Today is my 8^th wedding anniversary. Really.  Eight years.

My question is…What was I doing nine years ago?  I honestly don’t know how I ever got along in life without him.

We have a very good, happy, fun marriage.  Steve is the easiest person to live with for several reasons.  I think mainly it’s because he does the laundry.  No, seriously, he does.  He’s more particular than I am about the way it’s done, so he just does it.  And…he does a way better job than I could ever do.

We are very opposite people.  We have opposite personalities and opposite skills.  We are mentally as opposite as a pair can be.

We’re both so far lopsided on the personality spectrum that we desperately NEED each other to balance out and navigate this crazy life.  And when I say we desperately need each other, I really mean that.  I feel desperate when he’s not around. 

I recall being madly in love with my fiance 8 years ago. Multiple people told me to enjoy our engagement and all the affection for each other because engagement was as good as it would ever be.  They said somehow after we were married we’d lose interest in each other and wouldn’t care if we got to sit by each other or not.

I just couldn’t imagine how this could be true?

Well, it’s been eight years and we’re still right next to each other on the couch.  We still hold hands when we drive.  We still call each other five times a day.

Yesterday at church I saw a young couple whom I think will soon be engaged.  I noticed how closely they were sitting to each other.  It was so cute!  I remembered feeling that compulsion to be as close as possible to my future husband.  I remember the annoyances our affection for each other caused our families.  They didn’t care for our PDA.

As I was looking on at these two little love-birds I looked at my own sweetheart who was sitting two away from me as we were bookending our kids in the chapel benches.  All of a sudden I had a competitive surge.   I wasn’t about to let any young couple outdo me when it comes to chapel PDA.  If any couple was going to annoy others with PDA, I wanted it to be us!  So I quickly moved my children to my other side and slid next to Steve where we held hands and cuddled for the whole hour.

I credit the a lot of the expressions of love in our marriage to a book I read while we were engaged.  I’ve mentioned before how much I admire and respect Dr. Laura and her opinions.  She wrote a book called The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands that came out around the same time as we got engaged.

I recommend the book to anyone married for any length of time. Don’t let the title of the book put you off. The advice in that book has brought me amazing happiness and has helped guide our marriage in love and respect for each other.

The advice is simple and common sense, but when deliberately applied on a regular basis will help to yield undying love and affection for each other.

Today my hubby has taken the day off work.  We’re going to spend it together doing I don’t know what really, but I bet we’ll have a good time.  I’m probably being a little presumptuous, but I’m guessing we’ll be checking number 98 off the list.

I wasn’t joking before when I mentioned being annoying with the PDA.  You’re welcome.