What's in a ring?

In a little less than a month, I'll celebrate my 9th wedding anniversary.  Nine years is a long time to be married, let alone that we've known each other for a decade.  When we decided to get married, though I had no idea when the actual proposal would hit, we did go ring shopping.

I pretty much fell in love with the first ring I saw.  It was platinum.  It was brushed.  It was really pretty.  When the actual ring was bestowed upon me, I was so excited at the significance of it, and what that ring meant that I pretty much didn't take it off.  I loved the ring and the boy who got it for me.

Flash forward a couple years and that ring started to cause me trouble.  It started to leave what I could only call a burn mark on my finger.  We weren't sure what the problem was and after having it cleaned a couple times, chalked it up to something wrong with my finger and I quit wearing it for a while.  Then I got pregnant with Monkey #1 and there was no way it would fit.

Shortly after Elliott was born, I got my ring re-sized and we were reunited.  And then of course, I didn't wear it at all with Monkey #2 and wore it for about a year off and on after Wyatt was born.

Now fast forward again.  I haven't worn my wedding ring for almost 2 years.  It's a little tight, and it's very heavy and maybe it's a silly reason, but the weight of the ring that I loved years ago now weighs too heavy on my arthritic finger.  The last time I tried to wear it was to church, and I didn't even make it through the first hour because I'm a dork.

My kind husband has since then given me a couple of rings to replace it, when I want to look official (as if wandering the world with two little monsters isn't official enough). One of the rings is pretty fancy, and I save it for church and special occasions.  The other was a nice, simple little ring that he got for me that I wore nearly every single day.

Well, on our way home from San Diego in February, while I was driving my short leg of the trip I took my cute little flower off because it was sort of in the way and hooked it onto the straw of my drink for safe keeping.  We stopped in Scipio, Utah, because Elliott and I had to go to the bathroom and then continued on our journey.  Not until we were almost home did I realize that my husband had cleared the "garbage" out of the car at that pit stop, including my drink that I was not finished with and that was a safe keeping for my ring.

The ring was now in a trash can in Scipio.

Oh bother!

When we got home it was decided (by me of course) that I needed a reasonable replacement because unlike my husband who does not wear his wedding band, I like to at least pretend that I'm married.

I found a beautiful fill-in on etsy.  It came yesterday.  I really like it.  Not too fancy, but fancy enough.  Makes me feel official, at least until the day we get around to getting me a new band (much lighter weight) for my "real" wedding ring.