Well the wife’s birthday and Thanksgiving was behind us. Thanksgiving was nice as we had been blessed by so much. But the big wedding day was now facing us. We had planned a wedding day half way between her birthday and mine something simple, unique just friends and Jeanie’s family. My nearest family is 1100 miles away and we didn’t feel it was right for them to travel that far for a 1/2 hour service. Besides we had traveled north during the summer months and met my family. All was good.

Now to set the scenario. Jeanie’s family ancestors were some of the first white settlers in Texas in the 1830s. 32 of them were sanctioned by their church in Illinois to come to Texas and teach Christianity to the Indians & Mexicans. Jeanie’s family is a big part of history and she just took it all for granted. I stumbled on it by asking stupid questions. You know-inquiring minds need to know. I about fell out of my chair when she told me the story. ‘Baby this is important stuff’ I said. She replied ‘I guess, but we always grew up with it and I guess took it for granted.’ Anyway, about 1/2 of the settlers settled outside our little town, building their homes and a church. The remainder of the settlers went about 70 miles further west and called that home (another even longer story). The local settlers lived and worshiped about 5 miles down the road on which we live, where they built a simple 1 room church. We thought this would do us to honor her ancestors  and humbling for us. Never forget your roots!

The church was/is simple (obviously rebuilt over the years). 1 door, 2 windows, sand floor, 10 hand hewn wooden planks for pews & a fireplace. The church is always open, never locked. We had a small gathering of friends and her family; about 30 folks. When we approached the pastor (family friend) he said ‘Jeanie I thought I would never see this day.’ She just smiled and said ‘I got the right one now.’ Hmmm, was that a sign? Anyway the service was complete and we had a small reception at our house. I had nothing to drink all day except water and all was OK. Our first Christmas approached and we were so happy. The beer consumption kept rising. I guess I was up to a 30 pack+/week. Now I never staggered, slurred my speech because I was well familiar with being in that state of mind. Jeanie never said anything so I assumed all was OK.

Jeanie got a nice monetary gift for her birthday the month earlier from my parents and another at Christmas. I received a nice 5 figure check made out to me only. After Christmas we decided to cash the check. Since I had a government audit coming up to look at my finances, Jeanie suggested that we put most of it in a account in her name so it wouldn’t be tied to me. Good idea right? Bring me another beer! So we did it. We/she had plenty of other accounts that were larger so this may not get much attention.

Now understand that my wife had heart surgery about 5 years previously and as a result has occasional memory recall issues. She may not remember something that happened 4 hours ago, 4 weeks ago but can tell you in detail something that happened 40 years ago. Doctors say that is sometimes part of life after heart surgery. Don’t know. I’ve never been cut on.

Spring & summer of 2016 went by going to grandchildren s’ baseball games and they both won state in their categories. Pretty proud of them! Still no job possibilities 43 resumes & 2 interviews. That really suxed. All this time no fights, getting pissed off or the like at each other. During June we went north for my parents 60th wedding anniversary. They could tell I had been off the wagon for a while and were not very happy about it. Jeanie tried to cover it up by buying me some vodka. Can we say enabler? The answer is yes, I drank it. We rushed back to Texas to watch another baseball playoff game. Pass the beer.

During our visit to my parents and they took Jeanie aside and informed her of my past (which I had already told her but she didn’t remember). They wanted her to help me get some professional help. They thought if it came from her, this time it would stick. This is my 3rd rodeo with falling off the wagon and getting help. We never learn do we? Now Jeanie never said anything about this to me so the plot thickens. During July Jeanie seemed to get a little more distant. The worthless daughter had moved back in after she realized that her loser boyfriend was just using her for buying his drugs and truck payment. We kept telling her so but she just couldn’t see the same repeat abuse pattern. She was in denial. Hmmm, that sounds familiar. She moved back in, no job this time (got fired for missing too much work), did/does nothing but play on face book while awake, not looking for a job, no cooking, some cleaning (when she wanted to use the car), no yard work. We did make her take a pee test b4 moving back. To her credit she was clean and she gave up boys. We will see. But hey she was having a good time suxing on mama’s tit.

Well Jeanie was suppose to confront me in August about my drinking and try to get me to get help. But she chickened out. As much as I love her I would have said yes and it would have been her first notification to me that she saw a problem. Instead she kept quiet and started withdrawing money from the “secret account” over a 6 week time frame. She thought she was pulling the wool over my eyes but you know us addicts. We have are ways of finding these things out and are sneaky. During all of this we kept going to church, big smiles on our faces and no one said squat.

Since this is the 2nd time I typed this, that is enough for today. That will bring us up to Labor Day 2016 weekend where it gets even uglier.