What does it take to make a marriage work?

This morning at coffee, (we have a thing at my church called coffee with the staff where we'll hang out with whomever shows up and have a cup of coffee) we were talking about marriage. This topic seems to find its way into most of the conversations that I have these days. It all started because last night my future Mr. told me that his mom sew up a hole in his snowpants. He told me just so that I would know what I was getting myself into. My senior pastor found this very funny. Then, at coffee, we talked about my wedding shoes and how I had tried to convince my future Mr. that I NEED these $140 wedding shoes. And they're only $140 because they're from this website instead of the real thing. But I LOOOOVEE them. And how perfect would it be to get married wearing Carrie Bradshaw's shoes?

Anyway- this whole post started because of coffee this morning. So I was telling everyone how we've already started bartering (I compared those shoes to the Thompson Center Semi-Automatic hunting rifle that my future Mr. wants. It did not help my argument). My senior pastor said that it sounds like we're already married. Then he was telling us that a marriage counselor who works with couples before they get married once told him that he always asked couples if they had ever fought. Because if they didn't- how did they know that they could handle it? Well my future Mr. and I have fought. We drive each other crazy! But we keep coming back to one another. We love each other. I heard one time that you're not suppose to marry the one that you think is perfect or the one that you always get along with. You're suppose to marry the one that pushes all of your buttons but you can't imagine life without them.

My future Mr. and I are sharing our wedding year with some pretty BIG name couples (aren't we nice?).

Prince William and Kate Middleton are getting married in April and

Hugh Hefner and Crystal Harris are getting married in June.

I have no problems with the Prince and Kate. They've been together for YEARS, and they're about the same age. And I think they're really cute. Hef and Crystal on the other hand. Gross. They haven't been together that long and she's young enough to be his granddaughter! I was flipping throught the channels on Sunday night and I came across Pierce Morgan doing and interview with Hef and Crystal. It was like a car crash- I couldn't look away! All she kept saying was that they have fun together. How can you make a marriage off of fun? And they make me feel bad for Holly Madison. She's so cute and they were together for a while and he kept saying that he didn't want to get married. Now here he is like a year later, engaged to someone that looks eerily similar to Holly, just younger.

Hollywood couples like this make me glad that I have my future Mr. I'm also glad to have him when I see commercials for dating sites, when I see tearful goodbyes on The Bachelor, when I see shows like "Is she really going out with him?" or "Tool Acedemy", basically I'm always glad that I have my future Mr. and that we have pretty normal lives (a.k.a- the paparazi doesn't follow us around!). I'm excited to marry him. I think we have what it takes to make our marriage work.

Peace.