Our Seventeenth Anniversary

Today is our 17th anniversary.  

Lucky for this farmwife, it rained today so that meant we actually got to do something.  

I'm not sure I was really thinking that through when we made our wedding plans so many years ago...right in the middle of chopping corn silage.  

I also distinctly remember Ray Dahlen chastising me for scheduling a wedding on the opening of duck hunting.  

So today, to celebrate our anniversary, we went to town.  Ruby came along to entertain Abram in the back seat (he HATES being alone) and we dropped off Ivy for the afternoon with her bestie Julia.  Linnea held down the fort with the rest here at home.

As we were heading onto the interstate, Ruby said sweetly from the back seat, "Daddy, did you know that people can go *IN* McDonald's?

And did you know they have *tables* inside?  I saw that once when I went one day with Grandma Harriet.  Daddy, do you think we could go *IN* to McDonald's for our anniversary?"

We most certainly did.

We followed that with a trip to a furniture store, just to dream a bit.  She had the TIME of her LIFE.  I think we sat on every couch and watched her fling herself back on every mattress.

We topped off the afternoon with a stop at a jewelry store to see how much it would cost to re-size my ring. (My hands have re-sized since the day he gave me that ring back when I was a senior in high school.)  Maybe when the beans come off, we can make a return trip to get that done.

Our life is far from glamorous; it's filled with the everyday-ness of every day.  

I know that he's the one who will empty the mousetraps and take care of the bats and I'm *pretty sure* he'd have taken care of that snake, too, once he quit laughing at me.  

I'm not good with puke & germs, but he'll stay up all night with a feeling-icky kiddo.  

I find too many nails, pocket knives, and hardware coming through the loads of laundry but he doesn't care when it's fried eggs again for supper.

He loves me even when I'm icky to him.  

He rejoices over each new baby.  He plays football with all the kids on the yard and shakes his head at just how stinkin' cute these offspring are.

Seventeen years doesn't seem like enough years for all the life we've lived within them. 

Happy Anniversary, Dennis.