WEEK 10 (Apr 21, 2018): The house was finally in order for Mom’s visit on Saturday. Trying hard not to make Dean feel uncomfortable in his own house, I tried hard not to go crazy cleaning everything, but just to get things straightened up a bit. When I go crazy with the cleaning or even just straightening, Dean says, “Okay, Charlotte!” My mother runs a tight ship, always has. A relative once said, “I could never live here, it would be like living in a museum.” I get that most

WEEK 9 (Apr 14, 2018): We made it to the two-month mark. There were a couple of teary-eyed Saturdays when I didn’t think we would. Dinner is usually either one of Dean’s special crockpot meals or takeout. This week we also dined on Tely’s Chinese in Suntree thanks to a wedding gift card from a business friend. After we got engaged, I’d registered for wedding gifts at Dillard’s and Target. Dean ask why. He explained, “My people don’t do that. My people do cash.” I told him, “W

WEEK 8 (Apr 7, 2018): A new home, husband, and a 45-minute work commute pulled me into a swirl of unfamiliarity. I’m a creature of habit and do better in a schedule and familiar surroundings—a “trail horse” to the nth degree! I made it to writer’s critique group for the second month in a row, as I grasped to find some sort of normalcy. The process of getting my name changed continued with various appointments at government agencies. The list is overwhelming and I now understa

WEEK 7 (Mar 31, 2018): Saturday, my favorite day of the week, quickly turned into my least favorite. I like to take my time waking up on the one day I don’t have to set an alarm. I’m also aware I don’t exactly look my best. When I lived with my mother, it didn’t matter if my makeup made me look like a football player at the end of a tough game. Now it matters. I have to at least wipe the wandering mascara and eyeliner, so I don’t scare Dean. But with my new husband around, I

WEEK 6 (Mar 24, 2018): We sat for our first professional couples portraits Saturday at church—a fundraiser for American Heritage Girls. “Scared to death” “I’m CRAZY” “He’s CRAZY” “Normal” After sitting for the pictures we went down to the Verizon store to get new phones. I had a troublesome hand-me-down iPhone 5, which Dean teased was an iPhone 1. His Samsung was old enough to be frustrating him too. They had a buy-one-get-one deal for the Galaxy S-9’s and a deal on a tablet

Married for the First Time at Fifty (Week 5) WEEK 5 (Mar 17, 2018): It was our one-month wedding anniversary, which we acknowledged in the morning, but forgot about by evening. I’d teased that I didn’t believe in divorce, but it was okay, someone in my family would surely get us a wood chipper for a wedding present. One day I saw one at the bail bond office and stopped to take a picture. I texted him with, “Thinking of you.” He said he got so sick of hearing about the wood ch

WEEK 4 (Mar 10, 2018): The belching began. And no, I’m not going to pull your finger, Dean! I grew up with that game. Mom said she got so tired of my dad doing it, for payback she poured a bucket of ice water over the top of the shower with my dad in there. She didn’t know he was shaving at that moment. There was blood. I prayed for years that I wouldn’t get the typical man that goes around belching and farting All. The. Time. I didn’t want to live with a constant barrage of

WEEK 3 (Mar 3, 2018): Wedding gift #ThankYou We completed premarital counseling meeting #5. It turned out to be the final meeting. We graduated 3 weeks early because we are such a good match! The fact that we’re 50 probably had something to do with it. It was a hard week full of struggles, first-world struggles, but struggles nonetheless. We went to battle. Photo From a day at Disney (Pirates of the Caribbean) My challenge this week included the beginnings of the arduous proc

WEEK 2 (Feb 24, 2018)-Cont’d: It was our first Saturday morning together. I’d started to figure out coffee, which Dean does not do. I brought a coffee pot down with me during the week, but failed to get filters, so I suffered through a stale Folgers single-serve bag, which he thought might be more than 3 years old. Then came the hormone meltdown—I cried for two hours as Dean got ready to show houses. As he left, he turned from the front door and asked, “Are we going to be oka

WEEK 2 (Feb 24, 2018): We completed 4 out of 8 premarital counseling sessions. I almost walked out of Session #3, wondering if pushing buttons is considered part of the counseling to see if I’d pop. I almost did. I have a writer friend, Mark Mynheir, who gives a class based on the book “How Can I Get Through to You?: Breakthrough Communication Beyond Gender, Beyond Therapy, Beyond Deception” by D. Glen Foster. Mark covered the various aspects of the four personality types. Th

WEEK 1 (Feb 17, 2018): (Beach photography by Joe Guarine Photography ) We have a lot in common. We were both club kids who grew up during the 1980’s alternative music scene. We are amazed that we didn’t meet sooner. Many times we could have crossed paths, between the night clubs, and later during the mid-nineties church revival meetings. But we didn’t meet until now. God’s timing. God’s wisdom. Our wedding was not easy to plan so quickly with two people who had completely di

As a young girl I dreamed of marrying a Prince Charming. I admired what my parents had, and since the sixth grade, all I wanted was a husband. I had no clock ticking for children, but I had nothing against it either. I had no career aspirations, only the desire to be a housewife. As the years passed the dream turned to frustration and disappointment. Over the years friends and family members married. Some of them numerous times. A couple of times I was even a bridesmaid, but