Hey Will & Kate, read this!

We had a five-month engagement.

Now, I'll point out that we had been dating for... ahem... some time before we got engaged (I don't remember the exact amount of time, but each of Mary's six older brothers seemed to have it down to the hour). But the engagement itself was very brief. We got engaged over the holidays, knew we wanted a spring wedding, and didn't want to wait a year and a half, so we dove in.

Anyhow, there's a real benefit to a brief engagement - especially from a dude's point of view - in that there's not a lot of time to oscillate over decisions. Music, flowers, menu, readings - we looked around, listened for advice, chose our favorite, and moved on. Sometimes it was unnerving. And when it was, we tried to keep in mind that, in the end, what we were hoping for wasn't a great wedding, but a great marriage.

This is a really nice first-person account of Jon & Karen, a couple who celebrated their 33rd anniversary by watching the royal wedding last year.

Jon and I were quite busy on our wedding day: We had chosen to have the reception at our apartment party house (free); pick up the food and beverages at a Big Bear store ($315 for the food, $53 for soft drinks); and get three kegs of beer from a friend who worked as a deliveryman for a distributor ($110).The beer plan hit a snag when the friend used his only call from jail to let us know he couldn’t make the wedding but that the kegs would arrive as promised.

How ya fixed for spit and dry socks?

My father was a soldier, and one of his favorite sayings was "How're ya fixed for spit and dry socks?"

I'm still trying to figure out precisely what it meant, but it seemed to be what he always said when we really had no option but to grin and bear it. And it definitely came from combat.

I think it meant something like:
You're out of food. You're out of ammo. You're cold. Someone's shooting at you. But hey, you've got some fresh socks to put on, so really, things could be worse.

Socks become very important to a guy who's mucking through the mud for weeks at a time.

And they were extremely important to Ken Sweet, an Australian soldier in World War II.

Why? Because these were special socks. They started a 65 year marriage.

Every marriage should come with a Hex Key

There are a lot of guides on how to make your marriage better. Most of them are pretty difficult to understand. Apparently, one has only rudimentary drawings with a bunch of arrows.

A Julie Rodgers and William Pitts knew each other in Grade School. They reconnected after 30 years at an IKEA store.

"As we're leaving, we get yogurt cones and we're on the way to the parking lot when it hits me," Rodgers remembers. "I turned to him and said, 'This is one of the best dates I've ever had,' to which he said, 'This is a date?'"

So naturally, it's where they decided the wedding should be.

I'm just curious where they registered.

9 Secrets of Happy Couples

9 secrets? That is all we need to be happy. Awesome!!! I can do 9 things. I am a true Multitasker.

Oh wait, all the time. Oh boy, this marriage thing is work.

But seriously, I thought this list was pretty good. And we do ok if we go task by task:

1. They use terms of endearment (Pat will kill me if I tell you. But we do have pet names)

2. They do stuff together (We are sitting on the couch right now, TOGETHER!)

3. When the going gets tough, they don't call Mom or Dad (Can't do that. My Mom might tell me I'm the one who is wrong)

4. They stay connected to their parents (I talk to my Mom about 4 times a day. But not weird, right?)

5. They don't nickel-and-dime about chores (We  Sacagawea  about chores)

6. They fight constructively (We always put together Ikea furniture while we argue)

7. They give each other gifts (Pat once gave me beer scented shampoo for Valentine's Day. Yep. Beer scented.) 

8. They never lose their sense of humor (We have a hook by the door where we always hang it religiously)

9. They take "for better or for worse" seriously (We love that cartoon!)

http://shine.yahoo.com/love-sex/9-secrets-happy-couples-160700887.html;_ylc=X3oDMTNtYzNobm1wBF9TAzk2NzE0MzAzOARhY3QDbWFpbF9jYgRjdANhBGludGwDdXMEbGFuZwNlbi1VUwRwa2cDMjdjNzFjNzEtYzdhMy0zOGE4LWExNmYtNjMwNDFmYzVhMGJkBHNlYwNtaXRfc2hhcmUEc2xrA21haWwEdGVzdAM-;_ylv=3

The Pain Now...

So Mary posted such a painful, endearing story yesterday - which of course is a reminder that love is certainly something deeper and more complex than the kiss that wakes the princess. It's much more like Nicholas Cage says in Moonstruck , "Love don't make things nice - it ruins everything." It does.

It also reminds me of one of my favorite films- which was based on a similar story. The film is Shadowlands and the story is that of CS Lewis and Joy Davidman.

If you're not familiar with the tale - when he was in his fifties, CS Lewis began a correspondence with an American Author named Joy Davidman. They were correspondents, then friends, then they got married.

At the hospital, as she was being treated for cancer.

What I love about the film is the change in Lewis's character - what love does to him. Of course, Lewis was a well-known theologian, and at the beginning of the film, he thinks he knows why we feel pain. He learns, of course, that he had never really felt pain. Not yet.
I found this clip of scenes:

True Love Beats Cancer

Continuing with the idea of true love stories....

If you have ever witnessed someone battling Cancer you know how crystal clear their wants become as their disease becomes more serious. This lovely girl, Katie got her dream. Marrying the man of her dreams just 5 days before losing her battle with cancer.

God Bless them. May she now rest in peace.

Check out this touching video

 Mary

Ida and Isidor

100 years ago the Titanic sunk. Absolute devastation. All the lives lost. Stories untold. The saddest part is that for generations to come people will think of Kate and Leo. I loved the movie. The first half anyway.

Some years ago one of my brothers bought my mother a Christmas present of tickets to “Titanic the Musical”. They always buy her 2 tickets and it's always understood that I will go with her. I was not excited for this one. Thought it was a knock off of the movie.

Well, I love to be wrong. I loved it! I mean, truly loved it. The musical focused on what was important, the lives and dreams of the passengers, no matter what class passenger. The story that knocked me back was Ida and Isidor Strauss. Ironically, it was the only true love story in the musical. They were well known since he was an owner of Macy's. In the video you will hear their story but what struck me in the musical was the song they sang entitled, “Still” towards the end of the show. The sentiment of the song was simple. “I loved you then and I love you Still”.

The way you move meStillFeels as it didWhen you first became mineWhispered the words"I will"...I loved you thenAnd I love youStill

In the hustle and bustle of jobs, kids, grocery shopping etc.... how often do we turn to our spouse and say, “I still love you.” My guess is not often enough. So next time you remind your significant other to change the light bulb in the hall already. Finish it with I STILL love you. Even though the light has been out for 2 weeks.

See what other lessons we learned from this beautiful story of love and how we applied those lessons to our modern day marriage.

Enjoy the video!!!

And if you are interested check out these links: