Happy Birthday

4/7/2018

Today, is Jeff's 69th birthday.  His age boggles my mind.  We were so young when we married 44 (in September) years ago.  When we started our life together, neither of us were looking or thinking about getting older.  It's okay for the boys to get older, although Scott turning 40 this year, is a wake-up call for me.  If he's 40, then Jeff and I are definitely on the "getting old(er)" train.

Jeff was a blind date that was set up by my Dad and his sister.  We met on May 5th and married on September 21st.  My grandmother's advice, before we got married, was that long engagements don't necessarily mean long marriages.  I took her advice to heart, and I'm glad I did.

Jeff has stood by me, through both good and bad times.  We've weathered stormy weather, for instance 2013 comes to mind. Our boys have grown up to be outstanding men, and this makes us proud.  We did a good job apparently (insert happy face here)!!!

Jeff, who learned from his grandfather, can fix almost anything around the house.  Plumbing, electricity, room building, are just some of the things that Jeff can do.  He has now reached an age, where he stays off ladders as much as possible. Even now, he loves going out to Andrew's "estate", and mowing the lawn, working on plumbing and anything else that needs "doing".  Jeff learned all of skills from his grandfather, and he has passed on that knowledge to the boys.

We have had many good experiences: trip to Hawaii, flying to the Bahamas twice, taking the boys to Carlsbad Caverns, Yosemite, touring Ben and Jerry's factory, as well as a tour of a beer factory, just to name a few of our trips, as well as summer vacations at the Outer Banks. Jeff always goes to the annual Cirrus (brand of plane we have) events.  Like a war veteran, at these flying events, the men (mostly), can talk "plane" for hours on end. The plane number we chose was and is N874T.  The N stands for North America.  The 874 is the date of our marriage, minus one month.  We could have chosen N974T, but that would mean Jeff would have to call out our tail number, as "Niner", which is why we opted for the "8".  We've had other trips, and as a toddler, Benjamin was strapped in his car seat, when we flew over to the ocean for a day trip.

Jeff is my rock, my everything.  He gives but seldom wants to receive.  The majority of his working years was with IBM, and he was proud to say that IBM was his employer. Over the years, Jeff has worked hard to provide the boys and I with a good life.  He's never let me down, and when we celebrated our anniversary last year, he told me that he was signing up for 40+ years, which will make us older than dirt! Just saying.

Since 2013, when I lost most of my short term memory, and it haunts me still, Jeff has had to tell me things over and over.  I know that is trying his patience, and for that I apologize. We have grown together and experienced and shared memories.I know that as we continue our journey together, we will both in the boat rowing together to the shore.  We have always told ourselves that we have to have both oars in the boat, and rowing to the same destination.  I'm in the boat, even though I can't swim!

So, happy birthday Jeff.  I would tell him to eat cake, but he doesn't "do" many sugary things, that's my department!  For the next 8 months, I will be married to an older man!

Love you Jeff.

P