Sixteen Thousand, Seven Hundred And\nNinety Days<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Five Hundred And Fifty Two Months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Forty six Years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Forty six years??? Holy Moly time\nflies when you\u2019re having fun. I mean jeez, it seems like it was\njust a couple years ago when the Beatles first came to America on the\nMayflower (or something like that).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As of Sunday, August 21, I’ve had the\nprivilege of being married to the Most Beautiful Woman In The\nUniverse for 38 years. Now if there are any other Beautiful Women\nreading this, please do not despair. Here\u2019s why: although it is\nimpossible for you to compete with my Lovely Girlfriend for the title\nof Most Beautiful Woman In The Universe; please be very aware that\nall the other women in the universe are the Second Most Beautiful\nWomen In The Universe. So even though you cannot be the Most\nBeautiful in my universe<\/strong><\/em>, you are now and always will\nbe the Second Most Beautiful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That is my professional opinion. If\nyou don\u2019t believe me, just ask me some time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sheesh… 46 years?? Feels like we’ve\nbeen together forever; and I say that with the utmost gratitude. Our\nrelationship is pretty much as natural as breathing, really. However\nwe still have a few (very few) times when it feels like we are\nbreathing in a few bugs and they get stuck in our throats. But after\na few pittoooeys or boohoos or maybe a grunt or two, it\u2019s all\nbetter and time to kiss and make out. In other words, life is not\nalways peaches and root beer. We do disagree, but we can finally\ndisagree without being disagreeable 99.999% of the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here\u2019s a nice bonus: SHE LETS ME\nKISS HER!! Now that\u2019s really nice, ya know??<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sometimes we are asked how we\u2019ve\nmanaged to pull this marriage thing off. Well here are some\nobservations and \/ or suggestions I\u2019d like to offer for your\nreading enjoyment:<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1) We were very good friends for\nseveral months before we started wondering what was hidden under each\nother\u2019s clothing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Q) When we realized it was true, we\nmade sure to tell each other \u201cI Love You\u201d at least once a day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 27) Before we got married, we made\nverbal contracts. Things like: \u201cwe must always tell the truth no\nmatter what;\u201d and \u201cif we have kids, we can\u2019t have just one, but\nno more than two.\u201d \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n B) We go on dates. Movies, concerts,\npicnics, vacations. Sometimes it\u2019s something simple like renting a\nvideo and taking the phone off the hook. Or maybe even just taking\nthe phone off the hook\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n V3) We say \u201cplease,\u201d \u201cthank\nyou,\u201d and \u201cyou\u2019re welcome.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n #) We hold hands often. One of my\nfavorite stories about this: Unbeknownst to our daughter\u2019s best\nfriend, we were walking ahead of them on the way into the grocery\nstore. She said \u201cLook at those cute old people going into the\nstore holding hands,\u201d to which our daughter replied, \u201cthat\u2019s my\nPARENTS!!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n 8F) I tell her she\u2019s beautiful. And\nof course, I mean it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And last but not least, \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n K!) Communicate, communicate,\ncommunicate. Never assume.<\/strong><\/em> Talk stuff over. Big\nstuff, little stuff. And be nice about it all. God knows we live in\na crazy world, there\u2019s no need to fling fire at each other at home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I could go on and on\u2026 suffice it to\nsay that we\u2019ve learned how to treat each other as if we were best\nfriends. That\u2019s probably because we ARE best friends. This\nmarriage thing hasn\u2019t always been easy, but definitely worth it. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n Life is good. We have enough to eat, a\nnice home, beautiful offspring. Yes, the verbal contract stated two\nkids They aren\u2019t kids anymore, but they\u2019re ours so we\u2019ll call\nthem \u201cthe kids\u201d whether they like it or not. Except to their\nfaces\u2026 then we let them know that they are simply beautiful people.\n And we tell them<\/strong><\/em> \u201cI Love You\u201d whenever we see or\ntalk to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And the coolest thing is, we\u2019re still\nvery much in love. Did I mention I have the privilege of being\nmarried to the Most Beautiful Woman In The Universe?? It’s true you\nknow. If you don’t believe me, just ask me some time. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n We’ve actually been married two times: first in a courthouse, then in a church on our 10th<\/sup> anniversary. But neither wedding went anything like this one…<\/p>\n\n\n\n