2023 Friday — Chocolate Malt

Anniversary Month -- Day 20 — Friday, May 19, 2023 -- 10 days till our anniversary.

This is getting exciting. Today we did hard things -- we once again tackled the cleaning out of more of our accumulated life stuff . . . some more photos; lots more of them; quite a bit of Mr. Fun's mom's jewelry that did not sell several years ago at the estate sale so we brought it to our house. It's difficult to let go of some stuff, but our neighbor is having a garage sale the first weekend in June.

I also found the wedding dress I wore on our 40th anniversary vow renewal . . . the one that I got on eBay for a $50 bid. So I might just "Wow" Mr. Fun on the 29th and put it on for our anniversary. Maybe we could dine in our little lavender shack while the sun slips slowly away. Mr. Fun could barbecue us a steak, pour some bubbly, and together we could count all the ways that celebrating our 58th is definitely a miracle.

Tonight after decreasing junk in our sheds, I felt like having an adult beverage. So we headed to Bob's Big Boy for a chocolate malt and some dinner. That sounds adult-like, doesn’t it? After we got seated, he asked me why in the world did I marry him. In the background we could hear the song "Why do Fools Fall in Love?" and we both laughed.

Then I said, "You are not the guy I married." Then as we ate, we talked about all the ways we've changed and how that 15 year-old and that 19-year-old became people that no one predicted. He had been such a goof-off in a class room and I had been an extreme introvert. I love that he causes people to laugh; and I especially like that occasionally he causes me to laugh out loud. He's intrigued that I step to a microphone and speak with articulate words. I explained that I have to be articulate because I don't have the gift of gab that he has.

Without even saying the words, we both acknowledged the mystery that God has woven into our twosome. And then we discussed how extremely hard the past 3-years have been. The medically prescribed chemicals for prostate cancer that changed his emotions and personality in ways we weren't prepared for.

The victory of the cancer gone was juxtaposed with mood swings, constantly feeling cold, or burning hot, weight gain, and just not feeling well, which sometimes was expressed in meanness or rudeness. And me just wondering how everything could feel so wrong when it had always felt so right.

Tonight we talked about how it feels like the fog has lifted and we're on our way again. It's really been weird, uncomfortable, and scary. There was no one to tell that to, so we didn't. But God . . . and it was evident that God was holding each of our hands and walking between us; He was the oil that smoothed us when things were rough.

More times than I want to admit, I told Jesus I couldn't take it anymore that I was leaving. Jesus just looked at me and said, "Me too." I think Jesus didn't like the way that I nor Mr. Fun were behaving. But He told me that if I would stay He would stay.

So here we are walking toward another anniversary; most the time Jesus is in the middle, but once in a while Jesus scoots over and puts one of us in the middle, so we are holding hands with each other and we almost feel normal again.

So we celebrated tonight with a chocolate malt, real malt. I think Jesus took a sip too.

Rosie (& Mr. Fun), aka Carol
and Chloe & Mitzi too!