24 Years (and counting)

Today is my 24th wedding anniversary.

On a cold and snowy Friday night in 1983, I stood before the altar in my wedding gown and a hat. My husband was dressed in silver tuxedo.




We married in front of a church full of people and attended a reception at the Country Club. We dashed off to a weekend honeymoon at a B&B in Bath County.

A funny addendum to our new life together happened two days later. We returned home on Sunday. That evening we went to Burger King, which I think was relatively newly opened at that time and one of the few restaurants open then.

Something made us both sick. This was our first illness together. My husband was really more ill than I and he didn't want me around him. He was really missing his mother, as I recall. We had no medicine because, well, we'd just joined our households and we each came from our parents' house. I trotted out to a 24-hour convenience store for some very expensive Pepto. Upon my return he told me he couldn't sleep with me in the bed.

Our first night in our new home, I ended up sleeping on the couch!

Now when he gets sick, which is seldom, he wants me to take care of him. Which I do, although I try to do it from far away because I am very susceptible.

Last year I made a list of 23 reasons I love my husband. I won't repeat it but here's reason number 24:

24. He is considerate.

It could be a very long list because he's a great fellow. He's not without his faults, but who isn't?

We weren't supposed to exchange gifts this year. The dishwasher went clunk a while back and we replaced it and then I bought him an expensive gun safe because the lock on his other (cheap) one went bad.

However, I bought him several pairs of jeans and a very expensive hat because I couldn't help myself. The hat cost $50, which for us is a phenomenal amount of money to spend on a hat. We just don't make such purchases. But he'd been looking for a new "go to hell" hat to hunt in, one with blaze orange. I ran across this hat while shopping yesterday and, knowing he'd been seeking just such a thing (only for like, $3.99), I made the purchase. I haven't told him what it cost.

So I wasn't expecting anything, but when he came in from work this morning he handed me a bag.

He bought me a new Nikon lens for my D40. This is a 200mm lens for shooting shots of animals around the house, he said. It's something I've been wanting and thought I might get for Christmas so this was unexpected.

I am very anxious to get outside and shoot some pictures!