5 Years Ago

5 years ago today, Marshall and I were kneeling across the alter of the Los Angeles Temple making the eternal sealing covenants of marriage.

When we were first married, we would mark each month's anniversary, saying things like "oh my gosh! I can't believe we have been married 3 months!!!! It seems like we just got married yesterday!" People, upon hearing about our "big" anniversary keep asking if it has gone by fast... if it still just feels like we got married yesterday. And you know what? it doesn't anymore. Is that weird?

I know it sounds bad, but now it feels like we have been married forever. Like I can't consider or clearly remember a time before we were married. My marriage to Marshall is my existence, my whole experience in life. We are no longer 2 individuals trying to figure each other out, trying to figure out how to make our partnership work. Now marriage is like having a right arm. We both know how to use it and having it is second nature. I think this is a good thing. There are things that I certainly miss about that exciting honeymoon period of marriage. But the deepened partnership we have now is definitely preferred. It has taken a lot of work, pain, tears, sacrifice, and forgiveness to get here. And I know we still have a long way to go. But our marriage today is...older...than it was. Like watching a child grow. Our marriage is smarter, not as naive, and better at handling the surprises and challenges of life. I think this is what one calls progress! I am proud of the progress we have made.

In honor of some of the lessons learned, and those still to come, I will post some quotes on marriage that I love. I found these in the May 2009 Reader's Digest.

"I used to believe hat marriage would diminish me, reduce my options. That you had to be someone less to live with with someone else, when, of course, you have to be someone more." -Candace Bergen

"Marriage is our last, best chance to grow up." -Joseph Barth

"When a husband brings his wife flowers for no reason, there's a reason." -Molly McGee

"For two people in a marriage to live together day after day is unquestionably the one miracle the Vatican has overlooked." -Bill Cosby

"The formula for a happy marriage? It's the same as the one for living in California: When you find a fault, don't dwell on it." -Jay Trachman

"Men always want to be a woman's first love... Women have a more subtle instinct... What they like is to be a man's last romance." -Oscar Wilde

"A happy marriage is the union of two forgivers." -Ruth Bell Graham

"Only two things are necessary to keep one's wife happy. One is to let her think she is having her own way; the other, to let her have it." -Lyndon B. Johnson

"A successful marriage requires falling in love many times, always with the same person." -Mignon McLaughlin

And my favorite:
"I married the first man I ever kissed. When I tell this to my children, they just about throw up." -Barbara Bush
(for those of you who are unfamiliar, Marshall was the first man I ever kissed.)

So here's to the last 5 years of marriage. And here's to the next 5. I know we will just get better at being each other's eternal partner! We are far from perfect, but I sure am glad that Heavenly Father, in His wisdom, has given us the opportunity to use a whole Eternity to get it right! So lastly, here's to Eternity!

I love you, Marsh.