alive and kicking

it turns out my computer was not indeed dead, but mostly dead. you better know that movie quote, people. the quote in the last post was an obscure one from "notting hill", by the way.

so my computer is alive and kicking. as is our marriage. our 18 year old marriage. so our marriage is entering adulthood, i guess. you know how 18 year olds are at such a hopeful time in life? they have lived enough of life to have some life experience under their belt and know (somewhat) who they are. but their whole adult future is ahead of them. it is a time of promise. and exciting time as they look to the future. they know their best days are ahead of them.

that's how i feel about my 18 year old marriage. we have had some pretty incredible life experiences together. four precious children. wonderful friends. the loss of beloved parents. travelling for god's purposes around much of the world. a job we still love. and best of all, we still love each other. heck, we even like each other most of the time.

we know who we are individually, increasingly so, and we know who we are as a couple (mostly). we try to learn from each argument (of which there are still many), grow from each mistake(of which there are even more) and forgive for every wrong. bottom line: bill and i are better together.

and so this 18 year old marriage stands on the brink of the rest of it's life. even though the hair is going in the right places and growing in the wrong places. even though the pounds are overstaying their welcome and the gray is coming with increasing tenacity. even though the wrinkles are making us look a little "squidgy around the edges" (also from notting hill) we believe that the best days of this marriage are ahead of us.

bring it on.

to celebrate our anniversary we went out to dinner and did a little photo shoot on the campus where we first met in 1989 when i had a big ol' perm and he had a wardrobe i hadn't yet worked my magic on. here we are older and wiser...

sometimes using a self timer works, sometimes it doesn't...

clearly i wasn't fast enough to make it in time for the shot...

trying to make the number 18...

(um, i have no idea what that number is.)

the sun may be setting on our lives, but it is definitely on the rise for our love...

18 years, babe? really? 18 years is like 180 years in hollywood marriage years! not bad. not bad at all.