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Nineteen Years of Wedded Bliss (and other sappy things)

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“Marriage is like pi – natural, irrational, and very important.”
~Lisa Hoffman

As the title implies, ladies and gentlemen, today is the day that marks the 19th Anniversary of the day that Mary lost all control of her senses for a few brief hours and consented before God and man to marry yours truly. Has a greater error in judgment ever been recorded? 🙂

“You don’t marry someone you can live with, you marry the person who you cannot live without.”
~Anonymous

I say with all sincerity that it really does not feel like it has been that long. It is mind-boggling to know that I have been with Mary, either dating, engaged, or married for more years now than all the years I lived before meeting her. And next year, at our 20th, I’ll have been married exactly half as many years as I will have walked this earth. Tempus fugit indeed! Whew! How do we slow it down?

Well, one way is to stop and acknowledge these milestones and look back on all that the years have wrought. We have a happy marriage, a good life, a wonderful almost-sixteen-year-old daughter and more blessings in friends and family than we surely deserve. And that includes all of you as well.

To celebrate we are taking what is to be our fourth annual trip to the Hermann Hill Vineyard and Inn in Hermann, Missouri. It will be a time of relaxing, reading, drinking wine, eating well, and enjoying the beautiful outdoor scenery of this idyllic valley nestled into the middle of the countryside of Missouri. We leave in the morning and the excitement we both feel is near fever pitch.

And so I say ‘Happy Anniversary’ to the love of my life and ‘Thank You’ for nineteen years that have woven together the fabric of our existence and made me a much more complete, whole, and worthwhile man than I ever would be without you. I love you dearly.

Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday will see me gone from the blogging world. Even our cell phone signals get lost in the valley (which adds to the bliss of the trip!) and so I will be cut off from this world for a few days. Saturday will see a post of images and I’ll no doubt catch up with all the blog posts that you’ve done that I have missed out on.
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Before I go though I wanted to acknowledge a few lovely packages that arrived in my mail this week. The first comes from Stormfilled who I featured in the final post of Book Week for her journal creations at Blackthorn Workshops. She had mentioned in her post that she kept Polo by her side and my assumption was that this was some sort of candy and lo and behold I got a little ‘thank you’ gift so that I could try them myself. I can certainly see the appeal. They taste like Certs and also like mint Lifesavers and are really good! Thank you so much Nicky! Mary and I have both sampled the goods and enjoyed them. In fact they will be accompanying us on our trip!

If you missed out on this fantastic interview then click the Blackthorn Workshops link above and go read about it. Then go buy one of Stormfilled’s journals. They are wonderful!

Recently Deslily attended a convention that I was quite jealous about, though very happy for her. And not long after a package arrived on my doorstep! I have mentioned before that the above image is my absolute favorite of all Star Wars art. Imagine my great joy and surprise when I opened the package to find my very own copy of it signed by the man who created it, Roger Kastel. Roger is an incredible artist whose images from the Star Wars universe are iconic. My nostalgia for these films from my childhood owe as much to Roger’s images as they do to the films themselves because it was his book covers and other illustrations that kept me company and fired my imagination in those days before VHS and the ability to own one’s own copy of the films (can you younger folks imagine that?!?! 😉 ). Here is a picture of the man himself signing it for me:

Deslily also knows my affection for Conan as created by Robert E. Howard and of Frank Frazetta’s renderings of those creations. Ken Kelly, an amazing artist is his own right, acknowledges the Frazetta influence and has added his own unique style to the Conan universe as well as many other amazing artistic creations. You can see examples of his work here. Needless to say I was also thrilled to get:

Isn’t that great?!?! Such fantastic and rich colors and such a great rendering of the subject. I love the canvas texture of the bookmark as well:

It is such a blessing to receive such wonderful gifts. Thank you so much Pat, you are such a dear for doing this and the smile I had on my face when I opened this surely blinded you all those many miles away.
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And speaking of gifts, the last of my pile of Once Upon a Time II Challenge and Book Week prizes are going out in the post this week (today!!!). I know all of you will be pleased with the great things you’re getting as I enjoyed looking at them and handling them as I lovingly packed them for their journeys.

The inclusion of Anne-Julie Aubry’s work is no mere accident, it is included for two reasons: first because some of said packages contain her art and second because in the next few weeks there are some great art posts coming that will have prize packs that may just contain Aubry’s work as well as others.

As I have mentioned before, there will be a The Art of Fashion Week coming up as well as an Etsy Week (featuring artists whose work is sold through Etsy). I am also excited to report that I have discovered a number of wonderful collage and found art creators who I am going to feature in a week long Collage Art Week. So stay tuned because some incredible prizes and Once Upon a Time II Challenge tie-ins are on the way!!!

Have a great rest of the week everyone and I’ll see you on Saturday!

37 thoughts on “Nineteen Years of Wedded Bliss (and other sappy things)”

  3. Happy Anniversary!!! As someone who has somehow managed to remain married to the same person for 22 years (sheesh) yourself & Mary have my sincerest apology’s. ^_^ nah, really congrats and have an excellent, fun and relaxing holiday!!!
    Cheers, later – susan

  9. Well.. Happy Anniversary to you both!! May each year just get better and better.. like a fine wine! (heh)

  11. Happy Anniversary Carl and Mary. Dad and I love you so much and are very proud of your great marriage.

    Have a good time in Hermann-it is such a nice place for peace and quite.

  12. Happy Anniversary to you and Mary.I’m so pleased for you and enjoy your well earned break.

  13. Happy Anniversary to you both!! I hope you have a wonderful time! Sounds like a fantastic getaway 🙂

  14. Oh wow. What a wonderful post!! I think Mary is a very lucky lady!! Congrats on the Anniversery. The get-away sounds wonderful!!!

    (I just got back from a get-away with my husband…but it sounds way different than yours. I was in the big city…at a loud concert….in the middle of a mosh pit!! Man. I’m getting too old for that!)

  15. happy happy day ….. i love the illustrations and especially the comparison to pi …. it is indeed rare to last 19 years and still have that love and respect for one another.

    enjoy your day and your blessings!

    lady blue

  16. Happy anniversary, have a great weekend!
    I suppose we can stumble through Friday without this week’s Favorite…but it’s gonna be hard, just so you know.

  17. Happy anniversary, Carl! I’m sorry to say, though, that it doesn’t slow down…it speeds up! B and I have been together for 36 years, and that’s been the blink of an eye. To quote Judy Collins, “Who knows where the time goes?”

  19. Happy Anniversary!!!! 🙂 You two are the best and I wish you much relaxation on your getaway.

  20. Happy Anniversary! 🙂 Sounds like you are both very happy and blessed! 🙂 You must have married young…my hubby and I got married when we were both 18 and next month will be 22 years for us! 🙂 Hope you have a fantastic getaway! 🙂

  21. Congratulations on so many happy years together! That is quite an accomplishment. And very, very cool. Happy wishes to you and your sweetheart.

  22. Isn’t love grand?!Congratulations on your anniversary. We’ll be celebrating our 20th in November. I can hardly believe how the years have flown. I Googled the B&B to see if maybe my husband and I could go there in the fall, but it’s a bit further than I thought. Over 6 hours from Lincoln. Sure looks lovely, though. Have a fabulous get-away. Best wishes to both of you.

  23. Happy anniversary! I love knowing people who’ve been married like you and Mary – you give such inspiration. Have a wonderful trip!

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  29. Huge congratulations to you and Mary! I’m always in awe of marriages that work, having come from a family where they didn’t.
    I’m very jealous of that poster! Glad you like the Polos. They’re a staple food over here…
    Have a good break.

  30. Happy anniversary, guys! I love that pi quote! 🙂

    Ooo, and I love your new WP theme!

  32. Happy anniversary!

    (I’m really excited for these collage posts! I love that style of artwork, I can’t wait to see what you’ve found.)

  33. happy anniversary! (belatedly. for some weird-ass reason your your page wouldn’t come up on this pc for the past few days…!)

  34. Happy Anniversary – belated for the same reason as Jean Pierre – came up as a blank page for a the first few times I tried 🙂

  36. A belated Happy Anniversary to you and Mary! So sorry I didn’t get to check in here earlier, but I hope you had a lovely day!

    Polos are awesome. It’s the hole, you know. 😉

  37. Happy belated anniversary, Carl, and congratulations on a successful 19 years with Mary.

    As a side note, I would like to thank you for always having such gorgeous images in your blog. I have a new MacBook, and I wanted to have my background rotating photos, but since it’s new, there were no photos in my pictures folder. But one visit to your blog, and I have a handful of beautiful images.

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