Half My Life

So August 5, 2016 may seem like just an ordinary day, but it's something pretty special in my life:  today marks the point at which I have been married for exactly half my life.

My family will tell you that I have somewhat of a crazy memory for dates and calendars.  I constantly keep track of how much time since and how long until various events and often report to them things like, "you know, it's been exactly 14 years since we bought our house" (last month) or "on this day when I was in third grade, we went to the Magic Kingdom for the first time" (every December).  I can't explain why my memory works this way – it's similar to the "on this day" feature of facebook and I am full of fairly useless facts on any given day.

Sometimes I love it because I randomly recall happy memories, while at other times, it feels like I've had the wind knocked out of me when I remember a sad event (recently this has been me realizing how long it's been since Chelsea passed away).  I don't even do it consciously most of the time – it just happens somewhere in the depths of my brain.

A few weeks ago, it dawned on me that I'd been married for almost as long I had not been married.  I decided to quickly figure out the exact date, and lo and behold, it is today, August 5, 2016!

Is it me or is that crazy…half my life?!?  How is that possible?  On one hand, it seems like we just got married yesterday – maybe because all of those horror stories people share about getting sick of each other and having nothing to talk about once you've been married for a while could not be less true for us.

He is the first person I want to talk to about good news and bad news.  After almost 22 years of marriage, I still can't wait to see him at the end of each day and there is no one who makes me laugh like he does.  He is unequivocally my best friend and most ardent supporter, and he not only tolerates, but also celebrates and participates in my weirdness and goofy antics (perfect example:  every time we go to Starbucks at a Disney Park and I get character names on our cups).

When I reflect back on all of our adventures over the course of our marriage, it now seems like we've been married for much longer than we have because how could we have possibly packed all of that fun into only 21-plus years?

All I know for sure is I am extremely lucky.

What a great day!  Alive for 15,776 days and married for 7,888 of them.  Half my life!

Here we are in 1994…

and here we are in 2014 when we renewed our vows….

Happy Tails to you!