9131.05 days later.....

I have waited a long time to sit and write this post.  It has taken all that I could muster, not to jump the gun.  And now, the time has arrived. Time to pop the cork and celebrate!

Each piece of gold melds into the next to create a ring. Similarly, the memories of 25 years together have sort of melded together like one solid ring.......

• Our wedding:  royal blue - handmade invitations which I labored intensively over to get the calligraphy just right - buying a house together before we said I do [still love the front door of that house every time I drive by] - composing a song and recording it [my only professional recording to date] to have sung to my husband before I came down the aisle - a lovely blue-sky day with a light breeze - dry ice for the photos courtesy of some other bride and groom who were in the day before - 
• Our first house:  brick - corner lot - lots of windows where we looked out as we ate and made up stories about the people who were walking by on the sidewalk outside the house - learning how daily making meals is - LOTS of spaghetti (sorry hon) - worrying endlessly about how to pay our mortgage, and meet all of the other financial obligations (somethings don't change) - the little red Toyota Corolla hatchback we bought with money that my husband's gramma gave us [ugly but it ran like stink - all the way to Alberta on empty]- biking home from work the night that my husband's friend moved all their furniture into the house to store for a year- the Bert- and -Ernie- room painted, and ready for little bodies to live in - the hardwood floor - the terrible  orange-flowered wallpaper; the fridge we had to defrost with a hammer; the stove which had one burner that required a pair of pliers to turn it on
• Our first baby - brown-eyed girl - peach-coloured room - my father refinishing the floor in that room on his hands and knees while she slept in the bassinet in our room for her first few weeks- the walks around the block to lull her to sleep - how funny I found it that the DJ played "Having My Baby" on Labour Day, when I took her to fill up our Toyota Corolla hatchback across the border, again to lull her to sleep - how she charmed everyone with her cute smile and dimples - how my husband would stand in the livingroom in front of the big picture windows bouncing her up and down to lull her to sleep in the middle of the night
• The return to school - right after our daughter was born - helping my husband stay awake to do projects for school down in the basement - calling it "Arch-eh-tech-chure" that he was studying - how proud I was of him for getting high honours and awards galore in spite of having a growing family, the long trip into school and the studying long into the nights - how he got a note from the doctor after our second baby was born excusing him from an assignment because he was 'attending his child's birth - 
• Our second baby - blue-eyed boy with an easy smile - how he laughed at his sister's antics very early on - how his hair turned from black to blond ...with every shampoo, more colour came out - how he learned to crawl in our second house - how he threw the pocket door announcing "I HAPPYY NOW!!!!!!" when he learned how to crawl out of the crib
• Our second house, where we moved in, then moved out, then moved back and then moved out again in less than 3 years.  
• Living at the farm the first time  with little kids and bringing our third baby home to that house. 
• Our third baby - blue-eyed (like the sea) boy - easy going - loved to watch the other two at play - the little stroller - his cute little shoes - how he would lie in front of the floor-to-ceiling mirror and coo at the other little baby he saw - his cowboy boots - how he would announce 'Daddy HO!" when his daddy drove in the driveway
•  Our third house [ a precursor to The Pokeaway] - rip and tear and repair and refinish was our life for three of the five years we lived there.  Living at the farm the second time with a teenager, a pre-teen, and a 9-year old and feeling like I'd come home again - buying the Pokeaway and beginning the process of restoring it.
• Date nights - simple ones like sharing our last dimes to split an ice cream sundae - extreme ones at an actual hotel and how decadent we felt -fireworks - movies - lots of movies - walks around the park - sharing a cup of tea after the kids had gone to bed

Twenty-five years together means that the edges get fuzzy - I no longer know what year certain things happened.  I do know that I still like being with my husband.  He has an amazing capability to keep me grounded with good humour and insights that never fail to help me reach the bottom line thinking. He has been such a great father and husband - always with family-first priority.  

Life togetherr has not been a straight path and our journey has not always been easy - but there has always been an underlying commitment to each other - that with God's grace - we will stay true to our vows:

"I promise to love, cherish and encourage you...I look forward to sharing my life together with you, and whatever the future holds, I will stand with you and beside you, until death separates us."