A New Wedding Ring

 Several months ago I realized that I was unable to get my wedding rings off my fingers.  I went to a local jewelry store, Hamilton Jewelers, on Nassau Street here in Princeton and they cut the rings off my hand.  I put them in our safety deposit box at home and waited for the marks on my finger to disappear.  It took months and I kept delaying the choices I knew I needed to make about resizing the rings. Cutting the rings off was "complimentary."  New rings were pricey! 

Finally we went back to Hamilton Jewelers yesterday.  I had a photo of a single wedding band that I showed them and they agreed it would be "beautiful."  It would also be expensive with the price of gold very high.  I asked for 14 carat gold, not 18 carat.  The single band had to be large enough to fit my little diamond in the setting. It sparkled beautifully in the bright lights of the jewelry store and I knew I would be happy to have it on my hand again. 

I had a moment of panic when I reached into the zipper pocket in my purse to pull out the little bagged ring and it wasn't there!  But I had already handed it to the gentleman who was assisting me.  He had turned me over to another assistant when one more customer came in and wanted to sell his Patek watch to the store.  My transaction was less complicated I guess. 

So the ring is ordered.  It will take a few weeks to come in and then they will set my diamond in it.  I am very happy with my choice and very thankful we have better financial circumstances now than when we first exchanged wedding rings 57 years ago!  I will finish this post when I can take a photo of the ring on my hand.  

Years ago, when I joined Facebook, I was feeling frisky and wrote that my status was "in a relationship."  So I was--even as it was a married relationship.  When I get my ring, I think I will post a photo with the words that it is a new wedding ring but not a new husband.  Maybe then I can change my relationship status to "married."  

September 13  Today was an intermediate step.  The gold wedding band has arrived and it fit.  Now they need to place my diamond in it.  There will be another two week wait.  Traffic was terrible getting into Princeton--and then three doors were locked at the jewelry store.  It's probably a good idea to lock doors, but I couldn't find an entrance.  I was thankful for Jim's help in driving me there and walking with me back to the car.  

September 18  Yesterday Karen called and said her jeweler had to make some changes.  I said I trusted her and then as evening came on, I got worried about spending all that money and not liking the ring.  So this morning I emailed her and asked for a photo--and it arrived and it will be fine.  Not worth the worry I put into it.  It is just a once in a lifetime purchase--even if this is its third ramification--and it's a lot of money.  Again, another lesson for me not to get obsessed or fixated on things!  

57 years

 

57 years of marriage is worth celebrating and we have!  We had a family dinner at Ocean Grove last weekend which I wrote about last week.  Last night we made the very short trip to Ruth's Chris for their happy hour, a day early for celebrating but happy hour does not occur on the weekend. We found a table easily and ordered sandwiches and wine at reasonable prices for Ruth's Chris at least.  When the waitress asked if we wanted to see the dessert menu, we thought Why not?  It's our anniversary.  We settled on the bread pudding and wondered why it was taking so long to come.  Probably it was because they wrote Happy Anniversary on the plate.  We asked the waitress to take a photo of the two of us--as we have not mastered the art of taking selfies.  

Then today we bought an ice cream cake at McCaffrey's and enjoyed a celebratory dessert after an ordinary but tasty meal of chicken thighs and vegetables.  Jeff and Susan stopped by this afternoon with a gift--a framed photo of the 18 of us as seen on the last blog post.  

We wrote notes to each other as we often do on special occasions and I treasure those notes.We did the NYT Spelling Bee and the NYT crossword puzzle as we do daily.  Although today, we struggled to get to "genius" on the spelling bee but finally after a second try and using hints this afternoon, we succeeded.

It was so long ago that we said our vows at the 12th Avenue Christian Reformed Church in Jenison, Michigan.  We spent our first night of marriage at our second floor apartment on Humboldt Street in Grand Rapids, Michigan and then left for a week long honeymoon to Montreal and Expo 67 and upstate New York.  We could never have imagined that 57 years later we would be Grandpa and Grandma VanderKam and would see our family grow to 18 of us.  We are grateful.  At our 30th anniversary, Jim toasted us saying "To 30 more years."  I hope and pray we make it to that--and beyond--in good health and enjoying each other's company. 

The Baby Game

 

Seven years ago, Laura and Michael rented a large cottage in Ocean Grove, New Jersey and invited the entire family to celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary.  It was a great week with beach time and lots of good eating.  I had tried to think of ways that the whole family (with a variety of ages among the cousins) could participate in activities and I came up with a scavenger hunt and a baby game.  The scavenger hunt paired older cousins with younger ones and asked for cell phone photo proof of their finds.  It was a great success and got everyone exploring the village of Ocean Grove. 

The other activity was a baby game.  I found baby photos, printed them up in black and white, and numbered them 1-14.  The goal was to match the baby photo with the adult or child.   Our winners with perfect scores were the two mothers among us--Susan and Laura.  This year at Ruth's request, the baby game was found and brought along. I added two more photos to the mix--Henry and Alexandra. Two of the older cousins had their special friends along--and they joined in trying to recognize the matches.  Ruth was very pleased that this time she had a perfect score!  

57 years ago on August 24, 1967, Jim and I made our vows and how grateful we are to celebrate with 18 of us in the family photo this year!  (Thanks to our resident photographer Susan who set up the tripod and remote camera and kept us all smiling!)