Just another day in Paradise....: Happy Anniversary

I wrote this as a part of my travel blog before we left on our cruise back in September, as an intro to our upcoming renewal ceremony. For anyone who has already read the story, I apologize for the repeat...for everyone else, I felt the need to revisit this time in our lives and remember just how far we have both come as a couple in the last 33 years of marriage. Instead of only recalling these special moments on our anniversary, I thinks it's important to remind ourselves more often, how lucky we are every day, to share our lives with the ones we love.

"I do" again...who are these people?

There was a young girl who met a young boy. They were introduced by her friend, who happened to be his sister. She recalls she wore a long sleeved navy blue shirt with a red embroidered fish across the front. She thought he was pretty funny and he thought she was pretty cute. He remembers being fascinated by her long brown hair and she remembers being entertained when he blew a huge pink bubble and got gum stuck in his brown hair. She can still remember hearing Grand Funk Railroad's "Locomotion" play over and over as the sun went down. She fell asleep, thinking of him, in a room full of 14 year old girls, camped out for the night on the basement floor. Monday morning at school, the girl came to find out that she'd been added to his long list of potential girlfriends. Of all the girls at the party, he had chosen her. Of all the boys she would ever meet, she had chosen him. It was many years ago, in December of 1973 when Joanne and Roger met.

This is a story I've told more times than I can remember. It's a very simple story, without much drama or suspense. And that is exactly how we've lived most of our married lives together, trying to keep the drama and suspense to a minimum. Sometimes we were successful, and sometimes, not so much. But here we are, after almost 33 years of marriage and he still thinks she is pretty cute, and she still thinks he is pretty funny. If you try to keep love and laughter in your marriage, not always in that particular order, you will be together forever. If either one of those two ingredients goes missing, you will struggle and lose your way. All the rest really does not matter, lesson learned--keep it simple sweetie :)

We both have been witness to the love our children share with the two people they have chosen to spend their lives with...it gives us such peace and pure happiness to know that they are truly and simply loved. To commemorate the beginning of our love, which is shared by Stacey, Scott, Brian and Taryn, we will be renewing our wedding vows on the day we arrive in Venice. It will be a simple ceremony, shared by a couple who were just a boy and a girl, that happened to meet one night, 37 years ago.