to thirty-five!

tomorrow we celebrate my parents' thirty-fifth wedding anniversary.

it is truly an awesome privilege to be their daughter. i've never seen a marriage like that of my mom and dad's. they have this benjamin button-ish marriage - where with every passing year of my growing up, they seem to fall more in love with one another. and let me tell you that in a society where broken marital commitments prevail, it is a breath of fresh air to look at good ole' m & d and know that even though they don't have it figured out and would never pretend to - they are setting an example.

i can't tell you how many times people i don't even know will learn my last name and start singing the praises of tim and ann and how awesome they are. and this is something that most of the time i take for granted, because i'm around it all the time and their love/tolerance/humor/like for one another has just been the norm for me.

my family is pretty much amazing... each one of my brothers is absolutely awesome - and the women they've chosen to do life with are incredible. and i look at jamie who is carrying the prized first grand child and niece and step back and think - wow, is this really my family?

the freaking best answer ever is yes. and my brothers are who they are, and their marriages are what they are, and i am who i am because of this one union that took place on september 13, 1975.

so a lot of doobies, boones farm, shirtless horseback rides, kids, cities, three daughter-in-laws, and one grandbaby later - my parents are the coolest cats there ever could be.