wed – April Coker, Author

Wedded Life Wednesday: BFF!

I have a pretty great best friend. He allows me to stay home even though the budget is a little tight since I retired from teaching (thank goodness for the pension, although it’s only a little more than half what I used to make). He encourages me to pursue my dreams even though some were quite costly–namely getting my master’s degree, remodeling and adding onto our home, buying copies of my books, setting up vendor spaces at the flea market, book festival, and antique mall. The most costly dream of all was his, too–having children! That was worth it, though.

Back in the day. . .1979!

I encourage him to pursue his dreams as well. For example, he bought his first dirt bike right after we got married, which almost caused his mother to disown him! He has been into motorcycles, vintage cars, horses, mules, dog breeding, and guns, all of which were costly. One of his favorite dreams fulfilled was to ride a loop around the state of Colorado, which we did a few years ago. I still can’t believe I was able to ride behind him on his Honda Valkyrie for four solid days for 700 miles through sunshine, thunderstorms, and sleet. What an adventure that was!

One of Colorado’s tall passes in June of 2008!

The give and take of dreaming and let dream has been one of the cornerstones of our marriage–that and faith in Jesus Christ our Lord. I’d have to say that we are pretty good friends, and that is pretty important to a successful marriage.

Time to close this post now. Gotta get those work clothes clean for my BFF (that’s Best Friend Forever for the tech-challenged out there). . .

That’s me and my bestie. . .

XOXO

Wedded Life Wednesday: Bang, bang, shoot, shoot!

One thing I would advise young couples to do is take an interest in something that interests your spouse. If my husband wants me to go with him to a motorcycle race, I go. If he wants me to see a movie with him, even if it is a guy flick, I go. On the flip side, he will do things with me that he doesn’t really prefer, such as shopping at an antique store or seeing a chick flick.

Today I went with him to the shooting range to sight in his new AR-15. I also needed to practice shooting my handgun, since I have a license to carry a concealed weapon. The thunderous boom of the rifle was not pleasant in the least, but I stayed with him as long as he wanted with only a minimal amount of complaining!

Here are some shooting photos. The first one shows our 25-yard target and the spotting scope we used to see how accurate we were.

This is me trying out the AR-15. What a noise it makes! And it kicks a little. . .got me in the cheek once. How do you like my pink ear protectors?

The hubs shooting his new toy. He is very accurate! I’m glad we weren’t competing, because I would have lost!

I had to show you the ground around the gun tables, so littered with used bullet casings the ground is almost solid. This particular gun range, privately owned and open only to members, gets lots of use.

I won’t participate in the argument for or against guns, but you can tell where I stand from this blog. My objective today was to explain that if you can show an interest in what interests your spouse, and even share an interest or two, you can hang out as friends when the fire of initial lust fades. . .as it will. But love with a basis of friendship can endure forever if both of you want it to.

I hope this was helpful. . .

XOXO