Thirty Seven

April 4, 1981

April 4, 2018

Thirty seven years...

gone by in the blink of an eye!

Thirty Six?!?

Today is our 36th wedding anniversary. I know I have grown kids and six (!) grandkids, but it does not seem possible that we've been married 36 years. It seems much shorter than that.

Dan didn't schedule any appraisals today so we could spend time together. We went to breakfast this morning and snapped this photo for our memory book.

This guy has been my best friend for 36 years... I love him!

A Finish!

Last year I stitched this pattern to give to my mom at Christmas. Unfortunately, the move interfered and my Christmas plan flopped.

I wanted to make this into a box and fill it with gift cards for my folks.

Fast forward to July 2014. My parents 60th wedding anniversary was yesterday. They did not want a party or large celebration this year, so we all decided to gift them with gift cards to their favorite restaurants, eateries, and grocery stores. Yea! My box was revived.

I found this box at Goodwill. It was missing a drawer pull, so I bought a bead at Michael's and made my own. It is filled with gift cards and will be presented to them today in honor of their 60 year commitment to each other and this family.

Thirty One Years Ago Today...

I told my husband this morning that 31 years ago today I was excited, full of joy, with plans and dreams for the future. Today I am excited, full of joy, with plans and dreams for the future, and with many of my original plans and dreams fulfilled. Who knew life was going to be so adventurous?! I love you, Dan.

30

Today is our 30th wedding anniversary.

Neither one of us can believe we've been married that long.

It seems like just yesterday.

As I look back to where we've been...

4/4/1981 Our Wedding at Circus, Circus in Las Vegas

...and ahead to where we're going,

 

I am so thankful that Dan has been and will be at my side.

Dan + Vicki = 29

Tomorrow is our 29th Wedding Anniversary. It seems like only yesterday... to both of us!

I can't remember our anniversary falling on Easter Sunday before, so I tried to look it up on the Internet. I found out that the last time Easter was on April 4th was in 1999. No wonder I can't remember it, I worked for the church then and Easter was always a very busy time. I think that was the first year we had the sunrise service out on the property in the desert at the foot of the hill. The next time Easter will be on April 4th will be in 2021 - our 40th!

The story of our romance sounds like a made-for-TV movie. But every word is true.

We met in October 1980 when Dan came to work at Dynacomp. We worked the night shift. I remember his first day at work, but I don't remember the story that he tells. He says that at dinner break that night I announced to my best friend (and the room in general) that I was ready to get married again. And his thought was "don't look at me". I'm assuming that was because there were so few males in the room for me to choose from, and NOT because he already thought (ok, knew) I was nuts. (For those of you that don't know, I was married at 17 and divorced at 21 - that's another story for another time, probably not in this blog).

The night shift crew was pretty close and hung out a lot together after work. We were supposed to get off at midnight, but this job was a "can't leave till it's done" job and many times we got off at 4 or 5 am.

Dan & I became friends at these get togethers, and, because we lived somewhat close to each other, became carpool buddies.

I announced to my parents on Christmas Day 1980 that I had met the man I was going to marry. This was before our first official date. We started dating in January, got engaged on Valentine's Day, and married on April 4th.

It wasn't love at first sight, but it was close!

We drove to Las Vegas and got married at Circus Circus. One of our favorite memories is standing in line at the Clark County Courthouse to get our marriage license. O my gosh, we saw every kind of person imaginable in that line! We had a reservation to get married at Circus Circus, but even with a reservation they took couples on a first come, first served basis. We got there on time, but our ceremony was 4 hours late. I was beginning to worry that the date on our announcements would be wrong!

I'm sure there were many skeptics that thought we would not last, having only known each other for six months.

That was 29 years ago. There have been ups and downs. But I can truly say that Dan is my best friend and that is the secret to our success so far. We really like each other. He is a great listener (good thing since I talk constantly) and I can tell him anything. I'd rather spend time with him than with anyone else.

So, tomorrow we are going to celebrate our anniversary instead of attending family Easter functions. We'll go out to eat and reminisce about our beginning, the highlights of these past years, and what we hope for our relationship before the next time our anniversary falls on Easter!