Forever isn't long enough...

13 years ago my life changed forever.

I was living in Minnesota and Mike was living in Indiana. We met in a chat room (cringe) and he was the first person that popped up on my screen. We bonded over the fact that we were both going through tough divorces and for the next 6 months, we shared everything about our lives with one another, the good, the bad and the ugly.  We became best friends and through our deep friendship, we fell in love.

6 months later, on October 7th 2005, we met in person and had our first date in Chicago. I didn't tell anyone that I was going except for my sister, and I didn't tell her much except that I was flying to Chicago to meet a guy I had never met. As I was coming down the escalator to baggage claim at O'Hare, I saw him waiting for me at the bottom. My heart caught in my chest and I knew in that instant that this was the man that I was going to marry.

After an amazing weekend together in Chicago, as we sat holding hands in the airport, waiting to catch flights to different states, we decided that this was it. We were going to figure out a way to be together, no matter what.

Two weeks later Mike flew to visit me for a weekend in Minnesota and the next time I saw him he was moving in with me. We spent 5 days together TOTAL before he moved to Minnesota to live me on November 15th... 39 days after we had first met in person.

We kept two separate apartments because I was too scared to tell my parents that I met a guy online who was 20 years older than me, flew to Chicago to meet him alone, and had let him move in with me. We lived together in one apartment, the other was his office/hideout for when my parents came to visit. Of course, after the first time they met him, the fell totally in love with him. So much so that I joked if it came down to it, they would choose Mike over me!


2 years later on November 28th, 2007, Mike proposed to me. I was down in the basement of our
house in Lake City, running on the treadmill. I was sweaty and gross and grumpy. Mike called down the stairs to say that he had a treat for me. My first thought was "oooooo, chocolate I hope!" I came upstairs and was met with two champagne flutes and some champagne. My second thoughts was "so, no chocolate then I guess" ;)



On the dining room table was a large wrapped gift box. I unwrapped the paper and opened the box, to find another box, to find another box, to find another box, to find another box, until I came to ring box. With tears streaming down my face, Mike gets down on one knee and asks me to be his wife.  I stink...I am so sweaty and smelly but in that moment I had never felt more special or more loved.

3 years (and 4 moves later) we got married in the backyard of our first home in Texas under a beautiful wood arbor that Mike made himself, especially for us.

The day before the wedding, my best friend Melissa and I went to JC Penney and bought my dress off of the clearance rack for $15. The morning of the wedding Mike and I picked up donuts for breakfast and our car broke down on the way home. Later that morning, Melissa and I purchased all the flowers from the grocery store down the street. We decorated the house with decorations that I made myself the week before. I did my own hair and makeup and wore a flower clip from Target in my hair. Mike wore shorts and Birkenstocks that he had that were older than me.

There were only 10 guests, including Mike and I. There were 12 if you count the officiant and the photographer...14 if you count the dogs, Lola and Sandy.

The officiant allowed us to write our own ceremony word for word, which we painstakingly did, picking out the most perfect poems and just the right words...which he then proceeded to do NONE of and just did his own thing.

After the ceremony, in all the excitement, my Mom threw handfuls of confetti RIGHT in my open mouth and I almost choked from laughing so hard.

We had food catered in from a local BBQ joint and a local woman made cupcakes (in her own kitchen) for us instead of a traditional cake. This was before cupcakes were cool.

There were touching, tear-jerking speeches and cheers and toasts all around.

We played darts and bocce ball in the backyard and drank champagne and sweet tea.

It wasn't fancy. It wasn't traditional. Things went wrong.

It was small and intimate and filled with SO much laughter and even more love.

It was absolutely perfect!

10 years and 6 more moves later, here we are. Our 10th wedding anniversary. Some were skeptical at first. We were both coming off of unhappy marriages, not to mention the 20 year age difference but none of that ever mattered to us. We knew the minute we first laid eyes on each other in the baggage claim at O'Hare that this was where we were meant to be. Neither of us have ever doubted it for one second. It hasn't always been easy or perfect, but nothing ever is. It has been a life filled with too many adventures to count, and more love than I could have ever dreamed of.

10 years ago, I married my best friend. The man who makes me laugh until my sides hurt everyday. The man who loves me just as I am, scars and all. The man who I didn't even see coming.

We have a sign that hangs in out house that pretty much sums up our relationship...

"Once in a while, right in the middle of an ordinary life, LOVE gives us a fairytale"