Destination 30

It became evident some time ago that Quinton and I would never be married. He had not really said how against it he was until after we got together and I had a hard time accepting this. Then the girls were born and, for me, marriage became a non-issue. It was clear we were in this for the long haul and, ring or no ring, I knew he was committed.

Things kind of got lost in the strands of time. Things like spending time together that did not involve cleaning a house, feeding or changing little ones, or discussing terribly adult issues like money and career. So I thought we should take steps to be sure we didn’t lose track of how we felt about each other with all that other stuff out of the way.

We started doing date night about a year and a half ago and it has been very successful. Don’t get me wrong, its hard to think of creative, fun things to do every week when you can’t leave home or spend money. But we did it and we look forward to it. Now, with Pinterest, we have even more fabulous options to choose from that we will be working on in the near future.

Sometime over this last school year however, I started thinking about us as a family, and our traditions, and I realized that though we acknowledge our anniversary every year we do no celebrate it. I don’t know why…it’s really a shame. Wedding or no, we should celebrate the day we recognize as our anniversary especially when we have so much to be thankful for that we have created together: a home, two beautiful girls, a relationship we both still feel lucky to be in…a family.

Tomorrow, June 30th, is our 8-year anniversary. We had actually made plans…we didn’t have a lot of money but we thought a small day trip, leaving the girls with my mom, to the small town of Fredricksburg to go shopping in their quaint town, picnic in the park and perhaps even stay at a bed and breakfast, for the honeymoon we’ll never have, would be an excellent way to celebrate.

Unfortunately, this is not the year for that…and I don’t see how next year will work either. Aside from a major budget crisis, we also had to pay respects to a friend’s daughters birthday, a sister in town to see a concert so my mother would be watching my niece and another birthday party for my youngest sister (moved up several weeks due to family circumstances). So no Fredricksburg. No bed and breakfast. No celebration. At least not this year.

We are in Houston and will be attending the birthday party tomorrow morning. We are happy to attend, we can always celebrate our anniversary on a different date, but we are not in a place to do so at the moment. I was a little upset about it at first, but then I realized that the best gift I have on this 8th anniversary is knowing that trip or no trip, celebration or no celebration, we are still very much in love.