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I’m baaaaaack.
Honestly, I am not sure if anyone really missed my columns, but I admit, I sure missed writing them. Where have I been? Good question. To use a tired excuse, I was just busy.
As my children grow, so does their participation in activities. Between driving them here, there and everywhere, attending their many events, work, and all the other facets of life, including two of my favorite things, eating and sleeping, there seemed to be little time to do much else.
Not that I don’t enjoy the hustle and bustle of my children. I do. I love it! I know that all too soon it will all just be a memory and I will be asking myself “where has the time gone”? Who am I kidding? I already ask myself that when I see how fast my children are growing up.
Even though I was not submitting articles to be published, I did start several columns and had ideas for several others but, as I said above, time or sleep got in the way. The “old man” in me would literally fall asleep with the computer in my lap while was attempting to write an article, enter grades or just simply surf the world wide web. Yikes!
Speaking of time and where the time has gone, my wife and I celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary last month. Fifteen years may not seem like much, but at least we outlasted Britney Spears’ marriage to Jason Alexander back in 2004, which spanned all of 55 hours!
#Winning!
I don’t think we will come close to matching Former President George H.W. and Barbara Bush and their amazing 73 years of wedded bliss, however. But who knows with all the advancements in healthcare these days! Oh, and if my wife really can put up with me for another 58 years!
In this day and age, being married for 15 years is almost an accomplishment, as sad as that sounds. Marriages do not last like they used too, nor do people seem to put much stock in being married, for one reason or another, not that I agree or disagree with anyone’s opinions on the matter.
According to an article in USA Today this past February, 40-50 percent of marriages in the United States end in divorce. The rate is even higher for those that remarry. To me, that is staggering.
The article also cited Greenville, Michigan as having the highest divorced population at 20.1%. While not the highest, I did have to chuckle in my own strange mind when I read that Truth or Consequences, New Mexico had a divorced population of 24.8%. I guess the truth did have a consequence for some.
Clarkston, Washington clocked in with the highest divorced population with 25.7% while the lowest was Devil’s Lake, North Dakota with 14.4%.
The traditional gift for the 15th anniversary is crystal while the modern gift is glass or a watch…in case anyone was looking for gift ideas.
We had fun planning our wedding and we enjoyed every second of it. A few memories stick out for me as I reminisce on our big day. The first one involved air conditioning. The pastor at the church first refused to let us turn the air conditioning up. It was a warm June day, that gave way to a big, but quick storm right after our wedding. With everyone dressed to the nines, we wanted as little sweat as possible. Luckily, we won that battle!
On an episode of the classic “Everybody Loves Raymond”, the main character, Ray, accidentally taped over his wedding video. Hilarious episode because it happened on a fictional TV show. Can you imagine doing that in real life? I did not record over ours, thank goodness, but there are times I wish I could edit out certain parts. You know, the part where I forget to mention my wife in my “big” speech before dinner. I refuse to watch that part of the video to this day. The only excuse I have is I …well, I don’t have one. I just blew that one!
Other than arriving for my own wedding, I was responsible for bringing the song we were going to dance our first dance too. The song was “The Other Half of Me” that was used in our engagement video. Yup, guess who forget it at his parents house? This was back before DJ’s were all high-tech savvy. The good news is, we put our heads together and danced to another great song instead: “My Girl”. She was, is and always will be my girl. I am a pretty lucky guy.
So much has changed during our first 15 years. But the biggest changes are the best; our three beautiful children.
Happy 15th, Heather! Here is to many, many more!
Submitted by Mark McGlothlen
