It's NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship Day 2014--a letter to my Husband

Cruz,

Today is day that I am sure you'll never forget throughout your NASCAR career.  You've been here three times before, but the pressure doesn't bother you, it fuels you.  The long weeks away, the travels, the planning, the prep...it all ends for the 2014 season today.  This is the moment that you've been looking for all year, the time that you and your team have prepared for since the season started.  Today is your day to do the best that you can, the best that your team can.  There's no regrets, no looking back...just 12 seconds or less for every stop =)

Today is the day that the media has built up, (or torn down, depending on who you listen to).  But the reality is, it's just you, your team and your focus out there.  No matter what's tweeted, what's posted on Facebook or what the ESPN ticker displays up until the final lap, you do what you do, because you do it so well. 

So, no matter what the outcome is when the first car of the pack crosses know that I am proud of you.  I am proud of your hard work, your dedication and your team.  You are a lucky man to truly enjoy your job every single day.  I am a lucky woman to call you my husband.

Best wishes, my Bebe, and know that "A lifetime isn't long enough to love you"--Ziggy Marley

Marriage

As you all of my 6.3333 readers know, Cruz and I said "I do" about a month ago!  Throughout the entire wedding planning experience, the engagement period and the years (yes, I said years) preceding our day of wedded bliss, all I heard was about how wonderful life will be after you are married, about why I haven't pushed him to go ring shopping way before more and about "You were really together for 11 years?!

In my experience of watching couples get engaged early, majority live in the moment with a limited or no vision for a future and a hefty load of debt hanging in front of their eyes, I realized that I had as much time as I felt I wanted or needed to get married.  Not that those folks were crazy or foolish for making their choices to get married when they did, but it helped me to solidify my choice to wait until a little later in my life.

Now that I'm a "newlywed" and Cruz and I share a legit last name (WAHOO, thank you hour-and-a-half creepy Social Security office wait experience) I can honestly say there are days that things "feel" different.  We still share the same financial responsibilities, we still follow the same morning routines and I still fall asleep on the couch at night after supper leaving him to clean up the dishes from supper.  But what has changed is the way we look forward to our future.  Not that building a house, getting and financing a graduate degree and working a high-travel, high-stress job aren't all decisions that we didn't talk about, but there's something a little different about the way we discuss certain topics. 

Marriage is a compromise.  It's give and take.  It's accepting each other for your faults, your prosperities and your unconditional love for each other.  Marriage is what I am glad I waited for and what I hold close to my heart.  I sure am a fortunate soul to have been blessed with the love of a strong man, raised by two of the best parents there are out there and to share a vision for the future.

Now, if I could only get used to keying and signing "Gonzalez" as quickly as I can "Hennings" =)