My Life

My wife and I will celebrate the sixth anniversary of our marriage on June 6, 2012. So yes, we were married on 6/6/6 and this is 6 years later. Lots of sixes.

Four weeks before our wedding in Key West, Fla., I posted on my blog 20 Reasons To Marry Marline, reasons that are all still accurate and still reflect my feelings toward her. Here they are again, with a little commentary tempered by six wonderful years of amazing experiences, a few trials and tests, and lots of learning.

20 Reasons I’m Still Married To Marline:

1. She actually LIKES me, man!

I’ve found that very little is more important to maintaining a strong marriage than actually liking each other, enjoying each other’s company.

2. Smartest girl I know (and knows how to use it)

She is still the smartest person I know. Though I saw a dip when she had to wake up two or three times a night to nurse our daughter and still go to work at five in the morning, that’ll happen to anyone who doesn’t get enough sleep. Even then, her mind was a fantastic machine. Now she’s getting regular sleep again and is sharp as a tack. Arguments are easier when I’m right, because she follows my train of thought faster than I can spit it out. And they’re harder when I’m wrong (most of the time), because she’s already thought of everything and shot it down.

3. Hotness quotient.

She is as beautiful as ever, and this didn’t change for me during pregnancy or afterward. She sees signs of aging in herself, but I honestly don’t see it. It’s not just something I say because I have to, because we’re married. Maybe it’s because I’m older and see the signs in myself; I’m not sure. She will always be the younger woman.

4. She likes having her picture taken (and I like taking pictures!)

I think there was a time, a few years ago, when she actually got tired of having her picture taken. And there have been times when I’ve tired of taking pictures. But those were just phases.

5. I rarely have to explain anything to her.

I think I listed this reason because people I’d dated earlier in life didn’t have her sharp mind. I’d grown tired of saying something and then having to explain it. If my wife asks me to explain something, 99% of the time it’s a mind trick to change the subject.

6. She’s nice to me.

This goes hand in hand with reason #1. But I’ve seen countless couples who aren’t nice to each other. I heard a preacher when I was a teenager say: “There is never a reason to be unkind.” He was talking about strangers, coworkers, friends, etc., but it applies to spouses too.

7. She’s interested in what I do.

What I do has changed quite a bit since she met me. When we met in mid-2005, I was a crime reporter for a small-town newspaper. By the time we got married, I’d switched over to the sports department and was writing about local sports, laying out pages, going to games to take pictures and notes, interviewing people, and occasionally writing a real news story as well. She was interested that she actually came to work with me, learned everything in two days, and even earned a part-time salary for a few weeks while we needed help.

Now what I do is take care of our daughter. So yes, she’s interested in that.

8. Can’t live without her.

I hope the thought has never crossed your mind, but what do you do mentally when you’re frustrated in your marriage and think about leaving? I’ll tell you what I do. I remember my life before I met her. And I can picture my life after she’s gone. Neither is an appealing prospect.

Of course, it’s not entirely true that I can’t live without her, just like it wasn’t true in 2005 or 2006. I can make my way. I just don’t want to.

9. She uses correct grammar 99.6 percent of the time, which is more than I can say for most people (and I’m obsessive-compulsive about grammar).

More often than not, she corrects my grammar, which is actually welcome. I’ve caught her a few times, but it’s usually something she’s picked up from moving out here where people don’t speak correctly.

10. She buys me cute little gifts.

Hmmm. Not anymore. Of course, when I wrote that we were living on separate budgets. Now it’s all one pile of money that belongs to both of us, so buying each other gifts always feels a little odd. But we’ve certainly bought a lot of things that I never would have managed without her.

11. She’s so cute when she falls asleep during movies.

How many movies could we have possibly watched together by May 2006?

12. She reminds me that 33 isn’t really that old.

This one has changed. Now it’s me, reminding her that 30 really isn’t that old.

13. Good cook.

I know much more about this now than I did then. She is a better cook than I previously thought. If you’ve been following along, you know we’ve begun making our own pizzas and ice cream. But I haven’t mentioned that she also makes excellent everything else. Pork chops, chicken, fried rice, meatloaf, chicken pot pie, spaghetti, and the list goes on. She usually makes things once, and then never has to check the recipe again (see reason #2).

She also cooks a lot while Rebecca is toddling around her knees and getting into things.

14. Doesn’t mind learning new things.

At the time I wrote that, my wife hadn’t yet learned to drive. Three months later, she bought her first car, having learned to drive and passed all tests with flying colors. Within weeks, she got her first job in Oklahoma, which required her to drive all over two counties. She quickly learned the routes and never had an issue.

As mentioned above, she learned how to put out a newspaper, just for fun. She learned photography in a few quick lessons and immediately began accompanying me with her own press pass, taking action shots like this one and this one. She learned the rules of all the sports I covered, and began taking notes at the games, which helped a lot.

She’s continued to learn as we moved to Texas, had a baby, and keep living our lives.

15. Really cute (in addition to #3).

Isn’t this the same as reason #3?

16. Sincere smile.

She does have a fake smile. (Don’t we all?) But I only see that when other people are around. At home, I get the real thing.

17. I actually learn things from her.

18. Non-refundable tickets.

That one referred to our cruise ship tickets, which we’d already purchased by the time I wrote that entry.

19. Emotional support.

20. We’ll have beautiful kids.

What a prophetic statement!