Wedding Vows and Firewood

Just what do wedding vows and firewood have in common? Absolutely nothing. But they were both part of my day.

This morning, I went out to the garage to get a cassette tape of The B-52's*, because I had "Dance This Mess Around" in my head all morning. As I went through the drawer (in his pre-nursing days, my husband built garage cabinets with drawers) I came across the audio tape of our wedding vows. Since we had an aversion to being videotaped on our wedding day, this is all I have. I had thought about listening to this tape on our 20th anniversary last month but, since that didn't happen, I decided to hear it today.

I called the kids in to listen as well. We all sat around, listening to Pastor Matt talk about Adam meeting Eve for the first time (Adam said the Hebrew equivalent, "Wow, what a woman!"). He also talked about what it meant to have a Christian marriage. Great stuff. Todd and I kept glancing at each other. It's amazing just how right Matt was. After 20 years, you can look back with hindsight, but at the wedding, it was all ahead for us to experience. Sickness and health, richer and poorer, etc. Todd's role as the head (spiritual and otherwise) of our household. My role as his helper (also translated as "rescuer" and here Matt told Todd, "You'll see this come true someday" or something like that. A rescuer ... I don't know if I've been that exactly but I do know I've been a helper. It was really neat to realize that we have both been nearly everything that was said by Matt or spoken of in our personal vows that we wrote ourselves. By God's grace, obviously. God already knew what our future would be, we just had to find out for ourselves and own up to our promises. And I think we have, so far. No plans to change that course.

When the tape was done, I got a big hug from Todd. Then I put in the B-52's tape and danced. The kids didn't like it. Who doesn't like Rock Lobster? If you are too young to know that song, my apologies and my condolences.

This afternoon was a firewood bonanza. After over a month of worrying and fretting, I finally got 2/3rds of the required amount of firewood delivered, which means we will be warm for most of the winter. We had two different suppliers deliver, thankfully at different times, and the boys and I stacked a total of two cords (that translates into 4 pickup loads). Todd helped a bit but had to stop to get ready for work. My arms are sore but not nearly as sore as they'll be tomorrow (it takes me a day before the pain really sets in).

My sweet husband starts his three night work week tonight. As always, I will miss him.


*FYI - B-52's is an offbeat music group from the early 80's that dominated a good portion of my life for a long time. Amazingly, they just did a new record. But their old stuff is the best.