February 25th: Green...

I couldn't believe my luck when I saw that Green was the photo challenge for today!  You see...green is my favorite color...and today is my 18th wedding anniversary.  So, how absolutely perfect to be able to show you a picture from my wedding today!

Randi Latzke, Kim Dutton, me, Krystal Carlson, Mary Korte, and Monica Stone.
And I know the dresses look black, but you'll just have to trust me...they're deep green velvet.

There is a widely-held belief that bridesmaids must fight to the death over the dresses they want to wear in a wedding...and that brides are pretty much expected to micro-manage every single detail.  

However, so euphoric was I at the prospect of marrying my best good buddy--the man I knew God had chosen for me--that I didn't really even care what dresses my bridesmaids picked as long as they were dark green.  Beyond that, whatever they liked was fine with me!

Now, maybe I'm mis-remembering the whole experience through the lovely haze of time and happiness (and if that is the case, I hope no one tells me so!), but my wedding party must have won the prize for fastest and easiest dress-selection of all time!  Almost immediately, they had narrowed the field to their two favorites:  both of them beautiful emerald green velvet dresses.  They chose, they ordered...we were done in time to go out to lunch!

The only real glitch was that bridal-wear associates clutch their hearts when you tell them that the wedding is less than two months away!  

Oh...and there was the blizzard.  Turns out that seventeen inches of blowing snow on your wedding day will throw a wrench in the works!  But, hey...when almost no one can make it to the church without firing up the tractor, you don't need that third usher...or the cake!

And, in retrospect, I wish we had planned in advance to spend our wedding night in our own house, eating carry-out bacon-cheeseburger pizza...because leaving for our honeymoon (and I use the word sorta loosely) a day late was just one more snag in our planning that turned out not to be a snag at all.  As my dear friend (and brave wedding piano-player) Leo said of our modified arrangements for the evening, "Oh, honey...the best things start at home!"

Much to the chagrin of the naysayers who were convinced we'd never make it over the long haul--or even over the short haul--this whole post pretty much sums up the sweeping majority of our marriage.  It has been beautiful, nearly-effortless...and most of the glitches haven't proven to be all that snaggy.  (And, now that I think about it, the snags haven't been all that glitchy either!)

It's probably not cool to admit that publicly.  I might get hate mail.  (But that would be OK, because when you write a blog, any comment feels a good comment!)

Even the other crazies I know who got married very quickly and then proceeded to stay happily married for a lifetime confess to having had a rough year or two of adjustment to married life.  I'm sorry (not!), but we didn't have any of that.  We went from blind date 

...to inseparable 

...to engaged 

...to married 

in just shy of three months, and have mostly proceeded to behave like newlyweds to this day.  Believe me when I say that two generations of teenaged children have loved this!  (No, they haven't!)

I don't say this to make anyone green with envy.  (Sorry...I couldn't resist!)  I claim absolutely no responsibility for being half of one of the great marriages of my time.  I don't know why God chose to bless me so abundantly...so far above what I deserve.  And, knowing how I have been blessed, I feel all the more foolish and unappreciative when I'm not the wife I want to be...the wife my Sweet Jimmy B deserves.

But all regrets and hate mail aside, this blog post (and all the rest of 'em!) is dedicated to my husband.  I'm crazy about you, SJB!  You're the one!

Blessings!

Missy

 Two are better than one,
   because they have a good return for their labor:

If either of them falls down,
   one can help the other up.
But pity anyone who falls
   and has no one to help them up.

Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm.
   But how can one keep warm alone?
 Though one may be overpowered,
   two can defend themselves.
A cord of three strands is not quickly broken. 

Ecclesiastes 4:9-12

18 years ago today

One year ago today!  Perhaps you will recall that I had surgery to put a titanium screw into my busted foot bone that day.  NOT the best anniversary gift I ever received.