Birthday Wishes and Wedding Bells

When you're around someone for over 15 years, you kind of get used to them.  Take them for granted, even.  Then there are times when you stop and see them with new eyes, or are reminded of the past that you shared, and it makes you realize how much they mean to you. 

Today is Wallace's 36th birthday.  We've been together since 1996, and married since 1999.  I don't want to recount our shared history together, but there's been a lot of memories, good and bad.  I also know many of his stories from before I was around... like the time he shot the ball in the wrong goal to give Cordia a win, and all of the fights he was in during high school, and how he loved to go squirrel hunting with his Dad.  Stories from his Mom about things he did when he was little (I won't share, because they are really quite embarrassing.  And I need some blackmail material.) Stories of chess games and baseball games and throwing soup cans down the aisles of Food Fair as a bagboy.

This weekend, we spent his birthday in Gatlinburg.  We attended a beautiful wedding yesterday (Congrats, Tab and Glenn!) and then got Caleb settled in the room with Nana and Papaw to rest his leg, and Wallace and I went on a walk.  We went on our honeymoon in Gatlinburg.  We got in our first fight in a Books a Million parking lot (imagine me in a bookstore) because Wallace had locked the car keys up and it started snowing.  (We've come a long way in conflict resolution... sometimes).  As we walked the strip, we shared some good memories. 

Today, we watched Caleb's eyes light up as he toured the Titanic Museum.  The good Daddy that he is, Wallace bought Caleb stuff on his own birthday.  We shared an ice cream cake and laughed about our first "real" married fight, over french fries. I'm reminded that I may get mad, but I'm not as fiery as I used to be.

I know Wallace doesn't read my blog, but for those of you who do, please wish my man a Happy Birthday.  He has his faults, but everyone does, and I love him even more for some of those.  Hope to spend many, many more birthdays with you!