Honeymoon in Paradise

Tomorrow is December 14th here in Japanistan, and that would be my 6th wedding anniversary. HOORAY! (Anyone who made any bets against us making it past 5 years can now come to the front in an orderly fashion and pay up)

So tomorrow, we're off to Okuma Beach for a night. Private cabin. White sand beach. Palm trees. Warm weather. Hell yeah.

It's kind of hard to comprehend that 6 years have already gone by. It's been a wild ride, that's for sure. We've driven across the United States together (twice), lived in 2 states, 2 countries, bought a house, bought cars, and survived 2 deployments and a zillion other military-induced separations. We've gone skydiving, garage saling, photographing, exploring, turtle-hunting (to photograph them), and horseback riding. We've been through some crazy ups and downs, but our relationship has weathered everything with nary a scratch.

We've been through some career insanity on both fronts: Eddie almost got out of the Navy after his first hellish four years, but here we are, going into his tenth year. After fighting like crazy for it, he's finally doing what he wants to do in the Navy. After wasting too many years of my life making someone else rich in customer service, I'm living my dream as a full-time writer, hopefully with publication and some income in the future.

We've learned that marriage means putting up with quirks, stealing the covers back, compromising on little stupid things we never even thought would be an issue, and laughing at the stuff that's too stupid to fight about. Eddie's had to learn the hard way that decorating the house with someone who has OCD is not nearly as simple as just putting a picture on the wall and....hang on, that one's crooked and it's bugging the hell out of me. I have to fix it. ... Ok, where was I? Oh yeah, our collective ADD and my OCD make for some interesting discussions, but you learn to deal.

We've learned that part of being married is not always being together. I could do without the separations from the military, but it's life. What I mean is having friends, hobbies, etc., apart. In Virginia, I would occasionally take off for a model horse show out of town, or Eddie would go for a weekend of paintball. A day or two, here and there. It keeps us from being so consumed in each other that we get sick of each other. We're married, but we're still two individuals, and we keep it that way.

6 years into our marriage, we still act like newlyweds. Yeah, we snipe at each other sometimes, but at the end of the day, we're still a couple of kids who figured it would be fun to give this marriage thing a go, and I love it. People say that marriage gets boring after the first year or two. I say that's a choice, and we've chosen not to let it happen. We have our moments, don't get me wrong, but in general...life rocks.

I love you, baby, and here's to many more years of "What crazy things can we do today?"