19 And Counting

Today is my 19th Anniversary.

(Happy Anniversary Mark!)

We will all just put on a nice little smile, and pretend he reads this.

It is a little surreal that it has already been 19 years.

In just a few years, I will have been married longer than I was single.

You know what that means?

I got married way too young!

I mean, I don't regret getting married when I did. (I was almost 24.)

But, knowing what I do now....I realize that I had no business being married at that time in my life.  I had no idea who I was back then...or what I wanted.

Heck, I remember registering for wedding gifts, and having the hardest time knowing what color towels to choose.  Obviously, if I didn't know what color towels I liked, I certainly wasn't ready for real grown-up stuff!

~

It is interesting looking back...remembering what life was like then.  I was completely immersed in the idea of getting married, then buying the perfect little house with a white picket fence, and then having our 2.5 children, and a dog, of course.

It all sort of fell right into that mold somehow...but it certainly wasn't perfect or easy.

Sometimes I wonder how we made it through the first couple years.

We married four months after my dad died.

One week after the wedding, Mark started commuting to a school that was about a 70 minute drive away, so he would leave before I was up, and I would leave for my studio job (after I was done teaching) before he got home.  We didn't see very much of each other...at all.

We bought a house, two months later I got a job in the town he was commuting to, so four months later we sold the house, bought another and moved.

During this time I got pregnant, and lost the baby.

Six months later, I got pregnant again....and we were told we lost that baby...again.

Luckily, my Dr. was more optimistic than the radiologist, and a week later, they found the heartbeat.  9 months later, Lexie was born.

This was our first two years of marriage.

It gets more ridiculous from there.

~

I do think, now that we have had 19 years to figure this marriage stuff out, that we are finally getting the hang of it.  Maybe what we really are getting the hang of is figuring out who WE are as individuals...which then makes our life as a couple a lot easier.  All I know is that marriage is definitely not a journey for the faint of heart.  

I play at so many weddings...and there are some where I see these young couples who are quite obviously there for the "wedding" rather than the "marriage."  I have to bite my tongue....but I really want to say "ok guys....here is the deal: you are about to spend a lot of money on a big party, and it's pretty obvious that you haven't given what happens after the party much thought.  I would suggest a serious reality check here, to determine you are doing this for all of the right reasons.  If not...perhaps you should just throw a party.  Not a wedding."

On the flip side, it makes me so happy to see the couples who are so obviously in love.  And, since they often become members of the church I work at, I get to watch as they start to have babies, and see their families grow.

~

I thought I would drag out the wedding album today, and share some photos with you.  (Yes, photos from the "proof" album that I still haven't gotten around to ordering yet.  And let's just be honest...I never will.)

Blushing bride. (I don't think I ever actually blushed.)

Apparently my mother hated this dress.  Here's the thing...I was rather "well-endowed" so the typical poofy wedding dress made me look like a giant marshmallow.  This style was much more attractive on me. She never actually mentioned her disdain to me (I heard it second hand) so I guess I will never know if the tale is true or not.....hmmm....

With my 12 year old groom.  (He looks like a middle school kid.) In my first year of teaching, I had a student who asked me "why do you always hang out with that 15 year old guy?" (He was referring to Mark...my 23 year old fiancé .)

The ladies. (My two sisters, my cousin Amy and flower girl, cousin Kelsey)

Kelsey got married this past summer. :-0

The blurry wedding party.

My singers. (12 women....all music majors)  

It was a concert.

The sisters

Pretty Christmasy church

This makes me sad.  My mom used to be so vibrant and pretty.

Mark taking advantage of me.  Again.

Love this shot.  I remember saying "well....should we go?!"

Ah yes...the "I have no original ideas, so I will take a pic of your hands" shot.

Our photographer sucked.

But my nails looked nice.  And they were real. 

She was such a cutie.

There you have it.  

Hopefully it will be an exciting and fun filled day in Lakmann-land.

Neither one of us has done any shopping or planning for the day, so more than likely, it will be a day of trying to figure out what the heck we should do...where we should go, and just complete indecisiveness.

This typically leads to crabbiness...so I wouldn't be surprised if the evening involved a pizza from dominos and an on demand movie.

Let's hope that our 20th Anniversary provokes some extra planning....and shiny things.

I guess Valentine's Day is coming up.

Maybe I will just focus on that.

~

Have a terrific Tuesday!