Anniversary Week

I arrived at the campus this morning to see and hear the construction commotion as I walked in from the parking lot. Somehow this construction seems fitting for Mr. Fun & Rosie's anniversary week.

When we married years ago we were too immature, too ignorant, and too naïve to have designed a Master Plan. I just put my hand in his and together we turned toward the future and started life as Mr. & Mrs. We were absolutely clueless to the huge mountains and deep valleys that were in our future.

We both had come from homes and histories that we did not want to imitate. My parents had disintegrated their marriage before I was old enough to remember them together. Mr. Fun lived in home that resembled a battlefield. I didn't want to end in divorce, and he didn't want to live in a war zone. So we knew what we didn't want.

Over the years, we have had to do a lot of building and we've had to do a lot of tearing up and rebuilding when we didn't get it right the first time, or the second, or the third. Even though we had planned to stay together, we were so surprised that we had made it to our 10th anniversary that we decided to have the proper wedding that we weren't allowed to have as two kids in trouble when we were 15 and 19. So for our 10th I wore a white dress and walked the long church aisle. A professional photographer made the memory permanent.

That moment was so meaningful that we've turned anniversaries into weddings a couple times in our journey. My mom had no idea that not letting me wear a white dress when I was 15 would cause me to have a longing to wear a wedding dresses for the remainder of my life. I love weddings.

Every anniversary is a victory moment. So the two of us pause to celebrate, reflect, and refuel--we think it is one huge occasion--we know that all too soon we'll be back on the highway of life with mountains to climb and valleys to descend.

So I may write more tomorrow about the soon arriving anniversary. Have I told you that I love anniversaries?


So, this campus construction is happening just around the corner from my office. The tractor man in this photo has just broken the sidewalk I strolled every Tuesday and Thursday to get to the building, my classroom, in the upper right corner. Now I take the long way around to get to that building. This newest building should be ready for the fall semester 2010. A pretty nifty short video displays what it will look like once it is complete.

Good night from anniversary land,
Rosie (& Mr. Fun), aka Carol