Happy Anniversary Honey

Our fifteenth anniversary was the best - we spent a week in Hawaii alone. No kids! It really was paradise; eating, sleeping (wink, wink), reading on the lanai, surfing, snorkling, turtles, dolphins, whales.....aaaah.

Now it is our sixteenth anniversary. You bought me my favorite chocolates, bath salts because I love taking baths, and a nice, metal travelling coffee mug so I don't die from toxic poisoning from melting plastic. You are so sweet. I haven't bought you anything yet. I do not have my act together. All I want to do this year is take the kids to the Mission Santa Clara where we were married.

I still remember walking to class so early in the morning with my hippie beanie on my head and birkenstocks on my feet and seeing this guy with big hair walking the other way. You said "hi" every time. Not everyone said "hi" to me.

We officially met at a party at the Dives. I was pretty drunk. I don't think you were. You showed me your surfboards and never touched me. Hmmmmm.....that was different.

At first I hated driving in your baby blue convertible bug, because it was so noisy and didn't go very fast. Later I loved it. You taught me how to drive a stick shift. I remember the warm air of summer blowing over us as we drove to a bowling match with my brother and his girlfriend. We lost.

I cried and cried and broke my heart when I left for Spain. I almost went crazy with missing you.

Remember fettucini? and Dove bars?........

You proposed on Mt. Diablo on a sunny spring afternoon. You had written a note on each flower you gave me, one by one, telling me how the flower symbolized your love for me. Wow. What a guy.....

We were such kids when we got married. I didn't even know everyone at our wedding because me parents invited all their friends. But it was a beautiful ceremony. I was so happy walking back down the aisle afterwards. "Yes! We are married!" It felt so right.

In the first years we struggled quite a bit. You going to grad school. Me being a demanding, controlling, spoiled girl (well, maybe I exaggerate but seriously! I was a pain sometimes). But I had a good side too. Remember the party I threw for you when you finished grad school? You said it was the nicest thing anyone had ever done for you.

We waited five years to get pregnant. What a huge life change! Can you believe we have three now? Isn't it strange to still be the kid you have always been, but also be someone's parent?

Remember when Richard was a little guy? Remember how happy and proud your Dad was to finally have a grandson? Richard was so huge and round and chubby! He talked so early and has been ahead of the game mentally ever since. Now he writes papers on Da Vinci and figures out how the make the computer compute all the prime numbers from 1 to 1,000,000.

Then Rose came along. Born at home in Montara. Remember walking in the hills the day I was in labor. You kept saying, "shouldn't we get home now?" She is so sweet and has a huge heart. She inherited your math mind; sees patterns everywhere.

Of course so much other stuff happened in between all those years: lay-offs, new houses, Kayumari, new jobs, trips, parties, hard times, good times. There is no way to sum them all up.

And now we have Marie. She has changed her outfit twice since I've been writng. She is in her dragon costume presently. She makes us laugh.

I may figure out something to purchase for you today - hopefully something you'll like. But I felt like I really wanted to write about us today.

Happy Anniversary honey, I love you!

Sue