other memories...

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

..are filling my heart today.
besides the typical, "8 years ago today, i was trying to get the dirt marks off of my train before i went to the church to walk down the aisle and become your wife."

no, today, my heart is filled with memories of the very, very beginning of us.

do you remember when you sat next to me during the evening service?  you held the hymnal between us and proceeded to sing in the highest voice possible.

if i hadn't had been so nervous, i probably would have laughed out loud...

do you remember coming up behind me and asking if i was feeling well after a chapel that i had slept through on the bench?

do you remember telling me you liked my hair as i worked in the humid and hot dish room?

do you remember that you were wearing a yellow and blue striped shirt the day i not-on-purpose-at-all followed you from one building to the next?

do you remember?

do you remember the anticipation of that first phone call?  my heart was pounding, my hands were shaking, i was terrified you would forget to call...

you didn't.

do you remember that moment in the field, placing your toque on my cold head, and then meeting my gramma?

do you remember raking leaves?

going for coffee?

playing "idiot"?

going for donuts?

the first "i love you"?

the first time you touched my face?

the first time you told me your name was actually "tony" and not "anthony"?  goodness, i still can't get over why that was such a shock...

oh tony.  i don't want to forget.  i don't.


every moment that led up to this day 8 years ago is locked away in my heart, kept safe...kept hidden.


i cherish you, not just because you are my husband.  i respect you, not just because Jesus asks me to.  i love you, not because of what you do for me...


i do all of those things because of who you are.

and who you are is more than i ever dreamed of, hoped for, prayed for.  who you are is exactly who i hope our son grows up to be like.  who you are is exactly the type of man i pray our daughters marry.

i love you.


i love you.


i love you.


happy anniversary, my love...