I guess you could say this story really starts with my dad's divorce. My dad, brother and I were living in Las Vegas, NV and I guess things weren't as bright and cheery as I had thought. It was February, I think, and my dad pulled us together and informed us that his ex-wife and him were getting divorced. Things changed pretty quickly after that. I had just started my 7th grade year, had my first boy crush and my first female best friend. Dad told us that he was supposed to start night school and thought it would be better for everyone if we moved to Texas to live with my wonderful grandparents until he was able to bring us back. (What I know now is that things were not easy at all for my dad. Two kids, single, Air Force income, bills and a pile of debt. I do not begrudge my dad his decision because it was for the best!) So I lost my friends and started life in a completely new school.
Life in Texas was pretty darn good! I met a ton of people that I still talk to now and had some crazy good friends. The hardest part was the schooling part. Once in Texas, I changed schools a total of four times between 7th and 9th grade. Originally, we lived in South Texas or the Rio Grande Valley, but when my dad married my amazing (step)mom, we moved to her home town in North Texas, near Dallas. I started the second semester at the third high school that year (2001).
I met my husband my very first day of class. Wow was he different than anyone I had ever been interested in! Wore black all the time, listened to some pretty hardcore music, and had a pretty sick sense of humor. Anyway, I basically fell in love the first time I laid eyes on him. Literally, love at first sight, though I wouldn't realize until much later.
We started dating officially in April 2001! Our first kiss wasn't until my 10th grade year and it took me four years before I was ready to go much further. We were young, in love, and felt like the whole world was against us (I laugh at this now!). My senior year, I decided things were moving too fast and I broke it off. He disappeared out of my completely for two whole months, this is especially hard in a tiny town. I was working one day and a friend of mine came in. She told me she knew where he was and blah blah blah. Later that day he was at my work. We talked, we laughed....we then broke the sink in the bathroom doing shameful things! HAHAHA!! After about a week of talking, and other things, we decided we wanted to try again. Before I knew it, we were living together before I even graduated high school (long story).
On my birthday, he took me to my favorite restaurant at the time, Olive Garden, and very nervously tried eating his dinner. Mostly he went to the bathroom a lot and pushed his food around the plate. The waitress came with our check and after looking at it, he hands it to me and say, "Look at this", while at the same time moving to pull something out of his boot. I was confused and thought he meant for me to look at his boot. I was supposed to look at the receipt and see "Will you marry me?" written at the top! Instead I watched him pull the small black ring box out of his boot, get down on one knee and look at me. I yelled, "Oh shit!" in the middle of Olive Garden and gave him a big hug. I, of course, said yes. He still makes fun of the way I messed everything up that night!
We were married two short months later, and about a month after that he left for basic training for the Army. I missed him sorely, messed so much up, grew as a person and learned so much about life. We have been married for six years this past August, and every day is a new adventure, which I hope to share with you here!
<3 <3 <3
