Anniversaries

At approximately 7:00 p.m. this evening, 2/22/08, Joe and I will have been married exactly 11 years. ELEVEN, people. That's more than a decade, almost a third of my life (Yeah, yeah, I'm old. I'm aware...).

Am I going to say that time flies? Sometimes. Sometimes I can still remember how the day felt -- a little cool, not cold -- or how the air felt behind the scenes when we were all getting ready -- electric, like everything was buzzing. I remember sitting with my girlfriends out on the back steps of the church sharing a cigarette (Back in the day before I was *Mommy*, I liked to have a social puff or two) an hour before the service. I remember I wore black leggings and a blue denim shirt into the church that day and I remember the flowers were COMPLETELY wrong, but I didn't care.

I remember standing in the living room of our little ranch house in nothing but a corset and stockings, getting all gussied up to leave for the church, and Joe coming in from his morning bachelor golf game with all his high school and college buddies, not realizing I was still there (in my underwear). A spat on our wedding day -- If you know us, that is so appropriate!

I remember the pictures, the ceremony, the elation I felt in the limo on the way to the reception. I remember dancing and drinking and talking, talking, talking to sooo many people. I remember trading my wedding shoes in for a pair of Keds early in the night and I remember riding home in the limo with my sweet, sweet stepson and my brand new husband. I remember finally eating at midnight, watching Saturday Night Live in the floor of my house while little Joey colored sleepily in his coloring book beside me.

So in that regard, the way the memories of that day are still so clear, like it just happened last week, time has flown. But in other ways, it seems like a lifetime ago. It seems like a wedding where I was an observer and not a participant because those two people were so different than the two people who live here in this bigger house I'm in now.

In our 11 married years, we have been blessed with new members of the family and we've mourned the loss of other members. We've traveled together, traveled apart, driven kids to the E.R. a million times, weathered the wrath of ex-wives, prayed for sick parents, put down sick dogs, trained new puppies, homeschooled our children, built a house together, cheered on the kids in baseball, softball, spelling bees and ballet. We've laughed at and with each other, screamed at and with each other, stayed up late fighting over stupid things and stayed up late making up.

I could never, ever list all the experiences we've had that have tattooed themselves onto my memory. These days I forget a lot of things, more than I probably should, but there are a lot of things I don't, can't, won't forget. And I know that even if, God forbid, when I am old (older) and gray (grayer) I develop some memory-killing condition in the old lady's home, I know my heart will fight to hold on to all the reasons why marrying Joe B. was the best decision I ever made in my life.

Joe always tells me life is a culmination of choices. If you make good choices, your life goes one way. If you make bad choices, it goes another. Forks in the road, crossroads -- we all come to them eventually. If you have known me for long, you probably know I have all too often made bad choices, especially in my early years, taken the wrong fork in the road. But somehow, some way my internal GPS led me to him all those years ago and, for whatever reason, I made the right choice.

We aren't the prettiest couple in the world, not the smartest, not the richest, not the classiest and not the most exciting. Our life together won't be made into some reality show for VH1 anytime soon because it's just not that darn interesting -- I mean, come on, Joe is no Flavor Flav. But it's a good little life. Sometimes it's dramatic, sometimes it's sexy (okay, not so much), sometimes it's funny and there's almost always an episode where somebody throws up! :)

So to my bestest, bestest friend in the world, Joe B., Happy 11th Anniversary! XOXOXOXO