Sing it like the Flintstones...

It's been 13 years since a beautiful young woman with a lot of courage put on a lovely white dress and married me. She's courageous because she's managed to put up with the tempestuousness of a husband whose idea of fun is lying on his back on the front lawn and measuring the size of clouds with his fingertips. That she does it at all is a wonder. That she does it while keeping herself and the household on an even keel is even more so.

We celebrated by dropping the kids off at day camp, then heading to nearby Grand Bend - a little town on the Lake Huron shore - to sit on the beach and contemplate life. The weather was iffy - it rained off and on as we drove there, forcing me to close the beloved sunroof - and stayed gray for most of the time that we were at the lake. The sky cleared into brilliant blue as we loaded up to head home. But I didn't much care. I had, after all, gotten to spend quiet time with the one person on the planet who can speak to me without saying a word.

After we got back to London and picked up the kids, we took them out for pizza. As our daughter had a hissy fit and buried herself in the deepest recesses of the adjacent bench seat for a good sulking, Debbie smiled and shook her head. She said never in a million years could she have imagined when we got married that we'd be doing THIS on our 13th anniversary.

I thought the same thing, then looked at our boisterous children and thought how cool it was that we had created this crazy little world.

We watched our wedding video with them before bedtime. I always have difficulty watching it because I can't bear to see all the folks who are no longer with us. As much joy as we felt on our wedding day, I don't want my memories to be bittersweet. Still, explaining who was who to our munchkins, and listening to them belly-laugh when they saw me happily saunter down the aisle made everything right with the world again.

I lack the ability to write the words that adequately - or even remotely - express how lucky I feel that I've been able to spend my life with my wife. All I can do is ask for countless more years that are as charmed as the last 13 have been.