I told you yesterday that today is my anniversary. I have been married to the queen for 21 years today (wow that seems weird….oh well I guess when you get married at 12 its ok 🙂 Let me tell you the hilarious story of our wedding day.
We did not plan a wedding instead just eloped. Hang on let me back up. I dated my soon to be wife for a whole 6 weeks before we got married. Now before any of you start preaching that I need to get to know her better we grew up together, went to high school together and was friends long before we ever dated. Ok back to the wedding day
We are in Ft Leonard Wood MO (where I was stationed in the Army) New Years Eve and want to be married the next day. Of course New Years day that was not happening since courthouse closed for the holidays. Oh well 1 more day wont hurt right? That night we had the worst snow storm of the season. When we woke up my wife (being the forever Floridian) said “which one of the mounds of snow is our car?” I hit the button and saw some light flash under the mound…..That’s the one.
We found out that the local courts were closed again that day but Springfield Mo (about an hour down the interstate) could give us a license. Yeah we were kids so forget the storm…lets Go.
We get to courthouse and clerk able to issue license but all judges had called in due to weather. REALLY!! Grr. Ok My wife had an idea. She said “You know I would rather be married by a preacher anyways so lets call you Pastor” Great though but my Pastor was in Florida visiting family (and staying warm). Determination was setting in so we started calling church #’s of every town between Springfield and Rolla and we found a Pastor that answered the phone. He asked why we needed today and I told him the truth (It wasn’t fantasy or delusions of marriage rather we needed to be married to get housing from the Army (see practicality….yeah ok). He agreed but said we would need a witness so suggested we get married in his living room in Lebanon MO. Well Ok.
On the way to the pastors house the car hit some black ice and spun into the medium. Snow covered the vehicle and we almost went to the other side which would have put us right in front of an oncoming semi truck. Ok now we are stuck. I get out to push us out and my wife takes the wheel. She guns the gas when I say go and sprays me with mud from head to toe but we get out.
We reach Lebanon and I find a gas station to wash up some. Luckily I had a different shirt in the car (of course same mud covered pants). We find the Pastors house about 1.5 hours late. His wife comes to the door and said well I have dinner in the oven but come on in.
The Pastor rose to greet us and wanted a brief conversation before we started. I guess he felt a duty beforehand….ok. So now the glorious mud jeans wedding begins. We get about half way through the vows and the oven timer went off….of course we have to pause for the lasagna to get pulled out….(You can not make this stuff up people). Now we finished our ceremony. Angie and I are Husband and Wife. We thank the Pastor and his wife who offered us dinner (we politely refused). We made it back to base and was able to secure temp housing that same evening to live happily ever after.
If you are still reading this I hope you got a little chuckle at our expense. Every bit of that story is completely true (even the pause for the oven timer). Why in the world would I tell you the story though? Well…
That was 21 years ago today and we are still together laughing about that day. I love my wife immensely more today than that day. This is also an example of how things may turn out differently than you imagine. Do you think that is how either of us thought about the day we would get married would look like?
This example is true in all areas including business. It may be the business of running a household, investing, or whatever business you are in; I bet there have been more than 1 occasion you could agree things did not turn out the way you pictured it…..BUT did it turn out for the best in the end? Honestly?
OK I am off to take this wonderful woman out for date night. Tomorrow I will be looking at some details on Housing numbers for the Pensacola area for 2016 and what I see happening in 2017…..(Hint.. rates already went up). Make sure you look for that one in you inbox.
P.S. Do you use Twitter? If so send me a tweet at ShaneWillis10