Dancing Without Rhythm

I had hoped to post on our anniversary---but suddenly I found myself on the evening of JULY FIRST still not having done it. Um, is anyone else alarmed by the speed at which we seem to be hurtling through this year? We are already halfway through it! Good thing I'm making the most of it with all my canning, scrapbooking, sewing, and detailed journal writing.

So, June 29th, four years ago, we got married. I'm thinking I'm gonna go with aliases to avoid

the aforementioned stalking. We'll call that cute husband of mine J. When J and I were talking about the last 4 years, I mentioned to him that saying "4 years" just sounded like a drop in the bucket. But we've experienced so much and grown so much in those 4 short years. We've had two kids for crying out loud!

It was a hot, hot day in Salt Lake City on June 29, 2002. Two of my friends came and helped me with my hair and makeup at the crack of dawn, and then my mom and I jumped in the car and headed to the Jordan River Temple. As we neared the temple, my mom broached the topic of marital intimacy. I was 26 years old. I started screaming. She kept talking. I don't remember much else because as many traumatic incidences are, it has been supressed. Deeply.

As my mom pulled the car around the circle drive to drop me off, I heaved a big sigh, felt my heart flutter urgently and said, "Well, I hope I'm doing the right thing." I was kind of joking, but kind of not. The thought really was there, for just a moment. I never felt a moment's hesitation or doubt in marrying J--ever. That was as close as I got. Apparently my mom found this hilarious and laughed about if for weeks to come.

The ceremony is a bit of a blur, but for the rest of the day's festivities I had the most amazing wedding planner a girl could ever ask for. She had planned and prepared so well and she kept things efficient throughout the day. I was able to just enjoy everything. That was an incredible gift.

We started our married life in St. Louis. We loved it there. That's where we got this:




With him in tow, we moved to Provo where J finished his Bachelors degree.


And we got this:

With them in tow, we moved to Salt Lake City and embarked on the most hellish 6 months of our married lives. 2 kids was a lot more work than we anticipated, but we learned the valuable lesson "don't mix family and finances" the hard way.

So we left Utah. So long, not-so barren desert land.

And here we are. 4 years, 5 homes, 2 children, 1 college degree and several unmentionable number of pounds later. I'm happy. I don't think I even knew half of how good of a choice I was making in marrying J. I really like that man.

My sister once referred to our relationship as the taming of the shrew. I had opted to spend the summer with him during his internship instead of galavanting around the country on my own.
It's true, sometimes even I am in complete awe of not only how much I love J, but how much I really like him. His jokes don't get old, his smile still warms my heart, his hand reaching for mine still feels like coming home.

To mark our 4 years together, we went to dinner. I cherish uninterrupted conversation with J. And good food, so you know---that was perfect. J told the waitress to go ahead and bring us the dessert menu and we'd see if anything interested us, if not, we were going across the street for frozen custard. I still get a kick out of his "hold nothing back" approach in life.
Then we went and saw Superman. And man, I gotta tell you, the most super thing about that movie was getting to look at that super face for a super 2 hours. Holy moly he's a beautiful creation.
Then we snuck into Da Vinci Code. If you find that morally reprehensible, let me just tell you, we paid EIGHTEEN DOLLARS to get into that movie theatre. THAT'S morally reprehensible. That we'd pay it and that we'd be charged it.

It was fun to just be a girl, sitting next to a guy, bloated from overeating and thinking to snuggle into each other, but really just interested in watching the movie and having our space and knowing someone else was wiping the snot from our kid's nose and changing her diaper and answering why and searching high and low for the train pajamas because tractors just won't do and having to reheat the milk because 15 seconds isn't nearly long enough and pulling a 15 month old monkey off off furniture you didn't even know was possible to climb and dealing with the cacophony that ensues when the words "It's time for bed" is announced.

That's all.

Oh, before I post, I would like to get some suggestions for names for the kiddos. I'm gonna avoid using their real names (I really don't think it's necessary in general but I don't want someone googling "Av*#y swimming in toilets" and my blog to be found. It could happen. So, give me your ideas and the best idea, well, I'll use it.

Posted by Angela on Saturday, July 01, 2006 at 7/01/2006 | Permalink