For Better For Worse

I sure love my husband. 

I know that my love for him goes without saying, since I married him and all, but because we just celebrated our sixth wedding anniversary and I spent some time thinking about our wedding day and our marriage and our family and our future, I am as confident as ever that I have found my perfect match and that saying "I do" on a hot August night six years ago was the best decision I've ever made.

He is my best friend and I'm crazy about him, which makes being his wife a pretty darn fantastic deal.

I started the day by trying on my wedding dress.  The good news is that it still fits. The bad news is that it is too big in the chest.  Oh well.

Max said, "Oh! Mommy! You bootifuw!"

Lucy said, "Oh! Mommy!Yay! Do you want to play dress-up?"

Joe said, "Uh, what are you doing?  Are you wearing that today?"

Devon said something sweet and mushy and then said, "Please don't spill your coffee on your wedding dress."

Devon and I celebrated our anniversary with a movie and dinner and a shared slice of Fresh Banana Cheesecake.

The past six years have gone by fast.  Fast and furious, really.  It is amusing to think of our wedding day, specifically of how little I knew about marriage then.  Even now I'll admit that I have much to learn about marriage, but on that day, as a bride, wrapped up in the fairy tale, I was so naive.  Falling in love with Devon was the easy part, and not to imply that our six years have been tumultuous, because they haven't, but they haven't always been easy.  

A couple of months ago I had the opportunity to raise a sparkling cider toast to my little sister and her fiance, celebrating their engagement.  I hadn't prepared for what I wanted to say, which was a big mistake because the words that came out of my mouth were jumbled and lame.  I even have a picture, and you can see that the look on Devon's face is asking, "Uh, where are you going with this, Annie?"

What I was trying to say was that life can be really hard, even when you've married your perfect match, and the blessing in getting through the difficult times is that you do it together and it makes your union that much stronger.  What came out of my mouth was something like, "I thought that marriage was going to be a fairy tale, but it isn't, at all, and the hard times suck, but you two will be great because you have what it takes..."  See?  Jumbled and lame. (Devon just read this and said that I've 'polished up a terd', because in reality my toast was much worse. But at least he is wearing his favorite shirt in the picture. Hey, darling?  Do you own any other shirts?)

The past year has been the most difficult one yet for Mr. Rantz and myself.  The changes that have taken place in our lives and in our home and been out of our control, which is a very scary feeling.  But I looked at my husband last night, over that plate of delicious cheesecake, of which he generously let me eat the last 3 bites, and I felt with all of my heart that I love him more than ever.  "For better for worse, for richer for poorer".   

But, just for fun, lets hope for more better and richer this next year :)