A Happy 3rd Anniversary with Rachel

The traditional “I’m taking a picture of us” pose prior to our drive to Illinois for the world’s best subs.

It’s a powerful statement to reflect on, that I’ve been married for three years. My brother in law, Jesse, says our wedding photo on my Facebook personal page is outdated. The lawnmower we bought shortly after getting married finally got an oil change (imagine the picture of me propping it on stairs in backyard so I could lift it over old oil container–yeah, that’s about as crafty as I get when it comes to mechanics). We finally got new carpet, taking the plunge to no longer walk around on brown camouflage reminiscent of the sixties. At some point during this third year of our marriage, I hope to get some of my writing published, and I’m thankful for my wife letting me use a little of our savings to pay for my novel’s edit.

Instead of spending a chunk of change on a big vacation, this year we drove five hours to my favorite restaurant in the whole world, Penn-Station East Coast Subs. We’ve had some interesting anniversary trips, I guess even back to our honeymoon in Cozumel, where our flight home was delayed in Atlanta for two days and which ended with a hilarious time driving home from Omaha in the middle of the night, making fun of love songs and silly dancing to hip hop music. Our first anniversary was a road trip to Worlds of Fun/Oceans of Fun. It was over a hundred degrees and after the first roller coaster, I felt motion sickness. After sitting out a few roller coasters, struggling to wait until 3pm when we could go to the water park, a thunderstorm breaks out and closes the park.

Our second anniversary was a surprise trip to Chicago. Rachel was so cute, asking me where we were going and what she’d need to pack. Her wide eyed question from the stairs of, “Are there going to be bears?” cracked me up. I said, “Maybe,” you’ve got to be prepared for anything. Rachel loves surprises, but she is incredibly difficult to pass one over on. I didn’t tell her until we were on I-80 E. I surprised her with a nice hotel in the middle of downtown, and we had fun walking around. She loves buildings, and we went up to the top of Willis Tower. I was freaked out standing on the glass platform–heights are not my thing. I’m glad it was at night, though she wants to go back during the day. Someday.

So, on our third anniversary, we took it easy. I got a little stressed out navigating our way around Chicago, so we stayed out of the city, and instead had a leisurely day. We woke up early, drove five hours to have Penn Station for lunch. On the way, I read to her from Mik Murdoch: Boy Superhero, written by a friend, Michell Plested, and which has been fun to read to her because of the cute reactions I get from her. Between lunch, we went to the mall, bowled a game, and visited a furniture store.

Just testing what it would be like to read in a chair this big. It’s a perfect size for two, but a little awkward for one.

Have you seen my @whatredheadsaid posts on Facebook. I wanted to do one when we took this picture, but Facebook was being weird. Rachel sits down and says, “Cool, I can put my feet up!”

The couch was so deep, sitting all the way back nearly propped your feet up. The funny part focuses on “nearly.”

All in all a great time. I’m so thankful to be married to Rachel, and pray for many more anniversaries to share with her (not to mention the joy of the many days in between). Thank you, Rachel, for putting up with me and pampering me with five Penn Station subs for our anniversary (not all at once, audience, but spread over five days). Love you, Rachey.