Married: Memories from 19 years…
May 25, 2013 in New Zealand, Oceania, Travelogue
Our 19th anniversary is in a few days: May 28th, to be exact.
We aren’t big on dates and we have several anniversaries that we celebrate. Once, over dinner, someone asked us when our inad was and how many years we’d been married: we actually had to get up and go look at the plate on our wall inscribed with the date. Numbers just don’t matter that much to us, I guess.
We got married on Memorial Day weekend, in Terre Haute, Indiana.
About one percent of our readership just got the joke: Memorial Day weekend… in Indiana??? What were we thinking? It’s the same weekend as the Indy 500. Hotel rooms around the state are booked out a year in advance. Prices on everything double. But I was not an Indiana girl, none of this occurred to me until about three weeks before the wedding when my, soon to be, father -in-law connected the dots and shouted, “WHAT?? You’re getting married race weekend?? YOU CAN’T GET MARRIED RACE WEEKEND!”
I committed the ultimate Indiana faux-pas and answered, “Race?? WHAT RACE?!” Yeah. My in-laws seriously considered calling off the wedding. 🙂
Nonetheless, we were married on a perfect late spring day, surrounded by friends and family, all of whom smiled and threw rice and were kind enough not to point out the all kinds of insanity it is to get married that young.
We’d planned to go camping in the Pocanoes for our honeymoon. Instead, I had back surgery three days after we tied the knot. Not exactly everyone’s dream honeymoon, but we figured if we started with the “sick and poor” part of our vows it had to get better from there, right?
I was 19 years old.
That means that this year marks half my life that I’ve been married… to the same man… somewhat of a feat in my generation. Thankfully we come from long lines of lasting original marriages on both sides, a legacy we are profoundly grateful for.
Notes from 19 years:
- I was pregnant or nursing for a decade. A DECADE! Holy cow.
- We moved house 6 times before we ultimately gave up and became nomads.
- We’ve used bicycles, motorcycles, cars, mini-vans, conversion vans, RVs and a truck as primary modes of transport from time to time.
- We’ve lived in 3 states.
- We’ve traveled to 27 countries.
- We’ve potty-trained five people. 🙂
- We’ve owned two houses.
- We’ve lived (for more than a few weeks) in tents, RV’s, apartments, houses, and hotels, respectively.
- We’ve wandered across five of the six habitable continents.
- We’ve homeschooled forever (or so it seems!)
- We’ve done richer and poorer.
- We’ve done sickness and health.
- We’ve done good times and bad.
- We’ve nearly killed each other more than once, but so far, death has not seen fit to part us.
- We’ve celebrated anniversaries in the USA, Canada, the UK & Thailand.
It doesn’t feel like it’s been 19 years. I don’t feel old enough to have been married that long. How we ended up with four mostly grown kids is a real head shaker of a mystery.
This year, we’re celebrating quietly near Nelson, New Zealand. Perhaps we’ll make a tramp through part of the Abel Tasman National Park. Perhaps we’ll take our kids out for dinner, perhaps we’ll just snuggle into our camper and laugh about the funny twists life takes that bring a family planted in the American mid-west to the far side of the world over two decades.
Happy Family Birthday to us!
Happy anniversary! You don’t look old enough to be married 19 years 🙂
Happy Anniversary Jen & Tony!
You share an anniversary date with some fine folk who have been married 59 yrs. ! My parents! Happy Anniversary and enjoy your day!
Sherrie… I know!!! They were AT our wedding on their 40th… how cool is that??!
Happy Anniversary!!! We celebrate 14 years this week too. You have a beautiful family and I love seeing all the beautiful places you visit. Years to another 19. All the best
It doesn’t seem possible to me either, where does time go? Life has taken many turns for all of us since then, all part of the adventure of life, so thankful for all of you , for the gifts God has given us, the doors He’s opened and closed and the future He still has in store! Life is an edventure! Love you so much!
Congrats!I know this is kind off topic, but I have a question about thailand.
How is the public transportation there in terms of going from city to city. How are the trains in terms of comfort and reliability. Are the sleeper trains similar to european trains. Thanks for your reply.
Happy Anniversary!!
“I don’t feel old enough to have been married that long.” So cool that you said that… I feel the same way with me and my husband! lol
Congrats on 19 years!!! 🙂
Tina… lol… Thailand isn’t off topic, I mentioned it in the post! Buses are ubiquitous and easy to use. They do crash at a slightly higher than average rate… so take that into consideration. Trains are fine, but they don’t go everywhere. We didn’t take a sleeper so I can’t speak to that.