I Don't Know How Long I've Been Married.

I love my husband.  There's no one else like him in the entire world.  The first night he met me, his opening line was something amazing like, "How did you get that scar on your nose?"  I was irritated that he would draw attention to the ONE thing on my face I'd been self conscious of my entire life, but I still answered the question.

He also made fun of my name...but I didn't get on the clue bus that he was making fun of me until later.  He asked my name and I said, "I'm Debra Jo Tenney."  He thought it was silly that I'd say my middle name, so he responded, "Well, then, I'm Mitchell Jay Borden."   Grrrr.  Didn't he know there are plenty of people in this world who go by two names?  They do it in the South ALL THE TIME.  At any rate, the young, naive me thought, "Ah--his name has a nice ring to it!"

To this day I still cannot believe some of our other classic dating moments...such as the time he told me I was breathing heavy (who has the audacity to say things like that?!), and the time he was trying to figure out where our relationship should go and divulged to me these immortal words, " When I'm around you, I want to tell you that I love you and that I want to marry you...but when I'm not around you, I'm okay."

That's when we broke up.  How ridiculous:  "When I'm not around you, I'm okay?!?!?!"   

I totally know how Sorcia felt in Willow:

"I dwell in darkness without you, AND IT WENT AWAY?!"

  

Don't worry, Mitch figured it out--we broke up and just a few days later he realized HE NEEDED ME!  I made him work for it, though.  When he asked if he could kiss me again, I turned him down flat and said NO!  Fortunately for me, though, I gave in like 10 minutes later and we got married a couple months later...and here we are in a wonderful place with 3 kids and a minivan.

But why do I not know how long I've been married?  BECAUSE the SAME MAN who has said SILLY things SINCE DAY ONE has RUINED our traditional way of counting.  It pushes my buttons, actually.  Last year I was SO EXCITED to have our "LUCKY SEVEN" year all year long, and what did Mitch do?  The day after our 7th anniversary, he said that we were "technically in our eighth year of marriage."  HOW RUDE!  It was supposed to be our cute & cliche, lucky-seven sort of year...and everything was supposed to be lucky for us, but no, we had to skip that, because my brain got all messed up.  Just a few months after our anniversary someone asked us how long we'd been married and I said 8 years...but it had only been 7!  Thanks a lot, Mitch!  

So did we enjoy our 8th anniversary this year?  Absolutely.  And the next day, did Mitch say, "Welcome to our 9th year of marriage?"  Yes, he did.  GRRRRR!  Just don't ask me how long we've been married, because I might just think next year is our 10th anniversary, but it's totally not.  At least I know we're married--that's all that matters, I guess.  : )

 

 Mitch surprised me with Les Miserables tix--so sweet!  We were on the 10th row in the Orchestra seating (somehow he totally scored the tickets for LESS than what the 2nd balcony tickets were going for).  LOVED it!  We barely made it in time, the traffic was horrendous, but we saw the entire show, and the music was fabulous.

 We got our favorite treat--Rita's water ice gelati.  I ordered mine complete with rainbow "jimmies" and strawberry custard.  Someday when we no longer have debt and are old and retired with a nest egg, we'll franchise one of these babies and live the dream as wrinkly old people who love Italian ice and making people smile.  And Mitch will remember his mission days with every bite.

Aw, I love this man.  He is so good to me.  I can never stay mad at him for very long.  He knows how to push my buttons and he ALWAYS does it with a MISCHIEVOUS SMILE.  And then he cracks a joke on a whim that "smooths over" anything that could have had potential to make me mad.  What's funny is that most of the time he digs a hole for himself without a plan to get out, and on a whim he says something funny that gets him out of the hole completely unscathed.  It's miraculous, really.  He brings laughter to our home and I love him for it.  I could never live without him.   I love my Mitchell Jay Borden.  Here's to our 9th year of marriage...that we'll celebrate next year in September.  Go figure.

 *SIGH*