Marriage Secret

Every now and then someone will ask me how Olaf and I have such a happy marriage. Come on, it's been over 17 years, aren't you sick of each other yet?

And you know, some days I am sick of it all. But I love the guy. He is wonderful. But he has faults. But so do I. And I have to remind my friends-in-not-such-happy-marriages that it's not all peaches and cream. Sometimes it's curdled milk. And sometimes it's hot lava, but that's mainly from me, not him.

But I decided the other day one of the reasons we make it work is the attitude we have. We both knew marriage wasn't going to be easy. We both knew it would be a lot of work. We both knew it would require 100% from each of us.

But the most important thing I think is; We both are just Thankful that Someone would actually Like us enough to Marry us and Put Up with us on our worst days and all the other days in between. The first few years of our marriage I just kept expecting him to call it quits since I was such a pain, but he never did. I know I'm not real easy to live with and every day I thank my lucky stars that Olaf is willing to put up with me.

I think everyone has their own secret ingredient in their marriage. Sometimes it just takes time to find out what it is. Hopefully you can figure out what makes your marriage special and remember that when the going gets tough.

Trashy Magazines are so Much Fun!

A friend of mine gave me some fun trashy magazines to read. These magazines make the rounds. They start with their owner who gives them to my friend. She usually gives them to another friend who passes them onto another friend who gives them to her sister and after that I'm not sure who gets them. But this time I got a magazine. And it was so much fun to read!

I started rifling through, I must start at the beginning if I'm actually going to read the whole thing, and noticed they had stuck tidbits of stuff everywhere. On the credits page they had a heading for a picture column: 'We asked our staffers What's Worth Spending Your Money on Right Now? Number one on the list was 'A Front Row Ticket to the new Broadway Play starring Daniel Craig - no price is too high to be close to him!' I had to second that since the time between finding out about the play, telling Sis-in-Law Nurse about, and buying Third Row Mezzanine Seats tickets was less than a week.

The next interesting thing was an Interview of Chris Rock. He had a list of Do's and Don't's. One of the Do's was: 'buy your cards - bday, anniversary, Valentine's Day - in bulk. My dad used to do this. He planned on being married to my mom for the rest of his life, so he'd buy like nine anniversary cards at a time.' Now that's commitment, at least for nine years.

Another page extolled the 'Five Bad Things that are Actually Good for you Skin.' Top of the list was Chocolate. My favorite. I think I can live with that. French Fries were even on the list! Not because they are good for your skin but because they don't cause breakouts like we all thought as teenagers.

A fashion page was dedicated to a girl dedicated to Sustainable Fashion. She's going to wear the exact same dress for 365 days straight. You go girl! This is supposed to support fashion in poverty-ridden India. But in actuality she is dressing the dress up quite a bit. She'll be spending just as much in accessories and matching clothing to not really save any money. Not exactly how the poor girls in India get to dress. They might get the dress but I doubt they'll get to dress it up like she can.

Finally they had a list (there are a lot of lists in magazines) of Five Fewer Things to Worry About. Second item was 'Eating a Big, Juicy Burger.' I never have a problem with that, do other women or are they making things up again? And the last one was 'Playing Doctor.' With who?? I thought we just did that as curious kids but here they are talking about it in an adult magazine. Who knew? I guess we're not all over it by the time were seven.

The star article was about a 27-year-old Mormon Girl who was still a virgin. She talked about a chastity lesson from church when she was 13.

"Does anyone want a cookie?" she asked in an aggressive tone. We all
perked up because Chastity class was always easier with food...but
the cookies were all half-eaten, broken, and sprinkled with dirt.
"Anyone?" When no one answered, she nodded emphatically
and said, "That's right, no one wants a dirty half-eaten cookie."
And that my friends is how I learned not to have sex.

Love it! Can't even get away from my religion in a trashy magazine.

The final tidbit from my magazine that was rather interesting was one of 7 Revenge Fantasies. 'Jon accidentally impregnates his new girlfriend with octuplets: Jon Minus Kate plus 16!'

An Ode to Olaf

While on lunch break with some coworkers I pried and asked one of the guys if things were getting serious with his girlfriend, if I wasn't being too personal. He got this big grin on his face as he said yes. It was the biggest, happiest, cutest grin. It reminded me of how much fun it is to fall in love, especially with The One.

I dated enough guys to know that Olaf was The One after not too long. Of course we didn't run off to Vegas at that point or anything rash like that. We waited for the honeymoon. But I knew, or thought I knew, pretty soon that he was The One for me.

I remember being so incredibly happy that someone so wonderful would actually love me enough to marry me. For years after we got married I always wondered when it was going to end. This was just too good to be true.

I remember an incident from our wedding day. A little old man came up to me and asked me if it was "True Love." Deep down inside somewhere, deeper than I ever went before, I felt that it was indeed "True Love" and that this would last forever. I've never regretted that day for more than five minutes.

We have been married for over 15 years now and it has been wonderful. I'm not going to lie to you and say it's been perfect every day, I don't believe those people at all. But I have been happier than I could imagine.

I know it sounds trite, but on that wedding day I thought I was as in love as I could ever be. I had no idea how wonderful love would be after 15 years. It's amazing how breathtaking it is to have a great partner with whom to share your life. I seriously couldn't imagine life without the man.

Here's to us!

Reasons Why I Love Olaf!

1. At least twice a week he gets home before me and starts dinner and helps clean up!

2. He comes home early to take kids to games, karate, and lessons.

3. He makes our bed in the mornings.

4. He gets the kids off to school two or three times a week since I need to be at work at eight and he can do some stuff at home before he goes into the office.

5. He calls me to have lunch once in a while. Now that I'm not tied to the house we actually get to see each other for lunch!

6. When I wear my shapewear, the newfangled modern-day corsets (I actually saw a lady on QVC claiming that women felt so wonderful and skinny in the stuff that they wore them when they worked out! That's so not a real woman!) and girdles, he comments that I don't need the stuff, I look great the way I am! I think that one is the best because even though I'm not perfect he loves me for me!

New Beginnings

I started a new job this week and I sure am tired! I'm a little too tired to be clever and witty, which is how I try to write normally. As I drive home from work I try to think of witty titles for a post I might write that night. But then I get home and have things to do and rarely even get to the computer.

Last night was my first night using the metering system to get on the highway. I was gonna call it "Christmas on the Highway." I was gonna write about how the pretty lights greet us as we enter the highway, putting us in a cheery Christmas mood so we won't get road rage. . . That was as far as I got in my thinking because as I tried to switch lanes in an attempt to stay on the highway until my exit (15 miles down the road) someone else cut me off trying to be faster and cooler than me in my New Old Car.

Monday I thought about writing about "Swimming in Mud" which was how I felt during my first day at work. I tried to read through some manuals, which was pretty useless. So I tried to do what was in the manuals and finally by the end of the day I got one thing done. Thank goodness for some training to take my mind off my uselessness.

Today I got flowers from Hubby. It's our 15th anniversary. He's so sweet! I've been thinking for weeks of sweet things I could write to honor him on our 15th but my mind is blank tonight. Let me tell you he is the sweetest guy I ever found. He treats me like Gold and never complains about me despite my many faults (and let me tell you, there is no shortage of faults in my arena). I am so lucky to have someone so wonderful.

Tomorrow is Middle Child's birthday. I already told you about the Nintendo DS fiasco. So now I have no presents for him. I guess tomorrow I will be going shopping on my lunch break for a DS game. I've put off his friend birthday till the end of the month. This way he will have time to reconnect with friends at school and invite them to his party and I will have time to shop for a present!

Hopefully next post, whenever that is, will be much more entertaining!

Friday Lunches & Friends

Friday afternoon from 12-2:30 is reserved for lunch with several of my friends in the neighborhood. We always meet at my house since I am the only one who works (daycare) and can't go anywhere. We each take turns making or buying lunch for everyone. We bring all the kids and just relax and hang out and talk about all the stuff girls talk about while together without any men listening. I have enjoyed our lunches so much. After a week of tending daycare children and my own children I look forward to the few hours I have with some good friends to talk about whatever we want to or need to. Our lunches are so fun! Sometimes we have spirited debates. Other times we get silly and just laugh. Other times we talk about serious topics; our marriages, children issues, family stresses, in-laws, even personal issues, and whatever else comes our way. It has been a good outlet. One time we even called Crisco to find out how their product can be trans-fat free since it is a solid hydrogenated fat. I will miss our lunches when I get a job. I have become great friends with these girls.