Where Love Lives

23 years. 

That is a really long time to have happened so quickly. As Big D says, we've loved each other half our lives.  At the ripe old age of 21, I was done with love. I had been in bad relationships, good relationships, dated, stayed single, I had done it all. I was done. I think I was just burnt out. I worked 3 jobs and went to school full time. I think I was just about done with everything. Then he walked in my life, again. See, I had met Big D years earlier. A big, quiet man, I never thought he paid me any attention at all. At 6'4", a quiet guy is an intimidating one. Until the night he walked back in. I rounded a corner and there he was, his back to me. I can still see it like a scene in a movie. I walked up, he turned his head to look at me over his left shoulder. I swear, I didn't see anything else as we locked eyes. It is so campy to say, but it really was as if the world stopped. He likes to say he knew I was the one from our first date. I think however, we both knew maybe at that moment when we locked gazes. I did, anyway. 

He became a kind of mission for me. I flirted and acted so stupid to get attention that he didn't seem to want to give. While frustrating, it was the sweetest most admirable thing he could do to ignore me. He was taken. As a wife to him now of 23 years, that is a rare and coveted thing, loyalty. So I waited. For what like seemed 6 months, we talked casually and became friends. After a long time he finally asked me out. We had our first date on December 17, 1994. We have been together ever since. We dated for 2 months, got engaged and were married 6 months later. In less than a year, we dated, got engaged and married all before our first dating anniversary. People thought we were crazy or I'm sure pregnant. Crazy maybe but hopelessly in love for sure. 

Our love story has had many chapters over the years. The best recipe I can give for a happy marriage though, is this:

• Pray
• Forgive
• Compromise
• Laugh

Combining all of these things will insure a wonderful relationship that will only get better with time. While ours is far from perfect, we are perfect for one another. So celebrate with me today, this our 23rd wedding anniversary!

Danny, you really are the best thing that ever happened to me. You are the kind of husband and father to our children that I prayed for as a little girl. I am so blessed to be your wife. Your unfailing patience has taught me so much. I would  not have wanted to grow up with anyone else.  Thank you for loving me when I am not so loveable and mostly, thank you for sharing and cheering me on in this dream of mine, The Buttered Home. I hope our love lives here many more years to come. I Love and Live you!