There are several ways to measure the length of time you've been married -- anniversaries, holidays, special events. How about mattresses? Greg and I have now been officially married long enough to wear out a good quality mattress. Our new one arrived yesterday and we're still getting used to this fancy-shmancy pillow top to see if we like it.

Yes, Greg lured me to Alaska under the promise of a real mattress. We were newlyweds living in Seattle and sleeping on camping mats as extremely poor recent graduate students. We had no money for frivolous expenditures like real beds. Heck, we barely had money for the heating bill. Besides, Greg kept reminding me that he just couldn't bring himself to make an investment in expensive items like mattresses in Seattle because in his heart he still hoped we would move back to Alaska and he knew that transporting a mattress to Alaska would be almost as expensive as the initial purchase. When he got a job offer to move to Alaska, really all I could envision was the possibility of a real mattress. I'm cheap. :-)

We did buy a mattress shortly after our arrival. We got the middle quality one with a 20 year warranty. Well, it didn't last 20 years, but it did get us through those tough early years in Alaska, as well as accomplishing the birth of 2 children and even raising them up into elementary school age (almost). So, yes, it's only a mattress. But somehow it is also a symbol of how much Greg and I have accomplished in the past 13 years. We're a 2 mattress marriage!