Once upon a time, long, long ago, when I was very young, I married my Prince Charming. And, we lived happily ever after ... after the first year. It was a doozy. I don’t care how young or old, if most couples were honest, they’d admit the first year or ten is not necessarily wedded bliss.

Jim Brawner and I met in college on a blind date set up by our friend, Jill. See, not all blind dates are disastrous. We’ve been together ever since. He made me laugh then and he still does. I really hate to use the sappy Tom Cruise line from Jerry Maguire, but he really does “complete me”. We’re so different proving once again opposites do attract. We so appreciated Jill introducing us, eleven years later we named our baby girl after her.

In our time together, we’ve moved eight times, gone through three pregnancies, raised three kids, watched them get married and leave, survived job changes, buried our parents and siblings, and added seven grandkids. There’s no one I would have rather experienced all the good and the not so good with.

They say people start to look alike after they have been together so long. I’ve always wondered who these “they” people are. They must be really smart because they’re quoted a lot. I think they’re a little off about couples looking alike. I don’t think we look alike at all. I think what happens is, after so many years, we look like we belong together.

So today for our anniversary we’ll celebrate with a group of 4 and 7 year olds at Jameson’s and Owen’s Star Wars birthday party at the skating rink. Then we’ll probably go to dinner and laugh.