bed memories

i had just woken up. it was too early in the morning. the sun was just beginning to seep through the blinds. chris was sleeping next to me. i reached my hand across to his side and he couldn't be touched until i inched closer and closer, finally connecting hand to body.
i thought to myself how awesome it is that i can sleep in my bed with another person even, and not have to touch that person, or have that person touch me, on purpose! i said to myself; "i love my king size bed," then smiled.

i began thinking about the beds chris and i have had in the past 16 years. 3 to be exact. our very first bed was purchased a bit before we were to be married. we were college students. we had little money. chris found a bed for sale in the want ads.
one saturday found us driving through a trailor park, finding the address, and knocking on the door of the home of a single older lady. she was selling her queen size mattress she no longer needed.
no longer needed because her husband and recently died.
died as he slept in his bed.
she assured us it wasn't soiled at all.
sold: $100.00
side note: I AM THE BEST WIFE EVER!

that bed took us through a few years. we moved it with us across the states from utah to virginia. ceily was born. she became a permanet resident in our bed. always. every night. all night. i was grateful it was large enough for a smaller person to join us. to be kept warm and safe. she was a bad, bad baby and wouldn't nurse well. she would latch on and then immediately fall to sleep. to keep her awake, i would take her naked toes and place them against the wall that the head of our bed touched. it was an external wall and very cold. it worked.

that bed moved with us to our first house. eddie's arrival was shortly due. needed a bigger bed so one more tiny body could be added. we acquired our very first king size bed. chris' parents had gotten a brand new bed, and offered us their old one. (thank you very much.) that first night was the best night ever!! "chris. where are you? i can't see you," i remember saying as we lay together, not having to touch. even when ceily was between us. (like always.) ceily was also a bad, bad toddler. being very pregnant and very tired, i needed my almost two year old to take naps. she didn't want to. so i would have to snuggle her on our bed. snuggling consisted of me holding her in a vise-like grip around her entire body until she was motionless and sleeping. we loved napping and sleeping on our huge bed.
but it was very hard and i like very soft.



after 8 years we finally had become grown ups and could afford a brand new, king size bed. a bed of our choosing. we even went shopping at a mattress store. i wanted the tempurpedic. it was like a soft, billowy, cloud of dreams.
when it was delivered, factory instructions told us to air out our brand new king size mattress. our family room became the bed room. the children jumped on it. we watched tv together comfortably on the floor, atop our new bed. our friends even watched tv with us, together, because it was a king size bed, and that was big. big enough for two families practically.

after it finally didn't smell like a chemical factory, we took our bed to it's room. i slept like a princess. no hardness. no worries of dead bodies before. although those first few weeks, our bodies had to adjust to the new sleeping material. it was hard to turn because you felt like you had been suctioned down into a soft, billowy cloud of dreams. and it did seem to retain heat from our bodies.

our bed has had us all together at once, sleeping. not too comfy and a little smooshy to say the least, but i love that we can all "fit" together if we want to.
last night even, ceily fell asleep next to me, in the middle, as chris watched monday night football downstairs. this king size dream of a bed, hid her body enough that chris didn't even notice she was in bed until he tried to climb inside. he slept in ceily's one person bed last night.
second side note: YOU'RE THE BEST CHRIS!!

i still love my bed. it's perfect. has always been perfect. i love that it's big enough for me and lana and her bestie maren, when we, i mean lana, has sleep overs and chris is out of town and i'm a scaredy cat, and i make them sleep with me. (they LOVE to sleep with me because they are also scaredy cats, but wont admit it.)

the best part? not one person has died on our bed.
i love that too.