Forever and a day

It’s official (not that there was any doubt).

1) I have been married a very long time and 2) I am most definitely old.

Thirteen years. You would think that after all this time I would have some sage advice about relationships and love, and yeah… I don’t really. It shocks me how fast time goes and I remember our wedding day so clearly. I can remember the way the room smelled when I got up that morning in Korea, and how surreal the whole thing felt. How could it be so long ago?

He still drives me crazy, just like he did when we first got married and I distinctly recall thinking, “What the hell have I gotten myself into?!” Over the years we’ve had good times and bad, and of course suffered through the requisite deployments and other fun things the Army throws at you. And while I love him more than I could ever express here, it’s not the mushy, soulmate, I-can’t-live-without-you kind of love. It’s the sort of love that’s forged through time, trial and commitment. He has widened my horizons, challenged me to be more than I ever thought I could, and very importantly with my checkered family history, proved himself unfailingly trustworthy.

Plus he’s still cute and makes me laugh. Trust me, that’s no small thing after you’ve been married forever and a day. I wish he were here today, just so that we could celebrate in our own low key way.

Ten years

I have been married for ten years today.

I’d like to think that as I stood on that mountainside in Korea that I knew exactly what I was getting into, but the craziness that is our life has been unexpected. The life of an Army family is far different from anything I had envisioned.

When we got married, one of my dear uncles wrote me a lovely letter of advice. I would quote from it directly but I’m not that far unpacked. I remember clearly how he wrote that my aunt asked him once which year of their marriage had been the best. He stated that it was the current year (which had not been one of smooth sailing), which surprised her. He qualified that by writing how that was not because their first years were so rough, but because each year their relationship grew stronger. Oh how true that is. I would not trade places with my ten-year-younger self for all the tea in China. Even if I was thinner and prettier back then.

We have spent our day with relatively little fanfare. I guess we are officially “old and married” because the only thing we could think of to give each other was the microwave and deep freeze we need for the house. He gave me a box of chocolates this morning, and helped me clear out a flowerbed that had been overgrown with grass. We’re continuing to unpack at a snail’s pace. Maybe we’ll go out for dinner. Ten years sounds like such a milestone, I wonder if instead we should have had some hoopla about it. But that just wouldn’t be us.

I know you don’t ordinarily read my blog, my love, but just in case I wanted you to know that THIS year has been the best…