relationships are worth having

I have often spoke about the little things no one tells you about when you are getting married. One of those things is the fact that you see less of your fiancee after getting engaged than when you were courting.

I haven’t seen my bethrothed in almost two weeks and I have to say that I miss him dearly.

He has started a new job in Montgomery that he loves. He is a computer man so needless to say he has been kept very busy with all the Y2K hype.

I don’t get to go up very often because I am still a "weekend warrior" in trying to get stuff ready for the wedding, which takes place in 5 weeks and 5 days. Whew!

He feels left out because there isn’t a whole lot for the groom to do while the bride is having showers and getting the dress and decorations ready. I heard the guys can give him a "gadget’ party, but now there is no time left to plan one.

Because I had wedding stuff to do this weekend he just drove around from town to town seeing different friends of his. He went to Panama City to see his best man, Enterprise to see a groomsman, Enterprise to see a lady friend of ours, Troy to see my roommate, and Dothan to see his parents.

The move and being apart really makes you see that the relationship is worth fighting for. We call each other whenever we can. While we are at work during the day we do special things for each other. He has to wear a pager at work, so at any given point during the day I will call the beeper and put in the number three. That is one of my signature numbers so it lets him know I am thinking about him. Little things like that mean a lot.

I can’t wait to spend every day or evening with him. He makes me laugh all the time, one of the qualities that made me fall in love with him. He loves to dance and, if we are so inclined, we will just start dancing in the middle of the living room. He has learned to love to cook, especialy grilling out on the gas grill I gave him for his birthday this past year. We cook well together and it’s always a lot of fun. You would think we would fight over who does what, but we don’t. We each have our jobs to do.

We enjoy walking our "baby," a 9 year old, 4 1/2 pound yorkie named Bungee Boy ’cause he’s always jumping around. We got him when we first started going out back in ’92. You might have seen us with him at Troy State’s Homecoming tailgating.

Now I know why the couple takes off for a honeymoon, to make up for all the time they lose during the engagement.

The dress is ready. The veil is done. The shoes are wonderful. The bridesmaids dresses are having the final touches put on them. The only problems are we haven’t found a cake topper we like and can’t find the perfect unity candle. But they will turn up soon.

Now the fun really starts with parties and get togethers. I love any excuse to spend time with family and friends.

Maybe the time apart will help us appreciate each other more in the beginning of our marriage. Who knows, because I believe there is a reason and a purpose for everything.

Amanda Bradley is a staff writer for The Messenger.