A Decade of Marriage

Ten years ago today I did not know what the future held, but I knew I wanted Joe to be a part of it. And so I stood in front of the pastor, in front of family and friends and said, "I do". I remember it clearly - racing up the tiny hill, pulling my brother (who was walking me down the aisle) along with me and everyone smiling, some sort of laughing as a) I did not like all the attention on me and b) I simply could not wait to be beside my groom.

And as some may not know the story and someday the kids might be kind of interested, I thought I would share the story of how Joe and I came to be a couple.

I cannot really say exactly when we met because truth be told, I do not know. Was it elementary, Jr High or high school when my brother would have first brought one of his best friends home to hang out? I just know that at the time and through all the years of school, he was nothing more than one of my brother's geeky friends.

Fate would change when after high school Joe sprained his ankle, rendering him unable to join the Marine Corps reserves as planned. Joe then signed up for some classes at the community college and took a job as a cashier at a video store. The same video store where I happened to work as the manager. It was here that we became friends in our own right - aside from the fact that he was one of my brother's best friends. I was attracted to him from very early on but I was not in a good place at the time. I was not ready for the kind of relationship I knew I would want with him and so not knowing whether he felt the same, we continued to become friends, hanging out with our circle of friends outside of work, flirting with each other when we worked shifts together. We both dated other people during this time. And here is the fun part of the story.

Joe was getting ready to leave the video store for another job but during his time there, he had been promoted to crew leader. He was dating one of the cashier's from the store, something that according to policy was not allowed. He had a little too much to drink at the company Christmas party and it became obvious to the powers that be that he was involved with the girl. The owner then came to me as the manager and asked me to let Joe go early. Later on this turned out to be a big joke because he will tell people I fired him due to my uncontrolled jealousy.

It would be about 5 months after that Christmas party that Joe and I would finally admit our mutual feelings toward each other and began dating in April of 1996. And for the record, I made the first move. LOL! It got intense pretty quickly and although our friends (my brother included) never saw it for more than a passing fling, we endured. Two years later, after a rough spot in our relationship, I realized that I could not live without him and he realized that he still very much wanted to be a Marine. We decided to take the journey together, getting engaged before he entered boot camp and marrying only several days after he graduated.

Our journey has taken us places we never imagined. We spent a year in Okinawa Japan, made life-long friends while living in the trailer park at Camp Pendleton just minutes from the ocean and I traveled to Hawaii to greet his ship returning from the war in Iraq. But it was at this point in our marriage, that our lives were altered the most, when Joe gave me something that before meeting him I never even thought I wanted - a family.

And so I look back on the last 10 years, I look at the man I married, the man I still love and to Jake and Jadyn and the family that we created. I never knew what the future held, but if I could have had my wildest dreams realized, I don't think I could have imagined it any better than this.

Happy Anniversary Joe!