Tag Archives: life

Our 10th Anniversary

I still remember so clearly, right after we got engaged, being asked when we thought our wedding would be. Without hesitation I said January. It wasn’t that I dreamed of getting married in January, it was purely practical… with my husband-to-be a touring musician, I knew January was the one month that my odds of having him home was greatest. He wouldn’t have to sub-out his gig to get married, and we’d probably actually get to spend anniversaries together.

It worked up to, ironically, today: our 10th Wedding Anniversary.

We got just a little winter precipitation, so I marked the occasion in the white, soft snow.

The week leading up to our wedding, the artist he was playing for had rehearsals. It was one of maybe five times in the last 10 years that I stomped my foot and refused to “compromise.” My groom would be in Texas with me… they had a year notice about our wedding and they could just figure it out. (And they did, and it was fine.)

Our second anniversary, my husband left that afternoon on the road. But he was home for the first half of the day, and we celebrated then.

Otherwise, our anniversaries have been everything from trips, to fancy dinners, to a quiet night at home, to a night out with friends. All of them together.

I took the photo for this year a few days ago while we were out so I could play with a camera I had rented for the holidays. We’ll take a second photo after he gets off the road and we celebrate the special milestone in our marriage.

My husband was so surprised when I encouraged him to take a drive that took him away from home on our anniversary, though.  This is a big one! Why would we be  apart on it?

It’s just our life. Bills still need to be paid, and our life happens to be one that requires us to be apart to “make ends meet.” We’ve missed plenty of holidays (with the exception for Christmas and New Years Eve… see that whole moments-of-not-compromising thing) and birthdays. We’ve never gone to a wedding together. We do what we have to do to take care of each other.

And isn’t that what we said in our vows on that warm January afternoon 10 years ago? We vowed to take care of each other. To love each other. In sickness and in health. For richer or poorer. We do what we have to do to take care of each other… and that often means being apart on special events.

Photo by AJW Photo

The most special event, however, was definitely the event 10 years ago, when we said, “I do.” Since then, life has been an adventure. As I look back over the last decade, I focus on the good stuff and learn from the… not so good. We’ve had our struggles, but they’ve made us stronger and taught us more about ourselves, each other and life itself.

I know I couldn’t ask for a better partner with which to navigate life. And as we continue to build our life together, we will continue to be stronger and fall more and more in love every day, every year, every failure and every success. Because we are a team… and we are always stronger together. Even if it means having to be apart now and then.

Christmas 2016

I love you, Craig. You are my world, my rock, and love. Happy Anniversary! Here’s to many, many more years ahead. Hurry home…

Take a backroad

snapchat-5802873079169095575Through the years, the world has been brought into our homes first by print, then radio, television and eventually internet. At the tips of our fingers we can “visit” anywhere in the country, and “meet” amazing people. I know I have found some of my best friends via message boards, Twitter, and countless other social websites over the last 15 – 20 years. But is any of it as amazing as “real life?”

My husband and so many of our friends travel across this country all year long, seeing places and meeting people most of us can only dream of experiencing outside of our laptops and smart phones. A couple we consider dear friends has recently embarked on moving across the country, taking their time to visit many of this country’s National Parks. Their photos and Snapchats take my breath away.

I love that they are doing this. Sometimes I sit back and think how I could never just pack up and move as they have done, shaking my head a bit thinking, “they’re crazy.” But even more, though, I marvel at their courage, and I think to myself that maybe they’ve got life figured out way better than any of the rest of us.

My husband and I haven’t taken our friends lead to the extreme that they’ve gone, but we have taken more time the last few weeks to just get away from the house and get out in the world. My husband’s tour schedule is slowing down a bit, and we have more days together to enjoy versus just trying to tackle a to do list. We we’ve headed out with no destination in mind. We may not venture far, but we do escape “real life” for awhile and find… real life. We find the places you can find on the internet or in the news.

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On a recent ride, we stumbled upon a little community not too far from Nashville. We’d been riding for a long time, and we were starting to get sore and a little grumpy with thirst. The little general store was like an oasis. Complete with two older gentlemen sitting out front.

As my husband went inside to get us drinks, I was happy to stretch my legs in the parking lot and look at the map on my phone to determine where we were.

But once I looked up and out of my phone, I found myself very quickly enamored with the little community. American flags. Old trucks in the parking lot right beside newer SUVs. People pulling up to the pumps and exchanging greetings with the gentlemen out front.

You could immediately tell this was a close-knit community full of “good ol’ boys and girls.” No one had an age or race attached to them. No one had a hierarchy of jobs or successes on paper. There was an underlying level of respect for all who stopped in to the store.

This. This, I felt in my own heart, was the true heartbeat of America. Not the anger and upset shown on the media. American flags swayed in the soft breeze, and you felt a patriotism and honor in every corner.

When my husband came back with drinks, I told him we should scrap all of our life plans. Sell everything, move to the country and open a general store like this one. He laughed and told me I might be surprised how easy it would be to convince him to do that.

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As we put on our helmets and rode away, back home as the sun set, I felt this peace and certainty that deep down the heart of America is as strong as it ever was. I said a prayer that little communities like the one we had just stopped in continue to thrive in their own ways. And I definitely planned to take more back roads and discover more gems hidden along the blacktops and gravel roads.