The Secret Marriage and the Double Date Weekend

I read an article in the paper today about Utah's longest-married couple, Willis and Marie Barnes. They've been married for 82 years! I quote from the article in the Deseret News: "The couple went swimming one weekend in Utah (they were living in Wyoming at the time) with friends and decided to get married on a whim after their hair dried." She was fifteen at the time and so had to lie about her age. "She and Willis returned home in time for dinner but didn't tell their parents about their nuptials. 'We each lived at home and kept it secret for two years,' she says." When Marie was done with school she showed her mother her marriage license and she and Willis finally started their lives together. And they've been together ever since. Isn't this a great story? Pure magical love is what that's all about. If that doesn't put you in the mood for upcoming Valentine's Day, nothing will. In a day when marriages seem to be falling apart it's truly inspiring to read about a marriage that started years and years ago and is still going strong. Go Willis and Marie! Aren't old people great? One day Jason and I will be old and we'll be so rock'n roll, all wrinkled, age-spotted and wise and still kickin' it together. Life is good.

So, last weekend Jason and I went on TWO dates together. It's been so long since we even had one that two in one weekend is just wild. Friday night we went to Wal-mart and met buddy Stanton and his date Billie. Oh, and Addie was with us (I don't care what you say, being at Wal-mart with Addie is still a date and I'm counting it. Stanton and Billie were on a date, so we were, too. Family style.) Each couple got a cart and twenty-five minutes to gather as many random items we wanted. After time was up, we switched carts and had thirty minutes to try and put everything in the cart back. First one to finish wins. It was really fun running around trying to find where the socks and Crayola juice goes, even if we did lose. They had some tricky items. Who knew Wal-mart could be so fun? (You may remember my last Wal-mart post about when I hit a kid with a cart...not fun.)

Our second date was Addie-less. Saturday Jason and I went to the matinee of Avatar...IN 3-D!!! I don't know about you, but sitting in a theater full of people all wearing the same Buddy Holly glasses really heightens the enjoyment of the experience. Every once in awhile I'd pull my eyes away from the screen and look at everybody in the glasses just for kicks. The movie was really awesome and we had a good time...even though every loud sound made me worry if it was too loud or too scary for Addie, and then I'd have to remind myself that she's not even there. I guess I'm just really used to having my little sidekick around. She was home having a blast with Uncle Tyler and Aunt Clare. They said she cried really hard for thirty second after we left and then was fine the rest of the time. She really loves those two and she had a lot of fun. A huge thanks to Tyler and Clare for taking care of our munchkin so we could see a cool movie. And that's it, folks. Our two dates. Probably we'll have one or two dates next year, too. We'll see.

Happy Valentines Day and Chinese New Year! And Presidents Day!