Today is my 20th wedding anniversary! Yep, I think I finally hit the "old married lady" status...at least to my kids I did. :)
Aaron and I have been somewhat struggling on just how to celebrate our 20th. We've always said that we would celebrate it together in Disney World...our special spot. We spent our honeymoon in Disney and we were also there on our 10th anniversary. Of course we've taken the kids other times, but we like to spend time together there by ourselves too.
Since learning about Dave Ramsey, we quickly decided that a Disney trip was out of the question for now. We strongly feel the urge to get out of debt as quickly as possible. So much so, we were torn over whether to even go to dinner or not. We had set aside $20 for a meal out and we were planning on using a theater gift card to go see a movie together. We were both feeling like the $20 should go to the debt snowball so the plan was to pack a picnic and go see a movie for zero dollars out of pocket.
I teach piano on Wednesdays plus we have Financial Peace University on Wednesdays nights, so we had set aside tomorrow for our anniversary celebration day. Well.....Aaron picked up overtime for tomorrow. (Side note: they weren't going to give any OT this month at all because of some schedule changes, so when he saw the opportunity, he jumped on it.) He is scheduled to work from 5:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and has to work early the next day, so really there isn't enough time to work in a movie date.
So then we decided to celebrate this morning. We were going to have breakfast together and then go make a payment on our debt snowball. We also thought about going to the beach and doing some budgeting forms together that are on our to-do list. Well, he came home last night with good/bad news......
The good news: he was asked to attend a staff meeting which is quite an honor from what he was told. The bad news: the staff meeting is this morning. Doh!
So, once again, our plans were thwarted. I got up early this morning and made him French toast for breakfast. We were able to hang out for a little while before he left at 8:30. He may be home in time to sneak in a picnic lunch but I'm not holding my breath. ;)
I could be upset and have thoughts like after twenty years of marriage, this is what I get....nothing -or- I can't believe he took overtime on our special day -or some other nonsense. But the fact of the matter is that I love that he is digging in and working as hard as he can to lift us out of debt. I'm sure he doesn't want to spend extra days in the jail, but he is willing so that we can be debt free. I've got a great partner in life and I am so thankful for him!
We exchanged gifts this morning. I had made Aaron two pound cakes yesterday while he was at work. I gave them to him and told him that he didn't have to share - a rare thing in this house of kids & teens! He gave me a very sweet handwritten card with a Disney IOU. :)
This whole situation reminds me of how marriages, as much as we like to think they are, are not the fairy tales we read about in books. Don't get me wrong, I love a good Disney princess story, but true love - the kind that takes patience, understanding, forgiveness, patience, work, dedication and did I mention patience? - is the true fairy tale. Marriages that last have fun times, but also not-so-fun times, and they all have one thing in common: commitment. Marriages that work aren't always glamorous, in fact they rarely are! But they are formed by two people who love each other, and beyond that love, are committed to staying together in good times and in bad, for richer or poorer, til death. I love that Aaron and I have twenty years of commitment and love together....that's my favorite fairy tale of all! <3 p="">
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