We Still Like Each Other - E40

Clancy Denton  0:00  
Welcome to the loud quiet. Ooh, empty nester. Okay. What does that mean?

Rick Denton  0:06  
I think that actually probably is the theme of the empty nest. What are we doing? Let's do this. Let's do this thing. Is this recording. Yes. Okay,

Clancy Denton  0:15  
great. sans, children just us we need a tissue box up here to follow along on our journey and maybe you know we can learn from others.

Rick Denton  0:23  
I don't have a clue how to be empty nester, there.

Clancy Denton  0:25  
This is the loud quiet, living the empty nest. 

 Hello, welcome back. Episode 40.  

Rick Denton  0:34  
Four Zero

Yeah, okay, we can't just go dead air right there for three seconds and then we go dead air. We're in Episode 40. We're out of things to talk ya know. So

Clancy Denton  0:47  
we're starting over.

Rick Denton  0:49  
Oh, no, I was just

Clancy Denton  0:50  
oh, okay, well just keep all this. Say we're still we're on episode 40. We still don't have it together.

Rick Denton  0:57  
For those who haven't been with us the entire journey because we do pick up new listeners and viewers throughout our first episode. Episode One was called we're not professionals. Apparently we still aren't professionals.

Clancy Denton  1:09  
So yes. So this is episode 48. Thank you to those who continue to listen and yes, we've I've noticed we've picked up a couple of new people and I love it. You know, someone actually messaged me the other day while we were recording and asking, Hey, I just listened to yells New York one or I listened to it before and I forgot the plays. Y'all went to Enzo. Yeah, people are people are listening. Some some

people are listening. 

Rick Denton  1:40  
People really do.

Clancy Denton  1:43  
Thank you. We appreciate We do appreciate it.

Rick Denton  1:46  
We had. And I think the style this is designed in such a way we set it up as it was for us to just kind of in figure out what the heck do we do with each other than the empty nests. And so that's our primary goal. It is it is nice to have the listeners, the viewers to hear your commentary. We'd love to incorporate y'all more into this. So for example, this this story and other stories If y'all have wisdom or insights to share, we'd love to have y'all share your story here on the show.

Clancy Denton  2:12  
And we will we will have some guests coming up later in the summer. I know I enjoy that. We will have some because we have a couple of emptiness friends who are now planning weddings. And so I'd like to get their take on that again. Again, yeah, too much other stuff, trying to find we talked

Rick Denton  2:34  
about. But what we're talking about this episode, this episode is recorded the day before our anniversary, our 24th anniversary. And yes, I've made this joke every time that we got married in the year 2000 So that I can answer the question how many years you've been married as easily as possible. So as

Clancy Denton  2:53  
our pastor struggled this morning was I remember, he's up there.

Rick Denton  2:57  
He had his fingers out counting about it was awesome to see. So it is it will tomorrow after this recording, it will be the 24th by the time this is published. It will only

Clancy Denton  3:07  
be the anniversary. Yes. Yes. What did I say? What do you say? It'll be the 24th Oh, yeah,

Rick Denton  3:12  
we will have done the 24th anniversary. And when this is released, it'll be in the past. So we're an anniversary mode. Right now. We did a little celebration and just thinking about anniversaries and weddings. And

Clancy Denton  3:22  
when we were planning our wedding. We thought oh, Memorial Day, great weekend, we will always have a three day or even a four day weekend. We can go all these places. Yeah, how that workout. So let's see. Well get

Rick Denton  3:41  
Clancy has foreshadowed what would that actually look like?

Clancy Denton  3:45  
Yeah. So I've Well, yeah. So I pulled all the pictures for this episode. So Rick hasn't even seen any of them. So and again, this this one is a picture. Picture heavy episode over to YouTube. So. So yeah, so we will, we'll just be going through some things. So of course, first started off. This was our are those young guys? Look how dark both of our hair is? I mean, wait a minute. How

Rick Denton  4:15  
is there that much hair on my head?

Clancy Denton  4:19  
Yeah, but it's very flat to your head. So anyways, this is a picture of us. And again, so let me just say this is what I tell people when they're like when we go on trips, and especially when we go on trips that cross any big bodies of water that I like to be in business class. Well, Lhasa tea not my fault. Someone flew me to Costa Rica first class. It's true to get engaged. That's right. So

Rick Denton  4:54  
it was there were surprised elements to this. I don't know how much you actually opened or saw that sort of stuff, but you were given a pass. jacket that said open this at a certain time, you're going to need to be at the airport a certain time. Here's the kind of clothes that sort of stuff. I don't remember how

Clancy Denton  5:06  
I know. So I was in Baltimore working, and I almost missed the flight. Because I was a flight attendant and being if anyone out there knows flight attendant life, you have these crash pads, you all live together because you can't afford anything. A crash

Rick Denton  5:26  
pad will define it though, for oh, it's like, it's like when people get an apartment together even a hotel room and in and out. Not everybody's there at the same time. So

Clancy Denton  5:36  
where we lived, you had to go down this huge hill with your luggage to get on the train to get to the airport. Well, something happened with my alarm. I don't know. But yes, I was running to the airport made it it was fine. So yes, this was

Rick Denton  5:53  
we didn't meet until Miami. That's from one airport. You were flying from Baltimore. And we met in Miami.

Clancy Denton  5:59  
Yeah. So that's our engagement and customer engagement picture. Yes. A nice trip.

Rick Denton  6:04  
So not necessarily an anniversary, but it certainly what started the anniversary.

Clancy Denton  6:09  
That's right. So this, I

Rick Denton  6:11  
guess this is an anniversary picture. This is the anniversary zero our wedding. So the moment of the kids.

Clancy Denton  6:19  
So yes, there we are.

Rick Denton  6:22  
I'm sorry. Maybe that's not so good to

Clancy Denton  6:26  
see that picture. So yeah, no, we we loved and I've gotten several so that's that's at our ceremony. This was we did bubbles instead of rice. Paper. So now he bubbles you bubbles. And that's us in the limo looking nice and happy on to our honeymoon. And even

Rick Denton  6:46  
though at that point, we're probably exhausted. But we are so happy to be married of course and just be heading

Clancy Denton  6:53  
but it was our wedding was just it was a lot of fun. We had a really good band like the the guys that were the band DJs whatever you want to call them, they were really fun. It was just it was just, it was fun. I really wanted to find because some of my favorite pictures. I don't know where that boxes because back in this day, kids you know, you couldn't you didn't have the digital camera.

Rick Denton  7:18  
I'm gonna show you all of our listeners who are very well versed with.

Clancy Denton  7:22  
So you know, you got your proofs when you got your proofs, and that's what you got. And there were some I mean, some of the faces,

Rick Denton  7:33  
like the one that you have, yeah, he's our eyes darting

Clancy Denton  7:35  
after several of those. And then there's some that I'm looking like, I'm so annoyed right now.

Rick Denton  7:41  
The one that I'm going to describe, so you remember how picture would have so Clancy's eyes are glowing because of that retinal glowing. And she's looking at me with this kind of anger slash disgust pose that they caught her so it really looks like okay, it really looks like she is trying to shoot lasers at me on at our wedding reception. We got to upgrade

that Yeah, we actually

speaking getting off to a great start. And this is somewhat relevant as there were some damaging things that came through last night. Our wedding occurred under a tornado warning. As we approach the time of the wedding, there was a tornado warning and

Clancy Denton  8:21  
y'all had it on in the guy's room, but I had no idea. Yes, that whole

Rick Denton  8:25  
you know that. What is it the trues and the legend of if it rains on your wedding day Good luck. Well, what about a tornado because apparently that just makes it awesome.

Clancy Denton  8:37  
But it was it was just you know, minus the part that when we got out of the charge our limo. Everyone else was gone. My nose is itching. Okay, so that was yes. So then we move on to Okay, again another

Rick Denton  8:57  
here's. There's a wise choice. Man out there. First year first first anniversary. Where was it? Clancy 

Clancy Denton  9:03  
Hawaii. 

Rick Denton  9:04  
Yeah.

Hey, men, women. I mean, if whoever's gonna be the one that's kind of driving the boat on planning, maybe start a little smaller for your first anniversary because well,

Clancy Denton  9:18  
they didn't. They didn't keep up with

Rick Denton  9:20  
well, I know but the expectations were set. That doesn't mean that they were followed. What a glorious trip. This was Yeah, we did. Kawaii and we did Maui

Clancy Denton  9:30  
reversal and the Big Island to Harborne.

Rick Denton  9:35  
Oahu 

Clancy Denton  9:35  
Yeah, yeah, right

Rick Denton  9:36  
a wahoo whatever that wherever Honolulu Yeah, we're we're geographic Luddites there but uh,

Clancy Denton  9:43  
so yeah, this was a nice this was a fun this was one

Rick Denton  9:47  
that we even you know, you plan it ahead and imagine that iconic table that is an every hotel brochure that it's the the table that is out on the water by itself for dinner and had that setup for Are our anniversary dinner out there? And as you'd expect, it was glorious setting great food. Our only time that we've been to Hawaii.

Clancy Denton  10:08  
Yeah, we haven't been back. This this was you know, when we decided we were ready to start having children.

Rick Denton  10:16  
I think we've talked about that. And I think that my amnesia has kicked in solidly on that conversation. But I know that we, we definitely did.

Clancy Denton  10:23  
I remember I was ready. I'm not doubting it's so weird because I wasn't and then something on this trip made me decide. And I think I had not convince you but you weren't quite at the same stage. That's not really. And we didn't know, you know, that it was only going to take us one month to get anyways. But we were also Yeah, at this. Okay, well, it didn't work so much the second times. Wow. get so high on your horse over there. But this trip also was we were in the midst of moving to Houston. Yeah, that's right. So like, you flew straight to Houston. I got off the plane to Dallas after the trip and I had to go start packing up our house to move to Houston. So, so yeah, so that was first anniversary. Then we get to here we are a second anniversary, and I am we

Rick Denton  11:25  
added two features to this. It's a dog. Yeah. As you were talking about we exciting to have a kid. Yeah, me so I was wandering around in the video during that time. And yeah, so we picked up a dog. We decided to well, obviously we'd already decided but yes, super

Clancy Denton  11:42  
I mean, oh yeah, cuz this was like June Yeah. I was. Yeah. Big. Big pregnant. Yeah,

Rick Denton  11:51  
I did. This is where I was saying, I don't know if I'm gonna remember each anniversary. We did. What did we do?

Clancy Denton  11:57  
I remember we went to that we went to a restaurant and had outdoor I think it was what was the what was the winter? Oh, we didn't go to Ruggles. Yeah, no, we didn't go love Easter. Okay, so it may have been Ruggles but it was outside. But it wasn't love Easter. But it was it was nicer than love Easter. But yes. So. So yeah, so that was

Rick Denton  12:20  
it's weird to look at these pictures and realize that well, that's me.

That's my first reaction. Who were you married to back then? Oh, I

Clancy Denton  12:31  
mean, I mean, even that is fun looking when I was going through

Rick Denton  12:35  
Gosh, monster pleated pants.

Clancy Denton  12:37  
Hey, pleated pants are coming back. I heard no word. Okay, but it is funny going through and looking at. Not so much you but me all my different hairstyles, all my different sizes. And yeah.

Rick Denton  12:54  
It's fun. So I wish that this picture had gone over a little bit over here to show us the TV that I had the kick to keep it going. I get really it died. And you'd have to actually kick it to turn it on. So yeah,

Clancy Denton  13:06  
so So after this. I don't I know for a second but after this, they kind of get, you know, larger. So this was another one. So this this one Flower Mound? Yeah, this was Flower Mound and the date on this one I saw but I don't remember. We miss some years in there and who knows why but so this one was Tegan was born in April. And so this was May after she was born. Yeah, we probably got a six week old. My parents were here to come and take care of

Rick Denton  13:42  
this is probably less about the anniversary more just about we got to get out of this house. And have some time. so I'm good there.

Clancy Denton  13:50  
Now my hair looks like a mushroom Well, okay. Different

Rick Denton  13:53  
style. I am enjoying the jacket that is the length of that's the kind of jacket like Shaq should be wearing now

Clancy Denton  14:01  
looking at your your face got a little look at that. Your face got a little more round.

Rick Denton  14:08  
Sympathy game. I celebrated Yes. And sympathy game.

Clancy Denton  14:12  
So yeah, so that was

Rick Denton  14:14  
the camera adds 10 pounds. How many cameras are on?

Clancy Denton  14:19  
So that was another one. And here's another here's another Flower Mound. This one actually has the date on it. 28

Rick Denton  14:27  
So that's our six day anniversary and

Clancy Denton  14:29  
I guess we had to put like the baby yeah, no, because

Rick Denton  14:33  
Because deacons one that

Clancy Denton  14:35  
was she was into everything. Before we didn't have to have it. I mean, Tina was only two. But yeah, now it's there.

Rick Denton  14:43  
That actually going back to clothing again, you look smokin. It looks like I'm wearing a towel.

Look at that. Look like I'm wearing a towel. I

Clancy Denton  14:53  
don't know where we're going but big baggy short,

Rick Denton  14:58  
but the way it's setup there really looks like I came out of the shower and you like put on a shirt. We gotta take a picture.

Clancy Denton  15:06  
Well, it's not. But yeah, and this is when I went through my guess. Let's go to brown hair face. Yeah. Awesome when I was not probably probably when I was not doing my hair as often as I do. But yeah, so I think

Rick Denton  15:27  
I've looked at the manual and it's all pictures of kids out there too. So I don't know anything about the anniversary, but it is interesting to see the evolution of us, we still look young.

Clancy Denton  15:35  
So this was after we had moved into our current Frisco house. So this was the year that I was like, Oh, let me I want to see if my wedding dress still fit it. Did it fit? Yeah. And so your honor.

Rick Denton  15:50  
I don't know why. Because they put

Clancy Denton  15:52  
me on the top step. And you didn't want to be but yeah, but that. So I tried it on. But this one, I love this picture. Yeah. And I have it in our bedroom. And it's the kids. Yeah. Laying on the bottom of my wedding gown.

Rick Denton  16:08  
And you're looking down at them sort of angelic and I think

Clancy Denton  16:12  
I posted this. If Facebook was around then I think it was and then I was like, Oh wait, no, this is

Rick Denton  16:19  
people are thinking blender

is really I really did enjoy this again. I don't remember what we did or where we went.

Clancy Denton  16:31  
Probably nowhere. That's probably why Yeah, open a bottle of wine. Yeah,

Rick Denton  16:35  
sat there at home. But it first of all, wow, you look great being back there in the wedding dress. And just it was so beautiful and fun to remember, kind of like we're doing now. Yeah. Because this would have if the other one was six. This is what seven, eight something right? And what you're starting to get well, that's that seven year itch, all those kinds of things. It's really nice to go back and look just like we're doing an empty nest. Now.

Clancy Denton  16:59  
Remember the memories. And when we talked about I don't necessarily remember what year it was around. But it was when we were in our first go house that we did. We took a trip out of Scottsdale Phoenix places, you know, because we were like, we've got to figure some things out because there were things that just weren't working. Right. So and it probably was Yeah. And that's

Rick Denton  17:22  
probably well, that's a whole different conversation that we we kind of talked about it. But while these are pictures that show delight and the excitement, that kind of stuff, that sort of that was the the reality of marriage can be incredibly hard. And so working through that choosing to work through it allowed us to be able to be talking about a 24th anniversary, as opposed to this being some of the last photos. Yeah, yeah.

Clancy Denton  17:44  
So let's see. Oh, then this was this was year 10. We asked. Yeah, we went to what your mom, your mom, your sister and Steven were living in San Francisco. So we saw them the first night and then we went out to Napa and made sure we got the

Rick Denton  18:04  
Napa thing I keep saying it but really good. Now this is where my hair had already started thinning. So the hairstyle has changed. If you notice that is no longer sliced across, but rather spiked up in the

Clancy Denton  18:17  
air which I'm kind of blond, again, shorter, but blonde and those sunglasses. I was just about to say I have on humongous sunglasses.

Rick Denton  18:25  
I was looking at mine in this case. Oh my goodness back. Okay, that was a fun trip. And we've talked about getting out to now but that is a great place to spend time as a couple. We enjoyed that. It's would be great with friends as well. We this was the one where we did that group limo Wine Experience, which was fun. But it's one of those where you're paired with random people. And yeah, while we were doing things, we're still somewhat budget oriented here. And so that was allowed us to do the limo experience and you go to nine I don't have any wineries, but you don't know what they are. And what's interesting, though, is in this group, there was a couple or several people I think we were three. Yeah, no, we

Clancy Denton  19:04  
weren't the only one. Wow. Well, there was only because I saw the picture of all there are only six of us.

Rick Denton  19:09  
So maybe one couple didn't drink any thinking. And that's fine. We don't have any problems you don't drink but why would you go to a winery tour? So we had a blast. Yeah, we got all their samples, I think yeah.

Clancy Denton  19:20  
Yeah, that was fun. That was a really fun trip. And we had also remember we were down to the wire our pool had just been put in Yeah, we had our neighbor luckily they had done theirs and so we're like can you come over and make sure that it's filled the pool? Yeah, the kids wanted to get in it so bad because I'm sure they were staying with my parents but they're probably coming back and forth

Rick Denton  19:44  
and just the simple mechanics. Yeah.

Clancy Denton  19:46  
I mean, it was the night we were like oh my gosh, get those always something else it oops, I skipped okay. So this I don't remember what year this was either. But so this one was another we went to Thailand.

Rick Denton  20:02  
I think I just saw this memory is in the range of like 12 to 14 years ago. So that would put us okay. 2010

Clancy Denton  20:08  
was Napa so this was

Rick Denton  20:12  
the wrong way around maybe somewhere so Thailand's a good place to celebrate an anniversary. Yeah.

Clancy Denton  20:17  
It was awesome. See,

Rick Denton  20:19  
I did upgrade for Hawaii. I even went further across the Pacific with you on this one.

Clancy Denton  20:24  
And we did. We chose Thailand because my brother was living there at the time, and yeah, this was an amazing trip. The beaches are beautiful.

Rick Denton  20:34  
We did a few days in Bangkok, the city, which that wouldn't replace such amazing food super cheap, amazing. Well, no, we stayed with Chad, which were great accommodations that trip. And then we went out to Koh Samui specifically is the island that we went to it stayed at the Intercontinental there and was spectacular.

Clancy Denton  20:52  
And I think we did we do Hong Kong on this trip to think we did Hong Kong first. So yeah, because you were working. I think you actually worked maybe? Yeah.

Rick Denton  21:07  
It was Thailand was certainly the focus of it. And Chad set us up on some great tours in Bangkok. And the beach was just athletes. Tiger and that was when he was noon was with us on that trip as well. They weren't married then. Yeah. It was nice to, I guess, begin to plant the seeds of a relationship with the woman who would become our sister in law. Yeah.

Clancy Denton  21:27  
So see, so that was definitely a good, good trip.

Rick Denton  21:32  
Can't wait to go back.

Clancy Denton  21:34  
This was just a staycation that we did one year at the granite Park. That's at the sushi restaurant. There. Oh, yeah.

Rick Denton  21:45  
Okay, got it. You can tell that I'm struggling to figure out where this is. Thank you for the reminder there.

Clancy Denton  21:50  
So yeah, so there were a lot of years in between that. While couple I was like, Oh, he took Tegan camping on our anniversary. I didn't put those in here.

Rick Denton  22:00  
Because it's Memorial Day weekend, right? That's when a kid can go camping and that sort of thing. Yeah. So

Clancy Denton  22:05  
y'all did that we definitely had. So this was what I was saying. When we thought we picked Memorial Day. Yay. When you have a child who plays competitive soccer, there's a tournament every freaking Memorial. So we anniversary of our anniversaries on the soccer field.

Rick Denton  22:24  
A an Osprey and Yeti cup and a toast to our anniversary sitting in camp chairs sweating to death.

Clancy Denton  22:31  
Yeah. And I. Yeah, I didn't put any of those pictures in. But yeah, you know, I think we probably still tried to find some way to acknowledge but I mean, you and I have even gotten to the point now that, you know, we don't even do cards. We don't do you know, they'll they'll be?

Rick Denton  22:50  
I think it's because you and I have found it. Well, two things. One, you and I have commented on how gifts can be such a challenge when at this age when we don't really into stuff. Yeah. And well, typically, if you need or want stuff, you've purchased it on your own. Yeah. So gift giving can certainly for me, I am not a a really good gift giver. It's something that I wish I were better, but I'm not. And so we've kind of on this one said, we're going to experience time together, whether it's a big old trip or just time together. But yeah, Carson and the stuff and we have

Clancy Denton  23:24  
done you know, I obviously don't have you know, but I know there's times that we've scheduled massages, and then we'd go to dinner Do you know but and obviously we don't have pictures of that but so let's say yeah, so this was just another just random staycation little that we did. Oh yeah, cuz we did one I think two I don't know if that was for nursery at all. We stayed and went to del frescoes grill and our adult frescoes in Dominican sands. No. Well, we did that too. But I don't know if that was the anniversary though. Yeah, that was at the W and there were pictures from that one. Now when we went to shop or legacy West and stayed at that hotel, oh, the renaissance fair. Yeah. And then but that may have been there's also times that you and I like throughout and especially when the kids got older that were like, we just need to go and get away from the house for a night and so we would just do let's see what's next. This one I just know for a fact that we are going to capital for girl because the Facebook posts all popped up today. So here we are in our car going Capital Grille.

Rick Denton  24:45  
Well, I don't have a new reaction to this. I'm just glad to actually my reaction is okay, I remember this car. This was the suburban this was the silver suburban I believe because it's the TV that pops.

Clancy Denton  24:55  
The white one was gone by Yeah. I think the White well anyway anyway, so yeah, but yeah, that one was that

Rick Denton  25:05  
I think you're hearing a recurring theme that we do like our nice meals when it comes to anniversaries when we when we take the time to dwell and

Clancy Denton  25:14  
not to sound like hoity toity toity. But that was the struggle we had, trying to figure out where we wanted to go this year because we're like, well, we just go sit up at the bar at Perry's now are we go sit at the bar and Capitol grill or we go Are we up to not yet okay. So okay, this one I put in here, but do you remember this one? It seasons, seasons, the

Rick Denton  25:41  
seasons 52 plays anymore? Because we went there. We like twice. We got in fights there. This was one but there was another time that we got. I don't remember the other one. Yeah, but uh, yeah, this was the anniversary because they seated us in the back and I was snippy about it. And I don't even remember you maybe reacted to my snappiness. And then I got I mean,

Clancy Denton  26:00  
but then we just gotten into something else, too. I don't know. Yeah, this was not

Rick Denton  26:04  
a fight of substance. This was a fight of just two stupid people. And so look at our smiles, but those aren't real.

Clancy Denton  26:14  
Those are fake.

Rick Denton  26:18  
Yeah, maybe needed to drink a little more, ya know, it

Clancy Denton  26:22  
might have been the opposite. But anyways, yeah. So I put that one in there, though. And I love that shirt. And I almost was like, oh, I should wear it. And then I was like, Nope, I still have it. I'm like, I've worn it. Like, I think that's the only time I've worn it. Maybe one other and I love it. I was like, Nope, I'm not wearing it.

Rick Denton  26:42  
We have gone back since this fight. But that restaurant has been pretty much a tainted because of that experience. And

Clancy Denton  26:50  
I don't that restaurant to me is but anyways, this one was the French restaurant, kiddo.

Rick Denton  26:58  
Or was that the

Clancy Denton  27:00  
one? Yeah. So nice. I liked that French place. Yeah. Yeah, it's smaller than cadeau may have been an anniversary. JC No, I think that was just a random. Yeah. So um, so yeah. So again, this one is very picture heavy. So if you're listening. Okay. But yeah, but

Rick Denton  27:20  
we are aging. So there's this

Clancy Denton  27:22  
one was just probably a couple of years ago. I know. But I bet this was three

Rick Denton  27:26  
years ago. 21. Because

Clancy Denton  27:30  
was Costa Rica. Costa Rica. Yeah. So that was 22 I think. Because it wasn't last summer. Okay. All right. Well, there we go. So, yeah, so we got to we took the kids I mean, the kids are with us, but we

Rick Denton  27:44  
we did celebrate a nice restaurant at the hotel. Yeah. Yeah. And I guess the background doesn't quite show. It's this gorgeous, lush. Down to the ocean. You actually see the ocean there. It was a spectacular. Purple. indigo sky was setting it was all open air. Now we're shiny because we are sweating.

Clancy Denton  28:09  
And my hair is pulled over to the side because you could not wear it down. You might

Rick Denton  28:13  
as well just assume. Yeah, that was that was I'd forgotten about this one that trip. I really do love Costa Rican. I love that. We started with the engagement photo at coasters. Right. This was this was this was this was our first time back. Yeah. Yeah. And so yeah,

Clancy Denton  28:30  
it was nice to be there for our anniversary. Yeah, it was nice. Yeah. So Oh, and this. I guess we went to Austin last summer. I guess we took Tegan and no, we went down there and the murals that are not the

Rick Denton  28:46  
one that's on our coaster. Wow, that was a kisses on a coaster for years ago. That's right. This is nice. This

Clancy Denton  28:51  
one was was our anniversary weekend down there. And I'm sure we didn't really do anything. Not much

Rick Denton  28:58  
of that. Yeah, during that time. So I really like that dress.

Clancy Denton  29:02  
Well, it's in the closet downstairs

Rick Denton  29:03  
into that dress. That's a good one.

Clancy Denton  29:07  
I like how your company on

Rick Denton  29:10  
Well, could you look good. My eyes are drawn to a pretty woman. So

be glad that I'm looking at going what um, you know, there

Clancy Denton  29:20  
have been some for me, but yes. For me, like me saying to myself, but

Rick Denton  29:27  
you're just keeping it. You're looking at what we

Clancy Denton  29:30  
commented on the balloony shorts and the big was the style. So that style. Yeah, so that was last year and then this this was this year.

Rick Denton  29:45  
That was nice. Yeah.

Clancy Denton  29:49  
I wanted the picture of us inside but

Rick Denton  29:51  
yeah, it is. I don't know there's something and maybe it's just because it's us presently. I like us. I you know, that's not the 20s Don't think yes, we have age on ourselves. We have

Clancy Denton  30:02  
oh, no, I think we look better now than we did and some of our other.

Rick Denton  30:07  
That's great. I'm glad that we feel that way about ourselves, which sounds so smug on this, like if anybody cut this clip? Oh, yeah, we look great. But I like us now. And I don't know that I'm not. I don't know that that's just an appearance statement. I think I like us now, which is a great place to be after 24 years of marriage. No, we haven't figured everything out. I still screw things up, you still screw things up? This is both I think both the image and just the reality of our current marriage experience is one that I really delight in. And I'm glad that we are where we are after 24 years.

Clancy Denton  30:45  
Yeah, I don't know. If 10 years ago, we could just sit up in these chairs and banter back and forth like we do. We've always had a good relationship. But I you know, I don't know, I feel I feel the same way. I feel like we are really clicking right now. Like and and have been for the past and,

Rick Denton  31:12  
and we still fight. And we still, like I said get to know each other. But yeah, I think that's part of the clicking is when that happens. We recognize it. We handle it we move on. And I think that's kind of hanging back almost to the theme. Again, this is unscripted, I didn't know which pictures are in here. Of the empty nest is. When handled right. I think we're finding I don't want to say things that then three years when I look back and go Well, that was foolish. You didn't know what you didn't know, right? Just like a person in their first year marriage doesn't know what they don't know. But I do know this that we walked into the season of empty nest with trepidation. I know that I specifically was worried what how are we going to interact? What are we going to do without the kids as an excuse for activities or even just simple conversation? And to be able to look at this picture sorry for the monologue here, but to look at this picture? And yes, look at two good looking people in my mind. And I don't care if anybody else thinks differently. I don't. And that's part of it is I don't care what other people think and but also know how that represents how I feel about you and how I feel about us what we've been able to do since episode one, marking the beginning of the emptiness back in August.

Clancy Denton  32:22  
Yeah. It will be interesting to see what this next year brings. Because, you know, half of our children will be back here. And one was that you know, and yes, not living. Close, close. And, you know, so that cuts down kind of on focus on Arizona, for him to you know, we still have Tegan out there. So we will obviously be going I'm looking

Rick Denton  32:54  
forward to that, that we get to focus. Like she gets all our focus when we go and I think it'll

Clancy Denton  32:58  
be interesting because even yesterday, and this comes again to you know, what did we do yesterday, we went looked at possible apartments for tainer. Because he's not here right now. So we're trying to kind of help him out a little bit, went mattress shopping, and we went shopping shopping and we didn't kill each other. So you know, that was good.

Rick Denton  33:19  
If we done one more store, I think you might have taken out it was run. Yeah,

Clancy Denton  33:24  
I was done. Like when we went into the Nordstrom Rack that it was I was like, This is why I don't Saturday shop because it was too crowded. So yeah, but yeah, you know, we we enjoy, really enjoy spending time with each other. And I'm so thankful that we do and still do. You know, we, we started off as friends. It wasn't for very long. But when we first met each other, we just instantly clicked I mean, and just at first as friends and then it morphed into something else, you know. So it just still shows me that we still do just we can go back to that time of friendship that some couples probably don't necessarily have.

Rick Denton  34:24  
And it takes work as we even talked about at the beginning of this emptiness stuff, how shoot we're going to Fort Worth, and we're doing these sort of things almost to just remind our relationship muscles, what it meant to be just friends of the two of us rather than a four of us scenario. And I think now that so we don't really need that every single weekend our muscles have been relationship muscles have been reawakened and can take that forward now was friends. Yeah.

Clancy Denton  34:55  
And I think the

Rick Denton  34:57  
word thinking of all those songs I sorry when he said It started as friends have become lovers you know secret

I mixed like seven songs in my head. Yeah.

Clancy Denton  35:10  
Yeah, cuz I don't think that one though that secret

Rick Denton  35:12  
lovers. Yeah. It's not a good first tree

Clancy Denton  35:18  
unless you're about to tell me something.

Rick Denton  35:22  
The 24th version brought to you by Ashley Madison.

Clancy Denton  35:28  
I think the word and I've, I've liked this word and it started getting kind of buzzy. I don't know how many years ago but as being intentional, I think you have to be intentional in your relationships in all your relationships, but especially the most important relationship was, you know,

Rick Denton  35:50  
back and think we got this thing. Yeah.

Clancy Denton  35:55  
Yeah, so that's an I put in, you know, they Oh, they did our little true. Yeah, yeah. Very good. And is

Rick Denton  36:02  
a little bit of a little beginning and ending. Well, it's not an ending, sorry, but a marker is it was under a severe weather storm, and there were severe tornadoes. So I guess that's, yeah. Hey, everybody. If the Germans are celebrating a wedding or anniversary, go to your safe place.

Clancy Denton  36:20  
And it was kind of fun. Because while we were there celebrating our 24 years, there was a rehearsal dinner going on in the room, the back around the private room. So that was kind of that was fun, fun to see. So

Rick Denton  36:35  
it was fun. I'm glad you pulled those pictures together for us to enjoy anniversary, because as we've said, this is a recurring theme. But the memories of the past help reignite the excitement of the present. And secure the stability the future.

Clancy Denton  36:52  
Wow, put that 

Rick Denton  36:53  
that's what the heck was that?

Clancy Denton  36:56  
Put that on a t shirt or Oh, no. Let's make an inspirational calendar. Where did that come from? 

Rick Denton  37:01  
I have no idea. 

Clancy Denton  37:03  
You better go back and listen. We'll have it right.

Rick Denton  37:09  
Oh my goodness. available for purchase. That's a big long t shirt.

Clancy Denton  37:15  
Oh, you can make a poster. Okay.

Rick Denton  37:17  
I'll do that. Maybe with a cat hanging on a tree or something. It'll be a success story for offices. Oh, goodness. Well, the laughter continues week after week, which is nice. Which is nice because perhaps the next I don't know we may be taking a break from recording as my mom's services next week. We'll

Clancy Denton  37:35  
just we'll see when we get back and we'll see what it's like y'all but if

Rick Denton  37:39  
we skip a week, then we'll be back after that. Once again, kiddo, it is most certainly the loud quiet, living the empty nest

Transcribed by https://otter.ai