It's Life......Everybody Poops: It already feels like a lifetime....

On March 26, 2006, after having been together for nearly three years; giving birth to your daughter in 2004; evacuating from Hurricane Katrina, picking up the broken pieces of our lives and relocating our family to Texas in 2005, Michael and I were married before our friends and family during a small ceremony in Franklinton, LA.

During that ceremony I'd requested for the Justice of the Peace to read something I'd written in the place of the traditional ceremonial readings. In a way you can say that this writing was the beginning vows to our marriage:

Ceremonial Reading

March 26, 2006

By: Michelle Zimmerman

Some view Perfect Love as a god, divine, everlasting, and as unattainable by human beings as the stars. In this form love is considered the oldest of the gods, and he is also the source of the greatest benefits to us.

On Earth, human nature was originally one and as one we spend our lives in pursuit of the whole. The whole is accomplished when man is united with the actual other half of himself. Upon uniting, the pair becomes lost in an amazement of love and friendship and intimacy. These are the people whom come to pass their entire lives together.

I believe that by accomplishing Perfect Love with our true love we shall be happy. Therefore, we must praise the god Love, who is our greatest benefactor, for leading us through our life's journey while giving us high hopes for the future. For it is he whom promises us that if we are pious he will lead us and make us happy and blessed.

When conquering Perfect Love we must be capable of loving our other half not only with a matrimonial love but with a mass love mixed of a natural love, as the love of brethren parents and children; a sympathetical love, as the love of friends; a customary love, as the love of acquaintances; a loyal love, as the love of a subject; an obedient love, as the love to virtue; an uniting love, as the love of soul and body; and a pious love, as the love to heaven.

With this mass love comes not only Perfect Love but also the essence of a good marriage. In this good marriage the two shall show a great respect for each other's personality and combine it with a deep intimacy that is physical, mental and spiritual. By doing so the couple will embark on the most fructifying of all human experience.

Now 5 years after making that commitment not only to ourselves but also to our children and to finally becoming a family we still stand together strong, if not stronger, and just as much in love today.

Since that memorable day we have faced many hardships, have celebrated personal victories and we have added to our family. Through it all we have continued to press forward in life. As individuals as well as a couple we have been tried and tested and in the end we continue to lean upon, support and rely upon one another in order to make it through the day.

No, we are not that intimate, romantic, lovey-dovey couple but we are happy with what we are and this is being us. Of course we dream of days where we might be able to go out to dinner at a fancy restaurant or take a honeymoon to a far away land or even vacation in a foreign country, but the truth is that at the end of the day none of those things are what would truly make us happy. Honestly we'd probably regret the money we'd spent doing something so lavish. For us it's the simple things in life that keep us happy. It's those moments when the kids are finally in bed and the house is silent. It's the weekend trips that we can take to go camping. It's taking the family to the drive-in theatre in Ennis, TX. It's watching our kids get to experience life and enjoying those experiences. It's getting together with friends and having a BBQ or boiling seafood on the weekends. Those are the things that make us who we are.

We are nerdy in the sense that we like Star Wars, enjoy using our telescope and taking pictures of the moon, play video games, and will spend countless hours researching things we're interested in. We share interests in motorcycles, cars, fishing, travel and music. He loves anything that will keep him outdoors, enjoys looking up new recipes and cooking new foods, and will not pass up the opportunity at a good deal. I on the other hand enjoy reading, arts and crafts, playing music, eating the foods that he cooks and tend to be a little more frugal when it comes to spending money (unless it's for groceries or the kids he'll say). While I spend my days taking care of the house and kids, running errands and playing chauffeur to practices and classes he spends his days hard at work and at school trying to provide a better future for our family. Through all of the similarities and differences between the two of us our most powerful and common bond is our love for each other as well as our children.

So with our 5th year wedding anniversary approaching this Saturday and the fact that I know I probably won't have the time to post anything else this week I'd like to wish my wonderful husband and the father of our childen a Happy Anniversary. I love you and really appreciate everything you do for us. I know that we will continue to grow as a couple and in 20 years when the last of our children is finally out of the house and finished with college maybe we will finally get that quiet vacation that we both long for.