I don’t normally wear red and I don’t usually talk about Mr C on this blog but with Valentine’s Day around the corner I thought I would get in the spirit of things and share the story of how we met.
We actually met for the first time when we were 12 and I came to join the same secondary school as him. Last year we turned 30 so we have known each other for 2/3 of our entire lives which is a really nice, if kind of crazy, feeling!
We had the same group of friends and always spent time hanging out together in and out of school. The boys all used to skateboard and the girls used to find out where they were and turn up to watch and talk about who we fancied the most. As with most teenage group of friends everyone went through a stage of fancying and going out with everyone.
Our moment came for the first time when we were about 13, word got around that he fancied me and I can remember us lying in my bedroom one night but I’d never kissed anyone before so when he tried I was terrified and jumped up. Things didn’t go very far after that but I developed a huge crush on him. I can remember going on holiday with my mum and spending the whole time writing about him in a book in the kind of obsessive way that you can only get away with when you’re a teenager.
We did eventually end up snogging but not in a way that would lead to anything else. It was just what we all did, got drunk and went up to the park to snog each other. By this time there was someone else involved in my life, someone who ended up being a huge part of it for the next five years. He was actually part of our same group of friends but in the year above and was a total shithead (think Spencer off Made in Chelsea but worse), he loved the fact he could control me but I didn’t have the confidence back then to believe I deserved better so I put up with it. I found out he had cheated on me the night before he convinced me to lose my virginity to him, nice huh?! But I stopped being the victim the moment I chose to stay with him so I have no ill feelings left towards him about it.
So Mr C and I did eventually end up hooking up when we were about 17 and I was on a break from my ex but it was all a bit too soon so nothing came of it. Then when I was 18 I decided enough was enough and ended things with my ex for the last time.
It wasn’t because I had feelings for Mr C, throughout the whole of my relationship with my ex I only wanted to be with him, likewise for Mr C. He wasn’t waiting for me or anything like that but we ended up hooking up again at a festival that summer and it reignited all of those feelings I used to have for him.
I knew at that point that he was ‘the one’ but it still took about a year for us to get together properly. He was about to go travelling for over half a year and luckily during that time my ex (who still had a hold over me) moved to Spain. It was the best thing that could have happened because I learnt how to be okay on my own, to completely get over my ex and to think about what it was I really wanted.
So when he got back it was finally the right time and we started going out. Things moved really quickly then and I ended up moving in with him after about six months.
It hasn’t always been smooth sailing. We hit a point the year before Cherry was born where I wanted to have kids and he wanted to go travelling again. I chose to split up with him over it although I quickly realised that I didn’t want to be with anyone else but him. Funnily enough Cherry was conceived on the first night we met up, in a hotel in Cheltenham, totally unplanned obviously although even reading it myself it does sound like I had done it on purpose, I hadn’t!
It was honestly the best thing that could have happened to both of us, although Mr C didn’t actually know that until Cherry had been born.
It sounds so cheesy but it really did turn him from a boy into a man. Then we decided to have another baby which takes us up to where we are now, a family of four.
I feel like we’ve been on such a massive journey together. Having kids can put a lot of pressure on a relationship, first and second time round. In fact both times we’ve got to the point where we’ve considered splitting up but we’ve ended up working really hard instead to make things better and we really are in an entirely different place these days. We have a better connection and understanding of each other and know what we need to do to make sure we are both happy in our relationship.
He is such an amazing dad, better than I ever could have imagined and seeing that makes me so happy.
Now all that’s missing is the engagement ring 😉
He did comment the other day that he wasn’t going to be able to ‘dodge that bullet’ for much longer, it’s been over a decade already!!
One of the other nice things about having known each other for so long is that we are still really good friends with all the people we hung out with at school. In fact yesterday we met up with two of them at a National Trust house near us, it’s always funny to laugh about how we never would have imagined being National Trust members 15 years ago!
Thank you to La Redoute for sending me this dress to wear.
And while we are on the subject of love, La Redoute are running a competition for Valentine’s Day. They are going to be giving away an annual subscription to My Little Box who send out a lifestyle / beauty and fashion themed box full of goodies each month.
The competition is running from today until the 23rd of February and all you have to do is share the most romantic thing that’s ever happened to you using the hashtag #LaRomance. You can do it on Facebook or Twitter and the full terms and conditions can be found here.
How did you meet your partner?!
Post in association with La Redoute.
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