October for us has always been a special month.  For me, I was born in October.  This year marked a birthday that I thought was a long ways off.  But the clock kept ticking faster and there it was.  The only good thing about this birthday( I think) is I now qualify for medicare.  Medical has been a very costly item in our budget for many years.  We are hopeful that this, along with a supplemental policy will cut our cost by at least 50%.  We will have to wait and see.

The other special day in October for both of us is our anniversary.  We just celebrated our 49th year.  Speak of time passing fast.  We were kids when we got married. No really, we were.  Statistics, at that time, said we had something like a 20% chance of being together for five years.  And less than 10% chance after seven years.  We didn’t listen to statistics.  Oh, we all can look back and see some rough spots that we went through in our marriage.  But the thing is, God helped us through them and we kept on moving forward. Now we look forward to celebrating our 50th next October (and we know the time will be here quicker than we think).

For our 49th anniversary, we celebrated in Nashville, Tennessee.  First, we bought great seats for an evening at the Grand Ole Opry.  Even if you don’t like country music (we do), it is a special evening to be part of their radio broadcast.  This year they are celebrating  their 90th year of the Grand Ole Opry.  The broadcast moves along pretty quickly . And even though you don’t get to see or hear enough of the headliners of the evening, it was still  a great experience.

Then, on our special day, we headed to downtown Nashville.  You can stop in just about any bar/grill setting and hear live music.  Some not-so-good.  Some great.  A busy place all day long.  We walked the streets and as we heard music that sounded pretty good we would go in.  After stopping at a few places, we landed at the Wild Horse Saloon.  This place is great to order food and drink.  Then, sit back and listen . Even if you don’t usually listen to country music, this place is entertaining to just watch.  Three stories that all open up to the first floor stage and dance floor.  They even teach line dancing for those of us with two left feet.  Our evening was a special time for both of us.

God has blessed us in so many ways during this life time.  First with each other.  Then with  wonderful daughters and beautiful grandchildren.  He gave us jobs to take care of our family. And saw us through medical issues  and death of family.  He led us to our church family (over 38 years ).  He has helped us to make the dream of seeing the USA really happen.  Overall, we have been very blessed.

JA