40 Years Ago Today

40 years ago today, I married the love of my life. Although back then you couldn't have convinced me I would ever feel differently, today I am 40 years wiser. I know how easily and often things change between couples. So today I feel especially honored to say that I am still married to the love of my life.

I really wanted to find a way to celebrate this event so recently we decided to treat ourselves to a one of a kind trip next spring, either on a cruise ship or on a cross country train excursion. Last night, however, we marked the day in a traditional way with a dinner out at a wonderful restaurant called Shakespeare near Ellwood City. The building looks like a castle and is on a golf course. The food was not traditional Elizabethan fare, but good old seafood for us "Floridians".

As we ate we reminisced on favorite foods we've experienced. It was a pretty cool way to look back over the years! The best calamari was in Anchorage. It was mouth wateringly unbelievable! One spring break we stayed at a little place on the St. Johns River in Florida. I've never really cared for fried clams, but we tried them at a hole-in-the-wall restaurant near there and ended up going back every night for more. The best clam chowder ever was at Selena's, a little restaurant in Tampa. And we've even been blessed to have melt-in-your-mouth veal in a little village in Switzerland. Yep! It's been a good ride so far!

Last winter we purchased a great picture of us. Our church was having a directory made and each family got one free portrait. We went to the sitting with full intentions to NOT purchase the "Package". After the sitting the salesperson went through each pose, one by one. Dutifully we selected our favorite poses of each other. She put all 3 shots in a frame which looked lovely, but we weren't wavering. I really loved Larry's picture. He really liked mine. But we didn't waver!

"When were you married?" she asked. Jokingly we admitted that we'd almost made it 40 years. Voila! 3 pictures of us captioned "Celebrating 40 Years Together-2011". We looked at each other. We were beaten by a good sales person! The portrait looks great in our entry hall.

The years have been good, and we've been lucky. No set back was too severe to handle, and the adventures were fun. Best of all we raised two phenomenal daughters who married two really cool guys and they all gave us 3 fantastic grandkids. OK, I know I'm bragging here, but hey, it's my blog! And it's been 40 years in the making.