21 Years

We look SO YOUNG!
 9/13/1997

Yesterday we celebrated our 21st wedding anniversary. 21 years! I don't feel old enough to have been married for so long. When I told Tony that, he said "we ARE old." No, no we are not. Middle aged is not old! This was one of our anniversary dinner conversations.

The man absolutely drives me crazy most days and has a gazillion annoying habits (and I'm sure I do, too), but he also has a lot of redeeming qualities. In honor of our anniversary, I thought it would be a good time to reflect on the things I love and appreciate about my husband.

• He tells me he loves me every single day, usually by asking "have I told you today how much I love you?"
• He is funny (also one of his annoying qualities). He is very quick witted and can come up with a joke faster than anyone else I know.
• He is amazing at math, which balances us out, because I am soooo not good at math. He can figure how much a tip should be at a restaurant down to the penny in about 10 seconds. Very convenient! He will definitely be the one to help the kids with their math homework.
• He LOVES his kids and is a great daddy, without question.
• He loves sports, same as me. And board/card games.
• He is competitive, but also knows how to be a good sport (most of the time).
• He is incredibly creative at making up games to play. This comes in handy on long road trips, and/or just to entertain the kids in general.
• He works hard for our family. He commutes to work, even though he despises it, so we can live in a different area that is better for our family.
• He is very level headed, calm, and reassuring when I need it the most, meaning when I get myself worked up/upset about things (like the start of preschool this year for example).
• He has an amazing gift of being able to strike up a conversation and talk with anyone.

I know that there are other amazing qualities that I am not thinking of, but I'd say these are the top 10.

We didn't do anything fancy for our anniversary and don't currently have any plans, although we have talked about trying to arrange for a weekend away. The night before, we realized we could ask his parents to watch the kids and feed them dinner, a HUGE bonus to having moved back closer to family. So the kids had a fun evening with the grandparents, while we were able to enjoy an actual anniversary dinner out.

Through good times and bad, through all the arguments and laughs, through 9 moves in 21 years of marriage (6 in the last 3.5 years), through 14 years of trying to have children, surviving infertility and coming out on the other side, to now being a family of 4. Here's to another 21 years of adventures ahead of us in whatever life has in store.