Happy Anniversary, me!

On a completely unrelated note to my previous rant, today is the day I married Kevin. Details I remember:

It was insanely hot all week in Dallas, Texas, but the day of my wedding had a little rain in the morning, cooling things off to a nice 80 something. The sky was that beautiful clear blue and all clouds were gone by the time we got to the church.

Bikers came up and stared into the window of our limo at the reception before we got out. I offered to let them get in when I got out.

My parents invited TONS of their friends because I'm their only daughter and first born child, but most of the people that actually CAME were Kevin's and my friends.

Kevin Pohle, a friend of Kevin's and a groomsman, had his appendix removed a day before the wedding and couldn't be in it with us. Instead, we had Chris McDermott, the guy that Kevin and I met each other through. Kevin still made it, although he couldn't wear a tux. We took a pic of him showing us the bandage where they pulled the appendix out.

All my mom's brothers and sisters except for one made the wedding, and nearly all the cousins came as well. This was the first time in YEARS that we even came CLOSE.

My dad's father, who never made it to the wedding because he was bedridden, described my dress to my grandmother perfectly when she came home. The pictures of me in my wedding dress came MONTHS after he passed away.

I ate breakfast that morning. Kevin did NOT and informed the coordinator at the reception of this when she tried to get him to get up and do the first dance before he had his food.

I gave a happy war whoop as we left the chapel as husband and wife.

My dad made me laugh by telling me that Kevin's friend Joe had pretended to be looking for Kevin before the wedding, saying he'd seen Kevin peeling out of the parking lot earlier...

My bridesmaids sang "Going to the Chapel" to me.

My dad and I chose the same song for our dance together"(If I Could"), but didn't know it until right before. It made me cry...a LOT!

My brother was horrified at the thought of Kevin and I going upstairs for the honeymoon night.

The flower girl (my niece-to-be at the time) florally assaulted her great aunt with a handful of fake rose petals when she got to her pew in the church.

My dad got mad at the limo company for charging us for the full night when we just wanted to pay for the drive from the church to the reception hall. So, when the guy got ready to drive away, my dad said "Oh, no...we have you for the whole NIGHT, sir." Then he came in and announced to the entire room that they would be doing limo tours to Dallas and back all night. There were folks who never got to ride in a limo and never saw downtown Dallas at night that got to see BOTH, thanks to dad's ingenuity.

Anyway, all this only serves to remind me that my relationship with Kevin these past nine years (and even with many of you) is something that's remained a stalwart constant for me. My wedding day still sits in my mind as one of those great moments that I have no idea what I did to deserve, but am MIGHTY glad that happened. While I can look at those around me and see how they've changed, I'm far more amazed at how much things between Kevin and I have stayed the same. Despite having been around me for 9 years, he still seems to see me as his fair maiden (which is only fitting, as I see him as my deserving hero!).

Here's to another 9 years of marital bliss (bliss = all the stuff that comes with a real relationship, like arguments over street directions and laughing during romantic moments, illness, craziness and the other -nesses that happen in the real world)!