2 decades. 20 years. 7,305 days. 175,320 hours.
6 kids. 2 addresses. 8 or 9 vehicles . . . 10 even, maybe. I've lost count.
A lot of life has happened since the day we got married. It hasn't all been fun or easy or something we would have chosen, but it has all worked together to bring us to where we are today! Life is hard. Marriage is hard. Parenting is hard. But I don't think it's supposed to be easy! Good, but not easy!
To celebrate our 20 years of marriage, we returned to Cape Cod, where we spent our honeymoon 20 years ago, when we were just "kids".
I still do 1996-2016
I'm not a big fan of travel, so it took me a few days to really feel settled and enjoy myself being away from home (and by then it was nearly time to head back), but we did have a wonderful trip and enjoyed our unhurried, calm, quiet time together. I have tagged along for a day or two of a work trip that Kirby was on, and we have "house-swapped" with my parents to celebrate an anniversary or gone away to a nearby town for one night, but this was our first real TRIP together (out of state, kid-free, no work commitments at all) since our honeymoon. It was just what we needed.
Our plane landed in Hartford (after an early-morning red-eye flight and a layover) in the early afternoon. We picked up our rental car and grabbed some lunch. Then we headed to the cemetery where my grandparents headstone is located. It was a beautiful day and I LOVE cemeteries and I hadn't seen the marker for my grandparents since it had been placed in the ground, so that was a great way to start our trip. Then we drove to Boston and walked around downtown for a few hours. We went in the Boston public library, walked through the public gardens, went by Cheers and saw the Boston Marathon finish line. After our quick self-guided tour, we hopped back in our car and headed to the hotel we were staying at that evening. Travel had worn us out, so we had pizza delivered to our room and turned in early.
State Veterans Cemetery, Middletown, Connecticut
Boston Marathon Finish Line
Super cool book art at the Boston Public Library
cool church window in Boston
The next morning we got up, checked out of our hotel and went to church. We had hunted on the internet for a church in the area that we could go to that morning and ended up at one whose service started about 20 minutes after the scheduled time (the first service ran long -- they had a guest speaker . . . this maybe should have been a clue for us!). We finally headed in to the sanctuary and the service got started. It was significantly more charismatic than we are used to, and it made for an interesting morning. We snuck out a bit before the service was done, since we'd already been there nearly two hours, we were hungry and we wanted to get to the ocean! Driving to Cape Cod on a Sunday afternoon is much like driving north in Minnesota on a Sunday afternoon in the summer! You quickly realize that you are going the opposite direction of EVERYONE ELSE and for that you are so very grateful! We had lunch at a hole in the wall local place and then headed to the place we would call home for the next couple days. Ships Knees Inn. My dad's sister and her husband own and run the Inn, so we got a little family time in, too, visiting with them while we were away. We were go grateful for their hospitality and loved seeing how fabulous they are at their jobs! Best innkeepers ever!
Ships Knees Inn (we highly recommend you visit!)
Our shadows on the morning of our 20th anniversary
We took long, slow walks on the beach (it's hard to walk through beach sand any way other than slow!) and around town. We went to a movie (it was a rainy day!). We ate. We walked on the beach some more. We ate some more. We browsed in a quaint little shops. We toured an amazingly beautiful church with stunning architectural detail (again with the rain!). We want to another cemetery. We found a labyrinth a walked through that. (I LOVE labyrinths. Kirby didn't quite see why I love them so much). We saw seals (hundreds of them!). We listened to waves. We ran away laughing as waves crashed against our legs. We watched sunsets and sunrises. We enjoyed our time together and rested and relaxed and then were ready to head back to our state. Our house. Our kiddos.
A pair of seals in the water (hundreds more on a sandbar in the distance)
glorious sunset on Skaket Beach 9.20.16
my love
It was a great trip and one we hope to repeat again. Maybe we won't wait 20 more years next time!
I am so thankful for twenty years of faithful, supportive love and encouragement mixed with lots of fun, laughter and heartache. Neither of us are perfect, but we are a pretty darn good pair!
amazing sunrise on our final morning
the "old" married couple who need major work on their selfie skills!
Yesterday was our 19th wedding anniversary. 19 years. That's nearly half my life at this point. It seems, simultaneously, that we have always been married and that it was just the other day that we were walking down the isle. Time is strange like that so much of the time! I can't imagine a person I would rather travel the journey of life with that my husband. We are a great team! We have a great time together and compliment each other well. He loves me way better than I deserve and is so patient. I am constantly grateful for the immense blessing he is in my life and in the life of our family. He rocks! (also, I think he's pretty darn cute!)
This particular anniversary, as it turns out, we were face to face with a few of the less favorable phrases from our nearly two-decade-old vows :: "in sickness" and "for worse". I have probably, in retrospect, not felt great for a few weeks now, but life is pretty busy in September so I just kept moving forward. Well, life also has a way of stopping you in your tracks when you've gotten to a certain point. Early yesterday afternoon I developed a headache. Not totally uncommon for me, although not normal either. I did my normal "headache stuff" and nothing seemed to help at all -- in fact it kept getting worse. Then I took a couple ibuprofen (which I don't normally do or need to do, but this was quite a headache!) and still it just kept getting worse. Monday nights, as it turns out, all 6 kids have activities. 3 with gymnastics, 2 with football and 1 at tennis. It is the one night of the week that is always crazy. Well, by the time we needed to start shuttling kids to and from stuff, I didn't feel like I could safely operate a motorized vehicle. I had extreme pain and was feeling dizzy/weird. So I crawled in our bed about 5 pm. I got up to eat a little something at some point and finally to brush my teeth and change out of my clothes before going to bed "for real" for the night. I woke up this morning after more than 12 hours of sleep (I slept pretty well, thankfully), but still had some pretty serious pain in my head. The dizziness was gone, but had been replaced by a weird fuzzy/out-of-body feeling that was so strange -- similar to the feeling you have when you arrive home from somewhere in your car and can't exactly remember how you got home; you can't remember the streets you drove on, or the route you took, or the time in between when you left point A to drive to point B. I think most people have experienced that and know what I'm talking about. I knew that I had walked the kids to school and had conversations with a few people, but didn't really remember or register fully any of the morning. So, I called my chiropractor and scheduled an appointment for late morning. I went and he worked on my and said my neck and upper back were a really big mess of tension and misalignment. He said that he thought I should start to feel better soon and that if I woke up tomorrow still in pain, I should come back. He's a great guy and I'm thankful for him. The pain has lessened already, but the other weird feelings are still sticking around. I'm hoping to be clear-headed before the kids get home from school.
This 19th year of marriage has probably been the toughest one we've had, not on the marriage front particularly, just the general life kind of stuff has been stretching, to put it mildly. It's also been wonderful, with lots of blessings and laughter and fun. But it hasn't been easy! I'm hoping for a re-do on anniversary celebrating later this week, headache-free and am also hopeful that one of these days (weeks, months . . .) things will take a turn for us and we can quit holding our breath and finally breathe a little easier around here.
Here's to a great 20th year of marriage. I would be a disaster without this guy by my side! I am so thankful for him and that he loves me! What a blessing.
the happy couple last February on our family's celebration of the big 40th anniversary
Happy 41st Anniversary to my parents today! I am so thankful for them and their unwavering commitment to the Lord and each other and their family . . . not to mention their generous, giving spirits that have benefited so many people over the years. I'm praying this year ahead will be less eventful than the one they just made it through. Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad. I love you!
Here's my continuing Multitude Monday post, which all started a while back, right here on Ann's wonderful, amazing blog that is a favorite of mine. If you've never checked it out, do yourself a favor and click on over. She's an amazing, gifted writer and an inspiration!
"One Thousand Gifts"::
2599. the early-morning sound of the paper guy backing out of the driveway
2600. the way Anna calls the newspaper "the news" :: i.e. "The news is here mom."
2601. our annual neighborhood block party/potluck
2602. meeting the newest neighbors {a new couple who moved in down the block and a 10-day old baby from across the street that I hadn't met in person, only in pictures
2603. a visit from Kirby's brother
2604. bike day at preschool
2605. 45 kidless hours to celebrate our anniversary
2606. sleeping in
2607. 11 hours of uninterrupted sleep
2608. 16 years of marriage
2609. watching Jacob's football game :: coffee in hand, Kirb by my side and no kiddos to keep an eye on
2610. shopping at i like you
2611. massage
2612. long-standing, meaningless-to-the-rest-of-the-world traditions between me and Kirbs that make us both smile
2613. dinner at Chatterbox
2614. my sacrificial parents and their willingness to stay with our lively brood!
2615. coming home to our half dozen
2616. transferring birthdays and special dates into my new 2013 calendar {that I almost paid full-price for, but then saw the exact one I wanted in the clearance section for 70% off :: someone had written on about 3 pages of it and then returned it, so it was "used" . . . hey, I've got white-out!}
2617. checking things off "the list" that have been on there for MONTHS
2618. Sara singing Toby Mac
2619. great finds on a trip to Goodwill
2620. re-affirmation that the book is always better than the movie
2621. "Step into Africa" with the 4 bigs. a fabulous experience. SO glad we went!
2622. writing a letter to Melvin
2623. new babies
2624. 5K coming up this weekend for me, Rebekah, Lydia and Joe
2625. "for all your goodness I will keep on singing. ten thousand reasons for my heart to find" :: love it!
Alrighty, that's it's for now. Tune in next Monday for the next installment.
A slightly late, completely unplanned anniversary crafting project: For some reason, as I was sitting outside reading a very good book this afternoon, I was overwhelmingly compelled to begin this project. I was inspired by this idea I saw online a little while back. I hadn't planned to do any projects at all today. I was really enjoying my book and had planned to enjoy it the entire time the littles were napping . . . but then those plans went right out the window! I found a board {not too old even, but pretty beat up} in our yard and got to work. First I slapped a pretty thin, messy coat of white paint to the board, rubbed in a little anitiquing glaze on top and let it dry. Next I sanded it a little. Then I traced some chipboard letters onto the board {I didn't measure before I started tracing, I had just eyeballed it. When I got to the end I realized I would only have room for "199" and since I didn't want to do '96 I erased it all and started again}. Then I painted the letters with black paint and let that dry. When it was all dry I sanded it again and then hosed it down to get all the dust off {and age it even more!} and I was done! Whattaya think? I love it! I can't decide if we should put it in our bedroom {it would look great in there} or somewhere more "public" so that people will actually see it, since not many people venture back to our bedroom when they come for a visit!
Note: This idea was not original with me. I saw it online a few weeks ago and didn't really think much about it . . . until today. {I would love to give credit to it's originator -- whose sign read "Farm Fresh Eggs" -- but I tried to find it again today and couldn't for the life of me! So just know, it wasn't my idea in the beginning. I would have bookmarked the site if I thought I would be making my own, but I hadn't really planned on it at all.}
It's official. Our marriage is now a teenager! 13 years ago today we said our "I do's" and have been having a great {and quite productive, I must say} time ever since. On the one hand it seems like we've always been together, always been married . . . I can hardly remember my life without Kirby in it, and on the other hand it seems like that day was just yesterday . . . how can it have possibly been 13 years ago already? Life is funny like that! Although many of the details have faded {someone asked me yesterday what time of day I got married and I answered "umm . . . after lunch and before dinner" things like that -- which I'm sure was a major decision at the time: "should we have the wedding at 3 or 3:30?" -- don't really seem all that significant 13 years later}, I do remember that 9.21.96 was a great day. Some sprinkles of rain, but a great day nonetheless!
Were you there? Did you come celebrate with us? I know that many of you did! If you have a memory, any memory at all, of that day I would love to hear it: funny memories, random memories, sappy memories, cute memories . . . bring 'em on. I would love to know what it is you remember about our wedding day. A BIG "Happy Anniversary" to my wonderful husband and, also, a BIG thanks to our family and friends who were there, took part and made the day so wonderful for us. The biggest thanks of all to the Lord for seeing fit to bring us together . . . I couldn't be happier!
Today marks my parents 37th wedding anniversary! They are wonderful and I love them TONS! Happy Anniversary guys!
I didn't have time to sneak over to their house and get a wedding picture, but here they are (although not together) a little more than 2 years after the big day with a very little me! (this should clarify where Rebekah's curls came from)
nice top there, Mom!
The happy couple nearly 37 years later enjoying their newest little grandbaby [grandbaby #6]
answer: 1.2 decades, 4,383 days, 105,192 hours, 12 years -- long enough for: 5 kids, 1 apartment, 1 house, 5 jobs, 49 birthdays (12 for me, 12 for kirb, 9 for jacob, 7 for rebekah, 6 for lydia, and 3 for joe), a dozen christmases, 3 er visits, 1 pet, 7 vehicles, 2 different centuries . . .
question: what is: how long have you been married?
kirbs, today marks our 12th anniversary! happy anniversary, my love. i love you even more today then i did on that (slightly rainy) september day in 1996! thanks for a dozen wonderful years of being my husband and best friend (you've been my best friend for nearly 17 years now, actually!) our life . . . it's a crazy ride. i'm so glad we're on it together! I LOVE YOU!
blog followers, i hope you enjoy these pictures of 2 little kids who were (and are) very much in love! and if you were there with us on that day, thanks for stickin' with us through the years: take a minute to remember the yummy leaf cookies, the vw bug convertables, the slideshow of baby pictures (which wasn't something everyone did, back in the day . . . it was new & exciting!), the BIG glasses that chuck wore as he pronounced us "husband and wife", the live 4-piece string ensemble, blowing bubbles in the rain and the miriad of really cute little girls who charmed all who were there . . . just to name a few things. if you have other carlson/stoll wedding memories, i'd love to hear 'em!
i can't think about my anniversary without thinking of ron & mary (allison's parents) who have graciously shared this special date with us through the past 11 anniversaries . . . today would have been their 40th. mary died in may. ron & mary celebrated their 28th anniversary at our wedding (watching allison as the best maid-of-honor ever!) and each year on this day i have thought of them too, as i think back to our wedding and remember our anniversary! mary is missed deeply by many and will never be forgotten. ron, allie, justin & sam (ava too) . . . you are in our thoughts and prayers today (as you are all the time). we love you!
