Happy Anniversary to Me! Errr...Us!

Yesterday was our 9th wedding anniversary.  It's kinda crazy to think about it.  We went out to dinner and to see the final Harry Potter movie.  We saw the movie purely for old time's sake, as the first Harry Potter movie was our first date at the Uptown (which was a totally cool place to watch a movie, IF you are on time).  We unfortunately were late to the first movie, therefore our group of friends mostly didn't sit together and Arlin and I actually got to sit under the emergency lights, which were really quite bright.  I mean, you know something is wrong with the seat when the entire theater is filled and there are three seats in a row empty -- right in the middle of a row.  Ah, memories!  So last night, we were early for the movie, the room was pretty much empty, and it was just the two of us.  I had a great time.  Most of all because he picked out the movie, remembering our first date, and I, totally clueless and tired after a 12 hour work day, forgot we saw the first HP movie 9 years ago.  What a good man!

We spent a lot of our dinner conversation talking about how it felt when we were first married.  How crazy it was to walk around as a married couple, and how we were always impressed when people would say they had been married 3 years, 5 years, 10 years, 17 years, you name it.  And here we are, 9 years later and still amazed because time moves so slowly and so quickly at the same time.  It's been a good 9 years, and a very hard 9 years.  We actually call the first 5 years of marriage, our dark years because we have had so many trials.  So many trials.  Some days I feel I must surely know how Job felt when everything just collapsed around him and then it got harder and harder and people left and family died.  Poor Job.  When I think those thoughts, the Spirit always whispers to me, "But you are not yet as Job.  Your friends have not yet left you."  And it's true.  While we have had many many trials, much moving, several jobs, babies, and funerals, we have always had our friends.

AND so here we are, ready to continue on this journey and go another 50 years.  Just don't leave us friends.  :)

Heaven

Did you know that the creator of the Brady Bunch died not too long ago? Well he did. Not only did he create the show, he wrote the jingle. AND he created Gilligan's Island and wrote the jingle to it too! Okay, so you are probably not as impressed as I am, well, I'm not that really impressed though he did create decades of television and rerun history. What I am impressed with is a statement I heard about him on NPR last week. He wrote a letter to be read posthumously. In this letter he said may beautiful things that I hope I am clever enough to say before I go. Among my favorite things he wrote:


"Am I going to Heaven or not?"
"That's what I was going to ask when I got here," I say. Then I suddenly realized something when we talked. Heaven is where I've been since the day I was born."

I've been thinking about those words of his. Heaven is where I've been since the day I was born. He didn't say only during the good times, but I think he meant to include the bad times. Heaven is every day you are surrounded by the people whom love you, and every day you are surrounded by those whom allow you to love them back.