It's been quite a ride. People just don't seem to stay married anymore. They hit a bump, throw their hands up and call it quits. We've hit so many bumps it's not even funny but believe it or not I was listening to the wedding vows and knew what I was signing up for..."Life."
I heard a man on TV once talking about a couple who had been married for fifty years. He asked the man to what did he attribute the longevity of his marriage? The old man said "Fifty years ago I took my wife to Hawaii on our honeymoon. I went back and picked her up last week."
I'll have to hand it to Tim. I know I am not easy to live with. I talk fast and a LOT. I want things done immediately and have little tolerance for waiting. I attempt things I have no earthly idea how to do but usually get it done...I may have to use duct tape or safety pins but I generally get it done.
Tim is as laid back as I am "Full Steam Ahead!" He is the most patient man in the world, except with me. I drive him crazy and he drives me crazy right back. He is a good man, and by that I don't just mean he hasn't killed me yet although the thought often enters my mind.
I was at work tonight waiting on an older couple who told me they had been together 42 years. I told them today was my anniversary and my husband and I had been together 24 years. The wife asked what my husband was doing and I said "Well when I left the house for work he was in a fetal position in the back of our closet banging his head against the wall."
They both got quite a kick out of that!!
When we first got married I always worked nights and he worked days. When we had kids I kept them during the day and he kept them at night. When Massey came way too early and finally came home from the hospital on a heart monitor I was a nervous wreck. I would call him all the time to make sure no alarms had gone off and simply pestered him to death.
My sister called our house one night to check on Massey when I was at work. She said the phone rang and rang but Tim finally picked up and sleepily said "Hullo?" My sister said "I was just calling to see how things were going with Massey?" My sister said he let out a huge audible yawn and slowly said "I'm watching her like a hawk."
That's my Tim! He lives his life right and lets God sweat the big things.
We had a great twenty year run. He steadily moved up and ended up with a job that put us over the six figure mark. I've always been a server so pretty much my salary just supplemented. He paid the bills that came in the mail and I bought the groceries, gas, paid for vacation accommodations, clothing and school supplies and needs for the kids. It was a great system.
The system fell apart about four years ago...but we stayed together and muddled through with help from family, friends and sometimes anonymous donors. We battled the giant corrupt mortgage company that refused to work with us but kept our house.
We are back up to what we were making ten years ago but have somehow managed. We took our first vacation in six years this past July. We ate bologna sandwiches all week but had a relaxing week.
This is Tim when I first met him. He was a pretty boy, always has been. He had been through a rough divorce and I and my Rottweiler, Layla moved in . He had two pairs of jeans, maybe three tee shirts but a nice house that I helped him keep. Since then he has taken excellent care of me as I shoved him down the path of life.
Twenty four years later we are still together. The last four have been a total debacle and not very conducive to a lovey dovey marriage but we hung in there. We're both in it to win it!
"To have and to hold from this day forward, for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish till death us do part."
I can't believe he still loves me. I am a tyrant...ask any of my kids. I don't give up, I don't relent and I don't like waiting for results...I like to see them, immediately!
I guess we are a good mix...I am a frantic idiot and he is the calm in a storm. I get bent out of shape over the smallest things gone wrong and he simply says "You can't change the past."
I don't tell him enough but feel it constantly...I am a lucky woman. He hasn't killed me in my sleep, but that only gives him an eight hour window of opportunity. He has stuck by me and I have stuck by him.
We signed up for this life. We were never guaranteed it would be a walk in the park but promised to walk the distance together and together we will!
Thank you for loving me, Tim Cotton. It's been rough and tough and sometimes scary but I wouldn't have it any other way. We have three great kids, a roof over our heads and three pups that remind me constantly why I am glad I ain't birthing no more babies!
Let's make the next twenty four even better!
Til next time...Proud to be a COTTON
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