18 Years Together

Yesterday, August 11, 2008 was our 18th Anniversary.

Joe will tell a story on me of how nasty I was on our first anniversary because I thought he had forgotten it. Then he will tell you of the next six years we both forgot it. As much as two months passed before we thought about our anniversary. We managed to remember it closer after the date, getting to two weeks past, by the sixth year. This year we remembered it about four days before and we each put it on our phone calendars to remind us.

Each of us had been married previously and we each had children from our previous marriages. When we got together we had a bunch of kids and maximum noise. Our lives were so busy with getting ourselves sorted out, blending the children, our work and just life in general. It was not an easy thing by any stretch of the imagination. Frankly, I figured it would be over by year five.

My youngest daughter and Joe's youngest daughter got us together. I thank God every day that those two girls had more sense than I did and could make better "Man" choices than I could. My husband is so patient and loving. It has, truly, been his patience and love that has held us together and allowed me to grow into this relationship. We now have a fantastic family. The "Function" has replaced "Dysfunction" in our family.

All but about one year Joe and I have been together 24/7. We have worked side by side every day except the times that he had worked far from home while I stayed behind. My personal growth has been because of Joe and his constant love and patience with me. Like I said, the first five years were really hard and I drove a lot of people away during that time, but Joe stuck with me and helped me through. Yes, we had counseling through those years but I owe all of my growth to Joe.

Back to our Anniversary. We celebrated by stopping early on the road in Council Bluffs, IA, taking a few hours to do something not work related and just enjoying ourselves.

As I had mentioned earlier, our youngest daughters got us together. Joe's youngest daughter and my youngest daughter were best friends in grade school in 1988 and 1989. At that time a book series geared for preteens and teens was "The Babysitter's Club". One book dealt with two best friends who wanted to be sisters. These girls conspired to get their parents together to reach their goal. Our daughters thought this would be the best idea for them so they took matters in their hands with Joe and I.

At the time I thought men were lower than snakes bellies and Joe had enough of women always wanting to know why he had custody of his children. We both were not the least bit interested in getting married again. Our two girls saw a way to be sisters and they cranked up the propaganda program and worked at both of us. The end effect was they became sisters in August of 2000.

Thank you girls for getting us together.