First Dance

Betty Beguiles wrote ten neat things about her and her husband, and I thought I’d play along.

1. I was dating someone else when we met, which he did not know.  Nor do I think he cared.  He told me later he knew he’d marry me the moment he saw me.  We were already married when he revealed this, so I am pretty sure it wasn’t a line.
2. He once asked me why I wanted to be a teacher, and after hearing my lofty reasons, he said, “I want you to teach my children.”  I answered, “Well, you’d better live close by, then,” and he answered, “I want to live the next pillow over.”  After an awkward silence (remember the guy I mentioned in #1? He was still in the picture…), I changed the subject.  (I now homeschool our two daughters.)
3. Before we were dating, we would get together nearly every day to do stuff.  We’d go to dinner and movies, go dancing at Pleasure Island (Disney World), hang out constantly and listen to CD’s, etc.  I think I was the only one who didn’t think we were dating at the time.  He was very patient and kept waiting for his chance to ask  me out.
4. When he finally got up the courage to ask me out, I said no.  I said that he was my best friend (still is!) and that I couldn’t date him because of that.  He told me he couldn’t stand to be near me any more, but relented to go see Dances with Wolves when it was released.  During the movie, I suddenly found myself holding his hand.  He stuck it out, and within about two weeks, I’d dumped the guy in NJ and started dating the man I’d marry.
5. We knew we were going to get married, and we talked about stuff that most people would think was really weird.  We talked about children, spanking, bank accounts, what kind of school the kids would go to, how many we’d like to have, etc.  Very strange, but things we knew we’d need to work out somehow if we were going to spend our life together.
6. Even though I do the laundry, he irons all his own stuff.  I am pretty sure he knows I could do it (and well), but he just does it without complaint.  I think that’s awesome.
7. He neither writes me songs or buys me flowers.  But our running joke is that I will buy flowers at the store, call him up upon arriving home, and say, “Oh, thank you for the pretty flowers!”  I figure he earned all the money to buy them, so they’re from him.  I used to pout about the no-flower-buying until I realized that was silly – I know he loves me, and I don’t need him to bring home flowers to prove it.  (Heck, the ironing is better, as far as I’m concerned.)
8. He always wanted sons, but has two girls.  I knew he’d make a terrific father to girls, though.  And his daughters think he hangs the moon and the stars.
9. I think he does, too.
10. This August, we’ll be married 18 years, and as of December of this year, we’ll be together for 21.  That’s more than half my life now.  And it gets better every year.

Still Happy