And Twenty Years Later....

Picture it. A small town in the mountains of Pennsylvania. Early fall, leaves are glorious colors. Two college students dressed in camouflage. Eyes locked over the barrel of a machine gun. True love abounds.

Ha! That would be the story Dave tells about how we met almost twenty-four years ago at Lock Haven University. In actuality, we met via friends within three weeks of the start of my freshman year…Dave’s junior year.

You see, I got the brilliant idea to sign up for Army ROTC for a semester…mostly to aggravate my dad who was career Navy. Yes, I was one of "those" teens we all love to hear about. Yep.

I know, payback is great. I already dread it.

Continuing on…..in signing up for ROTC, I met lots of great people who in turn, introduced us. You see, Dave was already in the ROTC program when I, on a whim, decided to enroll.

Now, Dave did show me how to shoot a machine gun, how to assemble and disassemble a rifle, complete basic Army tasks, and all that fun stuff. But that's not where our eyes first locked, contrary to what he might say.

Betcha didn’t know that, did you?

Here we are now, five towns, four kids, three houses, and two states later celebrating twenty years of marriage. Wow. Twenty years.

Flashback…..





Oh my. How young we looked.

July 8, 1989……wedding at St. Joseph Catholic Church….reception at the Carlisle Country Club….. the day it all started. Twenty-four hours later, we loaded the U-Haul truck and headed to our new life together in Vidalia, Georgia.

And never looked back.

Happy Anniversary to my best friend, the person I could not live without, and the best father I can imagine for my four babies.

I love you.