sweet sixteen. . .

Sixteen years ago today. . .was a sunny, bright blue sky day, much like today. . .
A magical day. . .


The day I married my best friend. . .


We were both right out of college. . . I was working at a grocery store to save money for our wedding (and pay for my very first car, the might grey Plymouth Horizon). . .and Sam had just started working for Westinghouse as an engineer.



We rented a little townhouse as our first place (to move into when we got back from our Honeymoon). . .


And I had no idea what I was doing. . . how to be a wife or take care of a house or manage a life. . . And I kept asking him, But what do I have to do to be your wife? Because no one really ever told me. . . And I had never been on my own before. . . And I was afraid I was going to get it all wrong. . .



And he told me, Just be you. Because that would be enough.



And here we are, sixteen years later. . . With our own home, three (almost) boys, two dogs. . . And a life. . . A beautiful, wonderful, happily ever after life.


That little girl in the big white dress would never had imagined or even dreamed of a life like this: a house full of love. . .unending, strong, secure love. . . a place to find myself, be myself, and grow. . . a place where squirrels run across the swingset and tomatoes grow for little hands to pick. . . a place where deer eat apples from our tree right outside my kitchen window. . . and voices are loud, and laughter is louder. . . finding a way in this world, really exploring it. . . big places, and out of the country places, and small interesting little nooks I would have never seen with those young, scared eyes. . . finding my way. . . things that I love, like cooking and taking pictures and making things with my hands. . . finding our way and who we could become, so much stronger together. . .



The little advice that I did receive before our wedding was that marriage was hard. A struggle the first year. A struggle to find out who was in charge. And I could only shake my head. And wonder. In charge? Really? Wasn't marriage about sharing? A partnership. And maybe we are different. . .but there has never been a person in charge in this relationship.


Back then I only had a wish that we could be together, Sam and I. . .every day. . . because together was when I felt the most happy, the most alive. I couldn't see beyond that. Just us. In our little happy place.



And I would have never dreamed where that road together would bring us. Or that happily ever after could mean so much more.




Thank you, my buddy, for sixteen beautiful, perfect years. Beyond my imagining. . .


I can only imagine what adventures we might have during the next sixteen. . .