We made it to NINE! (Can we call out the naysayers yet? No? Next year?)

As of last Wednesday, Chuck and I have officially been married for nine years. What the pickle?? How did that even happen? NINE years is serious business - scarily close to ten years. Do you know what kind of people have been married for ten years? Actual adults! Glad we have another year before we're in that boat...

Our anniversary itself was lovely. Mostly just a regular day (Chuck had a dr appt to get his medical form signed for Scout camp, Clyde and George had science camp, boys had t-ball pictures, my visiting teachers came, etc, etc) but we managed to fit in two dates: tennis in the afternoon (thanks to Tawny for watching Will and Jack) and a movie in the evening (thanks to my mama for watching all four boys!).

Here's what I wrote about our tennis date that night on facebook:

Good news: I beat Chuck at tennis today! Bad news: my tactic of distracting said husband with my cute tennis outfit resulted in a sunburn that reaches a little lower around my, ahem, neckline than it would have had I not used such a tactic. Dang karma.

Best news: Chuck and I have officially been married nine years and still love each other all the time and like each other almost all the time. Go team!

And here's a picture we took before we started playing, aka pre-sunburn. Yes, Chuck has a beard again. And he's wearing a camo hat. We're possibly approaching Duck Dynasty territory...

Our movie date was super fun; we are lame and haven't seen a movie in the theater for like three years. We picked the new Star Trek and it was highly entertaining and I only cried once, so... good date!

And now for some rambling thoughts about marriage:

A couple of months ago Ben Affleck won an Academy Award and in thanking his wife he acknowledged how much work they put into their marriage. Loads of crazy Internet people jumped right in to say that their marriage must be falling apart or how insulted his wife must have been that he said that. 

But I loved it. 

Here's the whole quote: "I want to thank you for working on our marriage for 10 Christmases. It’s good, it is work, but it’s the best kind of work, and there’s no one I’d rather work with." 

So true, right? I know there are people for whom marriage comes very easily, and I'm SO happy for those people. But for the rest of us, it takes work. But don't all the best things in life take work? And aren't they that much more valuable and cherished and worth it because of it? 

(Plus the part about no one else he would rather work with is pretty sweet.) 

I'm grateful that Chuck is willing to put in the work alongside me to keep our marriage strong and happy and healthy. Just a few hours ago, I sneaked a quick snuggle with Chuck and apologized for some ridiculous thing I'd said or done (it's hard to keep track with me), concluding with something about how I know I'm difficult, to which Chuck responded, "But very, very worth it." 

Man, I'm glad he thinks so.  Happy ninth anniversary, sweetheart!