To Us

As of yesterday, my husband and I have been married 19 years. I remember the first handful of Anniversaries I didn't want to do anything other than celebrate our day, all day. Elaborate plans, vacation day, always together, reminiscing about our Wedding, about the stage in life we were at at the time.

Silly to admit, not even a common, quick chore like the dishes would have taken place on September 25th! I would have found a way to wash and put everything away before bed on the 24th, so that the morning of the 25th lay an empty washer ready for a quick plop of dirty dishes - no fussing the entire day.

I remember one year pre-children our dog was super ill and we had to cancel plans to care for him. We rented what turned out to be a depressing movie about a mom with Cancer to top it off. It went down as the all-time-worst-anniversary-ever ... but now we laugh about it. It's still a memory that stands.

Another year we acknowledged Us with a babe in our arms and me propped on the couch recovering from a C-section, and my hubby's Grandma hanging on to her final hours of life. Had it not been for our two week old baby daughter, adding a sparkle of hope and life, it would have matched our all-time-worst-anniversary too. That was a mixed, emotional September. Grandma Lucy went to Heaven the next day, and a week later our precious niece was born. Circle of Life in one week - that was hard.

Our anniversaries have not always been sad, however, as we've certainly had joyous vacations too in honor of Us. Trips to San Diego, Wine Country, Las Vegas, Grand Canyon, Beaches, Big Cities, Countryside ... we like to get-away to celebrate, and my parents are amazing vacation hosts to our  Littles.

This year topped another non-traditional Anniversary. One of the downsides of planning a September Wedding nineteen years ago was not really thinking through the years of celebrations in the thick of starting the new school routine. Last night my daughter's Junior High was hosting their Parent Open House.

We are newbies to the school, and we felt it was important to hear my daughter's teacher's individual presentations in their room, to walk her schedule, to see this and that. The plan was that my date was going to come home early from his day at the office (usually he only commutes on Mondays), so I had planned a nice home cooked meal, and then the two of us were going to go spend our Anniversary at the Junior High.

I had even thought it would be fun to snap a picture of us at home before we left. Maybe even swinging through the local coffee shop for a yummy drink to carry through the evening.

You'll see no picture posted here - because my husband not only got stuck at the office, but continued to get stuck all. the. way. home. in. traffic. Sigh. He missed dinner, and we had to meet at the school. No picture. No riding together. No yummy drink. But thankful the road closure was not due to him being involved in the accident that had taken place, and that he only missed two classes whose teachers were not very prepared.

We met in the Commons like that students meet up in the mornings - when I saw him, it felt like he was my Junior High boyfriend waiting to walk me to my next class.

Gone are the days when even simple chores could not be accomplished on our Anniversary; where it was only about Us with everything coming up balloons roses*. The more Anniversaries we have, the more reality-check-of-life folds into the mix.

However, thankfully we continue to have the balloons roses too as we have plans for Saturday night - when we can truly have Us Time and go on a Real Date that does not include talk about students, and finding our location on a Junior High map.

Until then ... I am reliving Anniversaries of the past ... grateful that we have so many memories together. Accepting his marriage proposal is one of the top two YES's I am most proud of in my life.

To Us!! 19 Years and a lifetime more ...


*It slipped out this past weekend at our family birthday party that I prefer a boutique of balloons over flowers. I truly appreciate flowers, but they are more sad to see die than a balloon that will continue to flicker and sway all the way down. And while alive, balloons dance and you can't help but smile at something dancing.