Still itchin' after 7 years

Yesterday was our 7th wedding anniversary. Apparently, we are supposed to be bored now.

We're not.

Whew.

We are, however, pretty amused by the differences between how we celebrated this anniversary and how we used to celebrate our anniversaries. (Okay, we're really bordering on bitter, but amused seemed like a much safer adjective.) Our anniversary celebrations used to involve fancy attire, staying out late, bottles of champagne and/or wine (notice the plural), plenty of romance, pomp, circumstance, hoopla, and all that jazz. This year? Yes, we did go away to Orlando for a night (and labeled it as an Anniversary Getaway since it happened to land on that weekend), but my sister could not quite believe it when she heard that WE were in bed sound asleep in the hotel by 10:30. And yesterday morning? The actual day of our anniversary? Did we wake up oh-so-lovingly-and-leisurely and roll over and say "Happy Anniversary, Dear," followed by a sweet but simple breakfast together?

Close.

We woke up, forgot to say "Good morning"--much less "Happy Anniversary"--got the kids ready in our usual frantic-but-efficient way, and parted ways as I went for routine blood work and he left to drop off the kids and go to work. In fact, MY PARENTS remembered and wished us a Happy Anniversary BEFORE WE DID. Oh, but surely that was the chaos of a weekday morning...the evening was certainly better...? Hardly. After our usual 2 hour routine of methodically feeding, bathing, and tucking in, we did open a really cheap bottle of sparkling wine, exchange gifts, and talk about the last year.... Then (drumroll please) we watched a recorded episode of "Lost," and were sound asleep, again, by 10:30.

It's no wonder so many married people are "itching"! Marriage is hard. It's hard when you have money, good jobs, health, and no children. Now bring in REALITY. Yeah. Tough. Challenging. Exhausting. Marriage is kinda like raising children. It's harder than you ever thought it would be. It takes more time than you thought it would. It can get pretty routine. But if you make a concerted effort to shake things up a bit every now and then, see it as a work in progress, put it at the very tippy tippy top of your priority list, and always remember why you got into it to begin with, then within all the daily challenges and chores, there are Those Moments...the ones that make it all worth it.