Yesterday we celebrated our 17th wedding anniversary by taking a delightful 23-mile bike ride along the Sangamon Valley Trail. We haven’t been on this trail on the far west side of town for three years and it seemed like there was lots more shade this time, but on the other hand it was cloudy most of the day so it was sort of hard to tell. We wore our matching Scotland bike shirts in order to look as geeky as possible. This is about as crowded as the trail got, although we did see maybe a handful of people and a couple of cute dogs.

Seventeen years, it’s crazy to think that it’s been such a long time because it has flown by so fast.

I remembered to buy an anniversary card for Kevin earlier in the week and carried it around in my purse so I wouldn’t lose it. I didn’t get him a gift because I’d forgotten that we got each other anniversary gifts plus he’s leaving for a trip out east in a couple of weeks and he has so much to do to get ready that I assumed he wouldn’t think about a gift.

I was wrong.

I woke up yesterday morning to not one but three boxes of special things, and an accompanying sweet and thoughtful note. He explained that he’d researched “17th anniversary gifts” but all the websites said that seventeen is for not gold or silver or precious gems, but furniture. Ha ha ha, furniture! He didn’t get me a piece of furniture which is good because we have no room for furniture, but instead he got me these things.

Hummingbird earrings, a beautiful heart necklace with a pink Carnelian gemstone, and a wonderful pendant that I’ll have to hang up somewhere. So thoughtful.

But when he gave me these thoughtful and lovely gifts I panicked, as I’m wont to do, because I had nothing but the card. So I made an excuse about going to the library to get a DVD, and on the way I stopped by Pease’s and bought him some of his favorite chocolates. Yes, very lame and last-minutes I know.

I decided to wait til after our big bike ride to present him with the gifts but later in the day when I looked in my purse there was no envelope, just the card. It was a pretty big card and it came with a big envelope and I guess at least the card survived, but where is the envelope? It’s a large envelope lying somewhere, maybe in the house, maybe somewhere else, very hard to say. He did like the chocolates even though I get him chocolates frequently because I usually can’t think of something more special.

And one more thing – he gave me this beautiful heart necklace, but I thought, “He’s given me heart necklaces quite a few times now. Did he forget that he already got me heart necklaces?” And then, because it literally takes me years to figure things out, it dawned on me that this is what he does, he gives me different and beautiful heart necklaces because he loves me and he showers me with many beautiful hearts.

So yeah, it took me seventeen years to figure that one out.

And yet, by some miracle, even though I’m one of the flakiest flakes I know, he still loves me…

Ok then,

Mrs. Lucky Hughes.