Thursday 15 March 2007: Hopefully we'll see Heidi a little later - in the meantime, Sarah celebrates her 11th wedding anniversary -- with Marv!

Sarah says:
Above you can see my husband Tom-ske (aka Marv-haha) and I bright and early this morning - our 11th wedding anniversary! That's right - we tied the knot in Vichte, Belgium on the 15th of March 1996. The bride wore rusty-red (made by my husband's mother) and a serious face, as you can see below. And the groom had ridiculously long locks and that 1990s facial hair thing going on. It was a really lovely small ceremony and celebration with a few family members from The States and a few friends from abroad - along with a few Belgian family and friends. At that point, I couldn't speak or understand Dutch at all. It was all a bit of a blur. But I was majorly in love and am happy to say I still am. I can still totally feel it. Not every moment of everyday or anything - but a lot. My husband is the best person ever to happen to me - along with my daughter. I feel tremendously lucky in life to have such love, companionship, support and goodness - and fun, fun, fun of course. Our faces, hairstyles and glasses have changed in 11 years - and I'd say we look much better now than then, but our hearts remain much the same and our bond is tighter than ever.

In the photo below you can see our second ceremony that took place in New Paltz, New York on the 21st of June 1997. This time, the bride wore white - a beautiful dress also made by my husband's mother. It was a very hot day full of very bad food, up-and-down emotions and lots of family and friends from all over, including several that flew in from Belgium. A couple of months later on the 23rd of August 1997, we had yet another ceremony in Belgium (for all of our European friends and Belgian family and friends) on a boat on the hottest day of the year a week after my appendix had been removed. We had all of our friends from my exchange program from 16 different countries I think staying at our old house on army beds in our attic. It was amazingly fun! An absolutely crowded house and fun-filled hearts. It was a great day!Incidentally, right now Dr. Phil is on in the background and its an episode about problems between couples and their in-laws and parents not approving of the wedding. Thankfully, we never had those sorts of problems and still don't. Everyone gets along just fine.

I remember saying to my then boyfriend that we had to get married because I had to get an ID card so that I could find real work! I had been in Belgium since September 1995 and it was January or maybe February 1996. I had had enough of having to make sure I left Belgium to get my passport stamped in another country so that it would buy me another three months in the country. I had had enough of not working and of watching too much TV all day and thinking I accomplished something if I went to one shop and bought apples in Dutch. I wanted my identity back. I wanted to work. I wanted to know more of what the future would hold. I wanted more permanency. So I flippantly asked Tom to marry me so I could work and the rest is history. A few days after our first Belgian wedding I got a job teaching English - so my plan worked! A few years later, I had a baby - the absolute love of my and my husband's life - our dual-heartbeat.

Windows are way too expensive but life is way too good. I love my husband terribly and feel totally loved back by him - which isn't bad after 11 years - and the newest earplugs are working!!! I don't hear the snoring as much so I am sleeping better - finally some rest, after 11 years.

Just in case my husband is reading this: Traditional 11th wedding anniversary gifts have a theme of Steel. A contemporary or modern 11th anniversary gift has a theme of Fashion Jewellery. The flowers associated with the 11th anniversary are Morning Glories
The Gemstone list shows Hematite and Turquoise associated with this Wedding Anniversary

The funny thing is that our wedding rings are made with a lot of Hematite - but we rarely wear our rings - either of us - never really have. Not sure why that is. As for Turquoise, no thanks - I have enough of that and wore it in two of the three wedding ceremonies. Steel? What is nice and made out of steel I wonder? A new pan? Steel doesn't sound very romantic! Fashion Jewellery? That sounds like something Barbie would wear, not me. Morning Glories?! I didn't know that was the name of a flower. I thought it was something men suffer from each morning, the poor bastards.

Speaking of the flower which you can see here, isn't the following description of the flower beautiful :"The flower typically lasts for a single morning and dies in the afternoon. New flowers bloom each day".

Nice metaphor for the love in a marriage - each day can be filled with a lot of goodness but also by a lot of pettiness, bickering and annoying compromise - up-and-downs - but happily, even after the biggest fight that can bring up all that ugliness that only married people show each other, new goodness blooms each day!

May all your marriages, pairings and partnerships be good ones that fill you up with those random moments of joy that we are lucky to get at least every now and then...