For those of you who follow Barb or I on Facebook, you'll know that our anniversary was ... let us say interesting. For the rest of you I'll share some of the details.
Our 29th anniversary fell on Memorial Day this year. Since the crops were planted and were too little to be sprayed or cultivated, we took off that morning for Battle Creek, NE, Barb's hometown. While we always decorate the graves of my father's family in the rural cemetery close to our house, we rarely get up to Battle Creek to decorate Barb's parents and grandparents graves. This was the year to catch up.
We arrived at Ray and Lauri's (Barb's brother and wife) at noon. They were still branding some calves so we went on to the St. John's Lutheran Cemetery just north of their house and decorated her parents, paternal grandparents and great grandparents graves. Since we hadn't been there for many years we, I mean she, had a hard time remembering just where the graves were. It was a pleasure placing some iris blossoms at their graves since many of the cultivars had come from Battle Creek to begin with.
We then went back for a great lunch and a chance to meet and play with our great niece Molly. After a nap we were ready to head to Norfolk to decorate Barb's maternal grandparents graves and then onto have an anniversary dinner. We hadn't been to that cemetery for over 10 years and I'd only been there once, so Ray & Lauri led us. Once there Barb was happily arranging the flowers and filler with me being the handler. All went well until she snipped a stem that wasn't a stem.
It was the middle finger of my right hand. Barb went running for a WetOne to catch the blood. I looked at Ray and asked where the nearest Urgent Care was as I knew it was going to need stitches.
They led us right to Urgent Care of Norfolk, saying it was their favorite and they were "good stitchers." Their son Steven races motorcross and has a thick file there.
After waiting for several minutes for the doctor to finish stitching up the previous patient, we were ushered into the treatment room. The doctor was checking out the finger, making small talk, asking where we were from. After hearing Lexington, he turned, looked at Barb and said "Hi Barb." Turns out he was a doctor in Cozad 6 years ago and remembered her from then.
5 stitches later amongst some kidding about celebrating our anniversary with a trip to Urgent Care, we were done. We still went out for our anniversary supper with Ray & Lauri. Finger didn't hurt, just real awkward.
So Happy Anniversary to Us! Wife cuts my finger and I get stitches. But actually this is a pretty good way to celebrate. Neither one of us is perfect and we know it!
Another blogger, Matt Walsh, has a blog making the rounds of many friends now. It's titled "My wife is not the same woman that I married" http://themattwalshblog.com/2014/05/29/wife-person-married/.
It's a good read and I agree with some of his points. The main one is that we all change. Some better, some worse. My wife and I have changed a lot in the 29 years we've been married. We still love each other, even deeper than before.
I don't critique other people's relationships successes or failures. I am not in their shoes and have no idea what is going on in their lives. All I know is that as long as Barb & I keep our focus on God and keep him a partner in our marriage we enjoy each day with each other. Each of us had great role models of parents who loved each other through thick and thin.
Is our marriage perfect? No! It can't be with two imperfect humans involved. In the past each of us has stormed out at least once. But we have learned to forgive each other, often! I can tease her about some of the things she does that annoys me and she can tease me about the things I annoy her with.
We try to get better, but face it, we're sinful humans who have foibles. I have learned to love her foibles and follies along with her great skills at cooking and writing.
And now I can tease her about those deadly garden shears on our anniversary!
