Today, my wife Mandy and I celebrate our 10 year wedding anniversary. Like everything else, I'm wondering just where the time has gone.
 
 We got married in a small Iowa town called Mapleton. It's where Mandy grew up. The church we got married in was (and is) a simple but beautiful church. Very picturesque.

 I remember the night we got married like it was yesterday; we were surrounded by our family and our friends and we couldn't really believe that it was finally happening.

 Mandy and I dated for nearly four years. That is an eternity by some people's standards but for us it was just right.

 Iowa is notoriously hot and humid in August. We were a little worried that we would suffer through the wedding but that night, about 6PM, the temp was in the 70's and the humidity was low. The weather couldn't have been better.

 I remember standing at the altar and looking towards the back of the church and seeing all of these people sitting there, waiting for this event to happen. It was a little intimidating. Most of the people there were members of Mandy's family and there were a lot of them. I swear to you, you throw a rock in Monona or Ida Counties in Iowa and you'll hit someone who is related to Mandy. It's something else.

 Mandy appeared in her dress and looked beautiful. She got half-way down the aisle before I felt a flash of panic, hoping my friends hadn't written "Help me" or anything else on the bottom of my shoes. It was a Catholic wedding, meaning we would be doing some kneeling (turns out, nothing was written on my shoes, thank goodness).

 As we progressed through the ceremony, I found myself thinking about how great this was and how lucky I was (and am) to have Mandy as a partner for life. It sounds cliched, but she completes me. Where I am impatient, she is patient. Where she is quick to make decisions, I am the one that slows us down and helps us think things through. In many ways, we are the opposite of one another but I think that is why we work.

 I look back over the 10 years and see the life we have had. It has been good. We have added two amazing boys to our family. We have appreciated the best and endured the worst that life has to offer. We have said good-bye to loved ones, we have waited and worried as others have been diagnosed with diseases and gone through treatment, we have seen America and everything the country has to offer, we have appreciated our good fortune and endured the bumps in the road. She is my biggest supporter and critic and I love her for it.

 She knows how TV news works and how one minute you're up, the next minute you can be down. She is amazingly adept at dealing with those who are straight-forward and nice and those who attempt to lie, backstab and cheat to get ahead. Mandy deals with everyone by using one huge grain of salt.

 On her Facebook status update today, Mandy simply wrote "10 years ago today I married my best friend". I did too.