Bow Ring

When Rex and I first got married, we were both still in school.  We had no money.  We were living off of love, dreams, and ramen noodles.   Really, that was okay with us.  We knew what we were getting ourselves into, we made budget sheets before we got married, and I think we were as ready as we could have been.  Everyone says the first year of marriage is terrible, but ours was honestly pretty great.  I remember getting to our first anniversary and saying, "Wow, if that's supposed to be the worst year of our marriage...we're in for a pretty awesome life."

One of our favorite dates during that first year was to go to Qdoba on $3.99 burrito night.  We would split a burrito for $4 and then go walk around the mall for a while and window shop (we couldn't buy anything, obviously).  One of my favorite places to window shop was Zales jewelry store, because the fun thing about window shopping is that prices don't matter - you can dream as big as you want! We would look at all of the sparkly gems and choose our favorites.  Rex would play along and choose a watch or something (don't worry - I returned the favor and pretended to care about athletic shoes when we went to Finish Line after Zales).

Every time we went to Zales, I would visit "my ring."  My favorite ring was a white gold ring with a diamond-studded bow on top.  I'm not sure why I loved it so much; it was girly and diamondy and well...very me.  I would try it on literally every time we went to the mall and say, "Rex, promise me that one day, when we're rich, you'll buy me this ring."  He always said yes (we were living off of our dreams, remember?)

Well, Rex got into Physical Therapy school in Nevada, so we moved to Vegas.  Unfortunately, the Zales there didn't have my bow ring.  Rex and I both got busy with school, found new date locations, and I nearly forgot about the whole bow ring promise.  When we moved back to Michigan two years later, I halfheartedly looked in a Zales store one day and noticed that the ring was gone.  Why wouldn't it be?  It's not like they keep the same inventory for four years.  I moved on, got a new job, and Rex finished up his internships and passed his boards.  Life went on.  We stopped eating ramen noodles.  We bought a house.  We became grown-ups.

Last night was Rex and I's fifth wedding anniversary.  We had discussed getting each other smaller gifts this year, as we just bought a new puppy and are still trying to pay off student loans.  But when it came time to exchange gifts, guess what Rex had for me?

I bet you can guess.

THE BOW RING!!  I couldn't believe he remembered.  I seriously have not mentioned this ring since we lived in Lansing.  He said that he knows we're not technically rich, but that he'd been looking for that ring for four years since we left Lansing.  When he finally found it again, he couldn't let it pass him by.  After all, he promised he'd get it for me.

So today I'm wearing it on my finger, watching it sparkle in the sun, and feeling like I have the best husband in the world.