“It’s not too late for anyone who truly wants it and is willing to try.” – ‪#HopeSprings…‬ I don’t talk about my relationship much on this site. Mike’s kind of a private guy, so I try not to spill the beans on that part of my life too often. {Ok, maybe I share some secrets with my bestie girlfriends sometimes, even though I tell him I don’t. But that’s different… Lol.} But, to celebrate the launch of a seriously great new movie coming out that I’m pretty excited about, I agreed to do a few posts sharing a little more about us. So here goes…

Our Story…

I met Mike at the completely wrong time. I was just coming out of a bad breakup, and had no interest whatsoever in meeting anyone new. I went out with a girlfriend for drinks one night, and while I honestly almost never notice guys while I’m out {seriously, I don’t. I’m vary wary of guys I don’t know. There are just too many creeps out there.} – I did notice Mike. He’d walked by a couple of times, and it surprised me that I did notice him. He was cute. Nice eyes. But again – not interested. Not a good time. So when my best friend who worked at the bar came over to bring me a drink, and told me that Mr. Nice Eyes had bought it for me – I was a little thrown for a loop. Should I say hi? Invite him to join us since he was sitting alone? No, I didn’t want to meet anyone, right? So I ignored him.

Change of plans leads to change in my life…

20 minutes later my best friend came back and told me to get my booty over there and at least say thank you – that I wasn’t allowed to be rude to one of her favorite customers, lol. So… I get my courage, head over and ask him to join us, and guess what he says? He says, “No thanks. I’m just going to eat my nachos.” Ugh. And this is why I don’t talk to boys!! Turns out he was just embarrassed I’d ignored him, and wanted to quickly eat his food and leave. Poor guy. And lucky for me, he didn’t… He came to chat. We exchanged numbers. After a couple of lunch dates, we exchanged the best kiss I’d ever had – and I knew, this was the guy I’d been looking for. After an almost-disasterous first meeting, we’ve been together for almost 7 years now, and a beautiful little girl joined us 2 years ago. Expect the unexpected, right??

Celebrating Good times and bad

During those 7 years together, we’ve had tons of ups and downs. So I totally relate to this new Hope Springs movie coming out. It’s about an older married couple who have reached that point where the passion has kind of died down, that spark has dimmed, and uncertainty kind of sets in… Check out the clip, and I bet a lot of you ladies – even if you’re in the earlier stages of your relationship, can still relate to some of this –

Showing appreciation

To keep your relationship rockin’ – and not rocky – I think it’s super important to show your appreciation to each other as often as possible. I know that for us, he thinks I don’t notice the things that he does – like keep the pool clean, the car running smooth, and the house in great condition. But while he might fix the squeaky door or a broken cabinet, I feel like he doesn’t notice that I vacuum the room behind that door, or clean the dishes that go into that cabinet. So, while we work on remembering to say thank you daily for those basic little tasks – we also make sure to use holidays and anniversaries as a chance to give a big thank you to each other for all that we each contribute. And what bigger thank you date is there than your anniversary, right? {It’s September 27th honey, if you forgot….} And since we’re talking about celebrating the ups and downs, I’ll share my best – and worst! – gifts I’ve gotten these past 7 years:

• Worst Anniversary Gift: Um, the year he forgot! That would definitely be the worst, lol. I had a really thoughful gift for him {I won’t mention it here, since there’s no need to brag. Let’s just say it was definitely awesome…} and I’d waited all day for him to bring up our anniversary, give me my card or gift, or invite me to dinner. Something. Anything. By 9pm that night I realized that there was no big surprise coming – tossed his gift bag at him and went to bed with a pout. I of course then felt like a meanie pants in the morning when I woke up to flowers and a beautiful card to start my day… He’d gotten the date wrong, and thought it was the 28th. All was forgiven :)
• Best Anniversary Gift Ever: The first year we had Abby. He planned a special day for all three of us as a new little family – we got some professional pics done, which I’d been really wanting, I got a mani-pedi, a wonderful dinner for the 3 of us at my favorite restaurant – just perfect. He’s still a keeper.

Share some comments with me – what are your best and worst anniversary memories? Do you relate to the movie clip – trying to keep that first-met first-love type passion going in your relationship after real life settles in? I want to hear your thoughts…. And if you’d like to see more clips of the movie before it comes out next month – connect with them on Pinterest and Facebook too!

Sony Pictures Presents “Hope Springs”, A new comedy from the director of “The Devil Wears Prada” starring Meryl Streep, Tommy Lee Jones, and Steve Carell. Watch the trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-s22_Mvikl8.

{Disclosure: Compensation was provided by SONY via Glam Media.  The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and are not indicative of the opinions or positions of SONY.}