Happy 16th Anniversary Sweetie!!!

As the date changed to October 10th 2008 my wife and I celebrate our 16th wedding anniversary; has it been 16 years already??? My goodness how time does fly when you are having fun!!! Yes, in spite of the past two years I have been having fun because my wife is an incredible person. I waited almost 10 years before marrying my wife and in retrospect I know my wife was thinking “what is wrong with him?” Now she is well aware of “what is wrong with me” in so many different ways but as we woke up this morning we woke up together. Wedding anniversaries 14 and 15 had us waking up separating as I served my sentence but I knew the day would come when we would wake up together and that reconvened a few months ago and today we resumed being together on “those special days”.

Yes, today is one of those extra special days since every day is a special day. Sixteen years to the day and if my memory serves me correctly this wasn’t our original marriage date. My wife had booked a reception hall for October 3rd 1992 but me being me did not like this reception hall and canceled for another reception hall on October 10th 1992. My goodness I was very arrogant back then and such a snob. Hopefully my arrogance has toned down and I am doing my best to keep the snob factor at a tolerable level.

Saying my wife has put up with a lot of my crap over the years would be a gross understatement and there is no way I can get back these past two years. I can only make the very best of each day together and today we had a wonderful day. I was off to the gym for my very last training run before the marathon on Sunday which went well and when I returned home we were able to visit with my son’s teacher. My son has been enrolled in a program called “Title I” which helps the children who are having difficulty with reading. He was assessed and his level is slightly below that of a second grader so he is getting extra help. I do think this has something to do with the fact that he didn’t have a permanent teacher all of his first grade year and we spoke to his teacher about this subject.

My son’s teacher is so much like all the other teachers my daughter has had out here as she cares very much. She gave my son a glowing report as he actually listens and is one of the children who pays attention. We agreed this extra help will reap dividends and I can see an improvement already. We spent about 40 minutes with his teacher as the children were at recess and it was so good to hear all of this first hand. I had learned what a “diphthong” was “two vowel sounds that come together so quickly that they are considered to be only one syllable”; examples are join, boy, mouse and cow. I certainly don’t remember covering these in college let alone second grade!! This program will assist my son with diphthongs and other helpful reading tools. There may have been one point in my life where I wouldn’t have embraced this extra help but now there is no question in my mind this is a positive and my son will flourish.

After the teacher conference my wife and I decided to have an anniversary lunch since the children were at school. The evening had me doing errands for the office and my wife at my daughter’s softball practice and this weekend we would be in Long Beach with the children preparing for the marathon on Sunday. We went to a local restaurant and had a very nice time. Incidentally the other day we went a friend for lunch at a restaurant we had been given a gift certificate and this particular restaurant had just gone out of business. I guess the lesson here is if any establishment is offering a $25 gift certificate for $10 be leery because this is just a cry for a cash and the establishment will be out of business shortly.

Our lunch was indeed very nice and a great way to celebrate our 16th wedding anniversary. I love my wife so much and I keep thinking back to the very “faithful” day when she unequivocally stated; “we will get through this together.” She was and is correct we have gotten through one part together and each day we are going through life together. I may not share my thoughts with my wife as I should and I may not be the most affectionate person on the planet but I am doing my best to get better in these areas. I enjoy just being with my wife each and every day knowing this can be taken away in a heartbeat. I am doing everything in my power to continue our life together one day at a time which I learn in recovery. A perfect example of being together happened last night as I had hosted the networking event which went relatively well. I invited my wife because she was a huge part of creating the invitation and I needed a “normal” eater to order the appetizers since I wouldn’t eat all of the things on the menu.

My wife was incredible last night and continues to be incredible over the past 26 years (yes, she was incredible those 10 years that we were dating!). Last night she was my right hand person and this is no surprise since she has been right there for me every step of the way for a very long time. I love her and all the joy she brings to my life, thank you so very much sweetie!!!!