OUR 40th ANNIVERSARY

I guess that you would say that this is OUR weekend.
We celebrated our 40th anniversary today.
It's an amazing thing.
It's amazing to have been with one person for so long.
It's amazing wanting to be with one another more than anyone else.
It's amazing that we know one another so well that we can easily finish one anothers sentences or thoughts.
It's amazing that there are still things that we don't know about one another.
It's amazing that he still tells me at least once a day, "I adore you."

Time goes by so fast. We have been together longer than we have been apart.
Marriage is hard work, and we have had some hard times, but we are a prime example of what God can do with two people committed to doing things His way. I really should write a book, you would be amazed.

We thought it would be fun to share with you some things we remember about our dating, wedding, and first year together.

• We met the summer of 1967 . We both worked at the Taco Amigo. Our boss told us that we were one of two new restaurants, the other was called Taco Bell. One would make it and one wouldn't. We all know which one made it.
• I thought that Art was so cute....His eyes were so blue....
• Our first date we ended up eating pizza in the car wash.
• Art drove a 59 light green Plymouth. There were times though that we cruised around in his Dad's Chevy flatbed farm truck. We didn't care as long as we were together.
• Gas was about $0.25 a gallon. There were many times we scrapped together pennies and could get were we wanted on a quarter.
• We used to kiss in the freezer at work. Maybe that is why Taco Amigo didn't make it :) Not really we only did that on breaks.
• In the Fall I went to UNC in Greeley, and Art went to Mesa College in Grand Junction. He says that I told him I wouldn't marry him unless he had an education. He majored in auto mechanics :) We went only one year because we hated being apart. I guess it never occurred to us that we could have gone to the same school.
• McDonald's was Art's favorite place to eat, he could get hamburgers for$0.15 a piece. We used to go through the drive through and he would order5 of them for $0.75. I had never been to McDonald's until I met Art.
• My dog Schnapps hated Art. Maybe it was because Art would put rubber bands on his nose. Mean huh?
• Art drank beer and we drank "cold duck" together. I wasn't much of a drinker.
• We got engaged in the Fall of 1968. I found my engagement ring in the glove box of Art's car. He stopped in the parking lot of a church and gave it to me.
• When I told my mom we were getting married she had a fit. She reminded me that we were only 19 years old. I told her that we didn't care cause we were in love, and nothing was going to stop us. Last month she told me that he was a keeper. It only took her 40 years to come to that conclusion:)
• We used to spend time "watching T.V." in my parents basement. Dianne would get so mad cause she wasn't allowed to do that with her boyfriend.
• There was no way I was going to tell my mom that I was pregnant so we didn't have sex until we were married.
• That fall was the first and last time that I went deer hunting with Art. Art had fallen off the truck at work and broke 2 ribs so that I had to help him drag that deer down the hill. I had never seen so much blood and guts. I have no idea why mom ever allowed me to go alone with Art. We went to his uncles in Aspen.
• Art came from a Methodist background, I was raised Catholic.
• I insisted that we get married in the Catholic church, Art didn't care, but he told me that his parents did. They never told me.
• After school Art worked at Denco Sales they made plastic floor mats and signs. I worked at the Brown Palace Hotel downtown as a cashier.
• We payed for most of our wedding ourselves. We couldn't afford a photographer so all we have are snap shots.
• I got my dress at Schaffers in Denver, it cost $125.00. It was white satin with long sleeves, and a train. It had lace and beads on the skirt. I still have it. I had it cleaned after the wedding. Art wore a white tux.
• A friend of mom's made my veil.
• Art's mom had our rehearsal dinner at her home. I do not remember what we had to eat, but she set up tables and served us in the living room.
• Art's friends took him out the night before the wedding. He was really late getting in and his mother was furious but he made it to the the church on time. The church was on the corner of his block.
• We got married at All Saints Catholic Church at 11 in the morning.
• Our reception was at the Wrighters Manor Hotel on Colorado Blvd. Mom worked there at the time.
• We had ordeorves, champagne punch, nuts, mints, and wedding cake.
• Dianne was my maid of honor and Bob was Arts best man. Joanne was our flower girl she was only 7 years old.
• Mom made the brides maid dresses. They were olive green and pink.
• It was snowing the day we got married.
• We went to the Antlers Hotel in Colorado Springs for our first night together.
• The bellboy took our luggage up to our room, and Art gave him fifty cents for a tip. "No one tips like this," he told Art. So Art took it back from him and gave him nothing. We were young and stupid. Art is a good tipper now.
• We had room service that night.
• We went to Aspen for the rest of the week. I had never seen so much snow. We tried to cross the field to go sledding,and the snow was at our waist.
• Our first apartment was on 10th and Broadway. It was an old old building. We thought the walls were painted brown until we washed them and they came clean. We washed and painted for weeks.
• We had a buffet apartment so that our bed was in our living room. We had a claw foot bath tub, and a small kitchen.
• Art lost his drivers license the first week we were married. He lost it for one year because of all his speeding tickets. I had to get mine so that I could take us both to work. Art did not drive that whole year.
• We had a brown 1963 Plymouth. Art ran into a parked car and crunched it, and had it fixed. Then he bent the new hood driving it through South Park in the wind. He would hang out the window after that and beat the hood down with a baseball bat. All this after he got his license back.
• We moved to a new apartment on 11th and Pennsylvania. We both loved this place. It had a bedroom and lots of windows.
• I was 7 months pregnant on our first anniversary. We had spare ribs that day, and I threw up all afternoon.
• Our first year of marriage was good. We were poor, but happy. When we did fight it was about Art's drinking.

Now that was fun. Art and I spent the whole weekend remembering these things. Hope you enjoyed it we did.