turns! I went into more detail on Instagram about the early days of our marriage, but I wanted to preserve this moment in time here on the blog, and celebrate the greatest partner I could have ever asked for! I promise not to get too sappy.

One of the ladies on my team asked me what has taken me by surprise over 10 years with Brian, and that really got me thinking. There are quite a few things that popped into my head:

• First off, I never would have thought I would have married Brian, who I have actually known since second grade! We grew up going to the same church, and were friends through all of elementary school. We lost touch a bit through high school, and reconnected during the beginning of my second year at Cal Poly. Once we started talking again, we never stopped! We got married just two weeks after my college graduation. Such a full circle journey for us, and he's one of the people I've known the longest in my life.

• I never thought we'd have 3 dogs to run around after! I also never though we wouldn’t have kids by now, but hopefully we are able to add some kids into the mix soon and just really lean into the chaos :) I'm grateful that we've had these 10 years to solidify our relationship, learn from the pups, and be more financially stable before growing the family.

• I didn't think Madison Nicole Design would be where it is after all these years. That is in a large part due to Brian having me take risks that I most likely wouldn't have done on my own. He's always been the big vision guy, the dreamer, and I'm so grateful that he sees past what's right in front of him! I'm the cautious one that tries to keep us level-headed, without going too overboard. Perfect match, huh?

• I never thought that we would have purchased five homes in 10 years, which is pretty mind blowing, considering how difficult it is to buy homes in CA these days. For the first house, Brian researched and researched and found a program for first time homebuyers where we only had to put down half a percent, and so we put down just $1,600. He also found a realtor early on, who found us a house that was about to go into foreclosure, that we bought for $260,000. Totally unheard of in many areas of California, so we were very lucky.

• One of the biggest surprises is that we ended up living in Ventura. We were probably married about a year and a half, and we decided to have a beach date in Ventura, close to where he actually proposed with our first dog, Kevin, there to help him :) Brian unexpectedly said, "We should move out here." We were in the middle of flipping our first house, and assumed we would stay in Santa Clarita. I said, "Yeah, maybe one day we'll move out here," not thinking anything of it. Remember that whole dreamer thing? That night, we drove around Ventura looking at houses, and never looked at another house in Santa Clarita again! Now we both work here, and we love the community and businesses that surround us. Sometimes his big ideas drive me crazy, but most of the time, he has really good ones.

You believe in me and push me to reach for the stars, you are my perfect complement, and you are the best friend I could ever ask for. You are the best at hosting parties, you do a demo-day and IT visit like no other, and you know how to have a good time. Thank you for standing with me for the past 10 years, through all of the good and bad. I love you, Bri!