18 Years Ago Today....

Does this 'young buck and his bride' even look remotely familiar to anyone? Yeah well good bad or otherwise, that was us 18 years ago. Today is our anniversary, I have already gotten my present, although I haven't told David yet. After living with him for this long I have learned that a little finesse in mentioning upcoming events is a must and that timing is everything. I guess I am feeling sort of nostalgic today, so I have been thinking of a 'History of Us' blog today. So here goes:
When I was a Senior in HS I started dating David. We did all the traditional things that childhood sweethearts do. We went to the Prom and all of that. I went away to college and spent a LONG semester away from my sweetie, complete with BIG phone bills and tearful goodbyes. Well with much love and feeling the need to be closer to home I transferred to the local community college, to be closer to my sweetie and to plan our wedding. We got engaged at Christmas in 1989 and married in July of 1990. I was 19, the same age as my parents when they got married, and David was such a 'mature' (sarcasm again, sorry) 24.
We sat up housekeeping in a mobile home that was/is on his/our family farm. I finished college, worked a few years and after four years of marriage, we welcomed the first of four kiddos. Cody Garrett was born on LABOR DAY (oh so appropriate!!) Sept 5th, 1994, Samuel Earl came along, four years, one month and one day later. If you're doing the math, Oct 6th, 1998. Our trailer that was such cozy quarters for newly weds, was suddenly busting at the seams. At the same time, David's parents were in the process of becoming 'empty nesters' as his sister Dawn had moved into her first home and his little sister, Beth, was in college. So we had the 'grand shuffle.' We traded houses with David's parents when Sam was about one month old. So we now live in the house that David did the majority of his 'growing up' in. Well, in perfect timing or whatever you want to call it, I have several names, but looking back perfect timing, is the right one, Jenna Claire, arrived right on schedule, four years and not quite a month after Sam. Those keeping track will note, Nov. 1st, 2002. Then we decided to mix things up a bit and Seth William, made his appearance, Nov 2nd, 2004, two years and one day after his older sister. Yes he broke the cycle and rounded out our set of kiddos.
Our hands are full and hearts are blessed with this houseful of 'family' and we have a deep friendship and appreciation for each other that I think we could have never foreseen 18 years ago. We are never him or me, unless it's I love him, or he loves me, we are just us and we.
I started this blog thinking that I wanted to give this great history of us, our lives, our town, 'Tulip' etc etc but I think I will stop after covering the most important part. Back to my gift, that I mentioned at the beginning of the blog. I am beside myself excited, for longtime readers (two months or whatever its been that I been blogging) I mentioned that we were going to get the opportunity to be a featured diarist in Farm and Ranch Living. They called this morning and we are on for August, so THAT is what I am considering to be the biggest gift today, the chance to share what we love about each other and our lives with the readers of that great magazine. When I get an opportunity, I will add their website to my list of favorites. We are supposed to be in the Dec 2008/Jan 2009 issue. This is the same company that publishes, Taste of Home, Country Woman, Birds and Blooms and many other magazines. So I guess watch for more details.
Happy Anniversary to us,
From Tulip~
KH