Dating my husband was fun, especially when things started to get serious. We used to talk on the phone for hours, sharing our thoughts and our fears and our pasts with one another. We met early for breakfast and we gave each other loving glances over our coffee cups, soaking up each other's good looks. We stayed up late watching movies in bed, cuddling close, even on 80 degree summer nights. We were always happy to see each other. Nothing beat those butterflies in my stomach and the excited feeling that accompanied the thought, this is the ONE.

When I hear people talk about marrying their best friend, I internally shake my head at their naivety. Do they really think it'll stay that way? Dating and best friends are always fun. Marriage and spouses are not.

The thing about spouses, compared to best friends, is that they're always there. My husband is not just there when I say, Yes, now's a great time to get together! He's there when I'm exhausted and need some peace and quiet. He's there when I'm stressed and anxious and need an (hour/day/week) moment to myself. He's there to witness each and every time I screw something up (and there to point it out, in case I didn't notice). He's there when I have unkempt hair and morning breath. He's there, asking me to get him a glass of ice water when I just sat down on the couch. Once you get married, the butterflies in your stomach get replaced with a stomping elephant at your side.

After marriage, the constant togetherness melds with all of the crap that just needs to get done. It's not all breakfasts out and movies in anymore. It's figuring out how to deal with the woodchuck family that lives in your backyard, together. One of you wants to shoot it with a gun and the other wants to keep it as a pet. It's installing cabinets in the bathroom, together. One of you loves to hammer and level and cut and the other cries tears of frustration after inserting ten screws because they're so uncoordinated they can hardly rotate the screwdriver. It's stocking the fridge and the pantry, together. One of you wants to buy loads of bacon and Fruit Loops and the other wants only organic lettuce and raw pumpkin seeds.

Dating is about getting what you want, but marriage is about getting what you both can deal with without either one of you completely losing your mind. Marriage means constantly teetering on the edge of madness due to the never-ending compromises that have to be made. It's one of you not being able to sleep unless it's dark and silent and the other not being able to sleep without the television on. 'Til death do you part.

For a lot of people, discovering that spouses and marriages are not always fun doesn't go over very well. Once they realize marriage is far more work than play, they want out. They give up.

Over time, our hours-long conversations have whittled down to ones that last an average of three minutes, but that's okay. It's not that we aren't interested in each other's stories, it's just that we already know them inside and out. At breakfast, we don't always give each other lovey-eyes over our coffee cups anymore, but that's okay. It's not that we don't still view each other as lovely, it's just that we already have each other's faces etched into our brains. Our activities together often involve boring house stuff instead of exquisite dates, but that's okay. It's not as exciting, but at least we don't have to do all of that crap on our own.

I love my husband to pieces. So even though marriage isn't always fun, even though marriage is work, and, let's be honest, even though marriage is downright infuriating at times, it's okay. That's just how marriage is. And it's fine, it's better than fine, it's grand, if you just know that going into it.

Marriage is not only full of annoying bits, it's also filled with laughter and love, giving and gratitude, truth and trust. It's made of, 'Thank you for shaving my back', and, 'Do you want to have sex?' 'I smell.' 'I don't care.' 'Okay, let's do it', and, 'Oh my goodness, can you believe what so-and-so's spouse is like? I'm so glad you're not like that' and 'Honey, I need a hug.' And most of the time we don't even need to speak those words aloud, we know each other well enough to say them without speaking.

Not too long ago, a friend of mine snapped a photo of me and my husband when we weren't paying attention. She looked at it and told me, "I think I just captured a picture that perfectly epitomizes your marriage." In the photo, I'm giving my husband an annoyed look and he's looking pissed off, his head turned away from mine. What makes the picture great is that even though our body language said, irritated spouse, it also said there was more to that story because both of us were smirking. Neither of us knew the other was smiling since we weren't facing one another.

I laughed when I saw the picture because it really DID epitomize our marriage. The love and adoration we have for each other is always there, even if we don't always let the other one see it.