19th anniversary

Dan and I recently celebrated our 19 year wedding anniversay! WOW, I can't believe its been 19 years. That seems so long, yet its gone by so FAST! (Especially after the kiddos arrived 10 years ago!)
I am still today totally in love with my hubby who was my sweet high school sweetheart, and is still as sweet as ever! Marriage is such an important part of God's plan for his people. I am glad that both my husband and I have the same views on marriage... it is for life.
It is a covenant that should not be broken. Through trials and tribulations you do not give up. Setting a positive marriage example for my kids is important to me because in a society that doesn't seem to put much emphasis on long-lasting happy marriages, I want them to grow up knowing that is the way it should be. Marriage is not disposable, it is meant to be forever. So when someone chooses to get married, they should be planning for the long haul, not just figuring 'this is fun now, but if it doesn't work out, I can always just leave". Far too many kids are growing up in divorced homes. Its not easy on the kids, and I don't believe its easy on the parents either. More effort needs to be put INTO the marriage, before they call it quits, so they don't have to deal with the fallout after they call it quits. Now some of you may say, 'but hey, the divorce rate in America is 50%, its just not expected for marriages to last'. Well I have news for you. That percentage is not entirely accurate. THAT percentage includes ALL marriages, that means it includes the folks who are getting married 2,3,4 times. Tell me if that doesn't increase the percentage, when u have habitual divorcees remarrying (looking for that utopia), and then divorcing again (because they found out 'what! u mean I've got to work at this marriage?! its not just take, take, take, but I actually have to give, give, give too?!')  So, as I said that 50% figure is not accurate. I forget the real number, but I know it was much lower when u only count those 'first' marriages, not those people who marry multiple times. So getting married, and staying married to your one and only spouse is worthwhile. Yes, this was my soapbox today, but all this to say... Happy Anniversary to my husband, the one I love, the one I cherish, the one I want by my side till the day I die. I love you Honey!

I had thought about posting a retro picture to go along with this post, but I never looked one up and scanned it so no pictures this time. If you really want to see one, look back to our anniversary post from last year because I believe I posted some then :)

So for our anniversary we went out to dinner, just the two of us.
We had been given a gift certificate to a restaurant by a client recently. We decided to use this for dinner to celebrate our anniversary. It was at a 'classic' restaurant that had been operating for about 65 years in our town. We had never been there before, nor heard of it, but we are always willing to try new food places so we were looking forward to it.
Turns out...
the customers who were visiting this establishment had probably been visiting it since the day it opened 65 years ago! It was definately an old school crowd. We felt like we were at a retirement home. We were the youngest people there by at least 30 years! Dan said at one point that every time he looked across the dining room and saw the red velvet banquet booth in the corner, he expected to see Frank Sinatra or some other old-schooler sitting there. It was true. It was that kind of establishment. Unfortunately, the decor hadn't been updated since then, and the food was pretty bad. (Even though the folks who gave it to us and the advertising I looked up both said "the best food in town").  Bleeeck! Not good at all. The gift certificate was pretty big, so I even ordered lobster in an effort to use it all up. No such luck. We still have $50 left on the gift card and I don't know if we'll ever want to go back there-it was that bad. Oh well, maybe I'll take the kids there for lunch someday, hopefully they serve lunch and hopefully its better than the water-logged corn on the cob, blah steamed veggies, and rolls they picked up walmart that they served us with dinner. Hopefully.
I'm too frugal to let money go to waste, so I'm sure I'll be back there someday. I do appreciate the sentiment though, and thoughtfulness of those people who gave it to us. It was very kind and generous. We just wish the food had been much better. Oh well, chalk it up to an 'experience'.   :)


Happy 19th anniversary to us!  :)