Happy 10th Anniversary, Babe!

Ten years ago on this very night I danced to the "Iowa Waltz" with my brand-new husband Shawn.

I haven't waltzed since. But I love my brown-eyed man more now than I even did then.

We had a great wedding. It was truly a family affair -- anyone over the age of 7 was enlisted to help decorate, carve pumpkins, make food, arrange chairs, hang up lights, create scarecrows, haul hay bales, shell corn, well, you get the idea. It was a spectacular reception.

We were married at the Turn of the Century Museum in Panora -- in the little white wooden church that sits next to the one-room schoolhouse where my Grandma Betty went to school. It was a simple ceremony and quite short. I think from start to finish it was about 7 minutes. I walked down the aisle to Buddy Holly's "True Love Ways" -- still my all-time favorite song. We played a couple Beatles songs throughout the ceremony, including "Blackbird," and walked back down the aisle to "The Ballad of John and Yoko." My friend Stephanie read a passage from "The Golden Years" by Laura Ingalls Wilder. The justice of the peace arrived five minutes before showtime and left shortly thereafter.

It was very me and Shawn.

Shawn and I are kindred spirits who met at an old bar in Ames our senior year in college. We immediately accepted each other for who we were and admired each other's outspoken left-leaning politics. A journalist and an engineer. He followed me to North Carolina to live in perhaps one of the most hideous places in the country. And then he moved with me to Milwaukee, which we liked, but we were broke and missed home. After being away for about 5 years, we came home -- home to Iowa, to our families and a new life with a new house and soon to be a new family.

It's been a good 10 years, babe. I'm looking forward to the next 10. Love you always.

P.S. Shawn sent me my favorite flowers today at work. His present hasn't arrived yet. But he didn't even mind. That's one of the reasons I love him.