November Blows (Mostly)

I apologize. My posts have been very sporadic and I am weeks behind on reading blogs. I have hardly been on the computer during the month of November. You see, every year, I forget how much November blows. I mean that literally and figuratively.

As beautiful as the end of October is with all the vibrant fall foliage, November blows through with wind and cold fronts and strips the trees of their browned leaves. We spend a lot of time outside trying to stay on top of raking and bagging the leaves before the freezing weather sets in and we have no motivation to go outside. It is the last ditch effort at yard cleanup before the ground becomes frozen, the vegetation turns to brown and the snow comes and covers it all until spring.

November figuratively blows because it flies by so quickly- and the kids are out of school a majority of the month. Let me break it down for you with a visual, because just explaining it doesn't get the point across:

(this is just the school schedule and does not include soccer, two teacher conferences, thanksgiving feast at Zoe's school, volunteering for the book fair at Noah's school, a visitation day at Noah's school, meetings, doctors appointments etc)

And, then, November is gone and I have accomplished nothing.

But there is one good thing about November- my wedding anniversary. On November 21, 1998, I walked down the aisle of a small church to the altar where DJ was waiting for me. We said a few things, we giggled a bit because we were nervous with everyone watching us, we kissed and then we walked back up that same aisle as husband and wife. I don't remember a lot about the actual ceremony- but that is because it really wasn't that important. It's not about the wedding, it's about the marriage and in the past twelve years, we have built a marriage. We've been through living in a foreign country, lengthy separations due to deployments, the loss of a pregnancy (WHILE DJ was deployed), the loss of DJ's mother, the birth and very difficult first eighteen months of a very cranky baby that never slept and the birth and rough start to life of our second child who was eventually transported to a children's hospital before being released to come home with us. All of these things could have torn us apart or made us stronger. I won't lie. None of them were easy. But, we leaned on each other and it has only strengthened our bond.

After all, it is us against them ("them" being these crazy kids) and we have to stick together or they might take over the house. And I've already been locked out of my house twice- it wasn't pleasant.

Happy twelfth anniversary, DJ, here's to many more. I love you.