Happy Valentine's Day!!

Today is our 15th anniversary! And before anyone gets all snippy about how cheesy it is to get married on Valentine's Day, we didn't actually plan it that way. We were stationed in Germany at the time and it is a total paperwork nightmare to get married in Germany. We had a VERY short engagement. He proposed on New Year's Eve and we were married on Valentine's Day. We kind of had to have a short engagement. NO! I wasn't pregnant! - our unit was shutting down and we were about to be put on orders. If we didn't get married before that happened we probably would have been separated. Anyway, because it was more difficult to get married in Germany, we scheduled a wedding trip to Denmark. You left on Monday and got married on Friday. It just so happened that our Friday fell on V. Day. I paid for the trip. I don't remember why. Maybe I had more money in my checking account at the time. I don't remember. I do remember that they gave me a $200 discount for paying the full amount up front. Anyone who knows me at all knows that I am a bargain shopper, so I jumped on that deal. It was really pretty inexpensive all around. For $600 we got round trip train tickets from Berlin to Vejle and hotel accomodations for the week which included a free meal at the hotel restaurant each day. It was a great trip. I love Denmark. The people there were so friendly. I remember that Cliff had forgotten to bring a transformer for his iron and needed to iron his pants, so we went downtown to look for one. We went into a store and they didn't have what we needed, but the clerk knew where they did sell it so she took us outside and led us down the street to the shop where we could get it. How nice was that? It was really beautiful there. I would love to go back one day. The wedding ceremony itself left a bit to be desired. It was rather surreal. There were a bunch of couples there. Mostly US military from Germany like us. We were the second to last to get married, so we had to wait for a bit. When it was finally our turn, we went in and stood at the head of this big u-shaped table in front of the justice of the peace. He asked me, "Do you want to marry him?" I said, "yes". Then he asked Cliff, "Do you want to marry her?" Cliff said, "yes". Then the JP said, "you're married". Talk about anti-climactic. We just kind of stood there for a second and then one of us asked if it was ok if we kissed and he said we could, so we did. Just a quick peck which was a little awkward, quite frankly. The whole thing was just kind of weird. I think we were both expecting something more along the lines of a traditional ceremony. Then, we had to sit down and sign the papers. They had my birthday down as March 2nd instead of February 3rd so we had to wait while they redid the certificate. I don't know if that would have had any effect on the legality of the marriage certificate, but I wasn't taking any chances. I already felt like it wasn't a REAL marriage ceremony! It's kind of funny now, but I was a bit disappointed at the time. We intended to have another wedding for all our family and friends once we got back to the US, but by then I was pregnant with Allissa and there was no way I was going to walk down the aisle like that so we never did. I got pregnant so soon after we got married that I was worried that everyone would think that was the reason he married me. Ha ha. Allissa was born nine months and nine days after we got married. She was actually a bit early - she wasn't due until Dec 5th and I had her on Nov 23rd.

Fifteen years sounds like such a long time, but it has gone by so quickly. I have a picture collage on my desk at work and one of the pictures is of us on the night he asked me to marry him. We both look so young. What were we thinking!? I have to say though that agreeing to marry him is probably the best decision I ever made. He's been a better husband than I ever hoped to have and I love him more today than I did the day we got married.