Our wedding day May 20, 1995. We got married at the First United Methodist Church in St. Augustine the same church that his parents were married in. That day I changed my name and gave my heart to this man. The girls asked me if I knew thing how my life would turn out would I still have married him. I could say with out a doubt YES!!! I still would have said I do. We may have only had 16 years together but we shared a deep love and I got three of the craziest, most awesome girls out of the deal.
I always wanted to renew our vows. We weren't happy with the way our wedding turned out and we (okay mostly me but he agreed) wanted to renew our vows at some point. We thought 10 years would have been a good point but we were at such a tight place financially and I was literally neck deep in some serious medical conditions that ten years didn't happen. We were together and alive so we took it in stride and said we will definitely do it at the 20 year mark whether we have a ceremony with friends or at the altar at church with David Sheffield officiating, either way we WILL do it then. Well we didn't make it past the 16 year mark. I wish I could have gone back and reminded myself that we aren't guaranteed a tomorrow and to celebrate while we can.
In my heart I am still married to him so I want to do something special on our 20th. I was racking my brain on what I can do and it finally hit me. Something he always wanted to do but never did was take me to Key West. He used to tell me of all the fun times his family had when they vacationed there and how much he wanted to bring me there. He would tell me that my eyes are the same color as the water down there and until we could go together he would stare into my eyes and dream about us being there (so sweet you could puke right :)).
So I decided that as soon as we get back from my nieces wedding in Texas we will start saving pennies to go to the keys on May 20th 2015 in honor of two decades wearing the man of my dreams name. I may not have him here with me anymore but we can still honor the day and all the amazing memories we had together.
What do you think? Is that a good way to mark 20 years?
Another thing I have tried to not be afraid of doing is traveling. Gary wanted so much to show the girls all 48 continental states before they left our house. He would tell me the best memories he had as a kid revolved around road trips with his family and he wanted to give those great memories to the girls. I always wanted to travel Europe and I still do but I think maybe we can actually manage the 48 state thing.
The sort of round about point to this post is simple, don't put things off. Celebrate now, travel now, experience things and make memories now, none of us are guaranteed a tomorrow. It is important to work hard and save money and plan for retirement but don't forget to live along the way. There are only a few things that I regret not doing while I had him with me but I am going to try not to make those mistakes anymore. My girls are only going to be with me for nine or ten more years ( they plan on living with me through college and till they are married) it is time to make memories now.
