Advice to myself in 1993

Congratulations! You just married the man of your dreams. While you're busy staring off all starry-eyed at him and wondering how could you have possibly been so blessed to marry him, let me just give you a glimpse of how much better it will get as time goes by...

Fifteen years, or so, from now, you'll be standing in your kitchen surrounded by a gaggle of children waiting (mostly) patiently for you to finish mixing the icing for their gingerbread house. You'll be alternately mixing and sipping hot tea because for the past twenty-four hours you'll have been nursing a nasty chest cold combined with a mother's worst nightmare---no voice! Your beloved will have sweetly suggested that you postpone the gingerbread festivities, but you in your stubbornness (some things never change) will push forward because you promised your crew of candy house builders that you would.

As you're finishing the last minute of mixing, you'll notice that your hand mixer is exhibiting some strange tension and not gliding through the white icing as you would have expected. This will prompt you to inspect the mixer, only to find that its beaters seem bent and the motor sounds *funny*. Suddenly, you'll feel sad. Your very first hand-mixer, a wedding shower gift some 15 plus years ago, has seen its last gingerbread house. As you turn around, you'll find yourself face-to-face with your husband, who will listen carefully to you as you sniff, "I think our first mixer is broken." He'll hug you and say that it was just a mixer, while you whine back, "But it was our first one!" Tenderly, he'll whisper to you, that the mixer had served its time and that a new one would be even stronger and better than before--just like your marriage has changed and grown.

Then, you'll find yourself wondering anew, as you did some fifteen years ago, how could you have ever been so blessed to marry such a man.