Don't marry the person you think you can live with; marry only the individual you think you can't live without. ~James C. Dobson

Chris and I dated for the remaining years of high school and basically all through college. There were times college held us apart and times we each needed to figure out our own life paths. We gave eachother just as much hurt as love. But we were ment to be. We were never apart for long. Finally, one day Chris starts talking about me living with him. This of course was after we had already had conversations that I would not live with him (again) until we were married. So naturally I started planning the wedding. I asked him when he wanted to do it and we kinda just pointed to the calendar and went with the day. It was Friday September 24, 1999. As it turns out this was a great day to get married. Plans were tricky~ but I had a great wedding!!!!

Love doesn't sit there like a stone, it has to be made, like bread; remade all of the time, made new. ~Ursula K. LeGuin

10th wedding anniversary

snowboarding together

Hanging out in Glacier National Park.

2006
Sherman joined our family long before we were even married. He put up with a lot.

Devil's Tower 2005

Big Horn Mountains 2005

Christmas 2002

HoneyMoonin' Gooseberry Falls, MN

I do, I do, I do!!!!

Prom 1994

Dating 1993. Chris gave me my dog Otis.

We loved with a love that was more than love. ~Edgar Allan Poe

Love - a wildly misunderstood although highly desirable malfunction of the heart which weakens the brain, causes eyes to sparkle, cheeks to glow, blood pressure to rise and the lips to pucker. ~Author Unknown

Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same. ~Emily Brontë

The summer before I met Chris, I had been on a 4-H exchange trip to Colorado. Now this summer the 4-Hers we stayed with were coming to Minnesota. I had been matched up with Beth Oliver and she was great to hang out with. One of our activities after they got here was a night out at Torge's. It was a fun place to hang out. I invited Chris to come along that night and he escorted both Beth and I to the club. Beth, Melissa, Elaine and I tried to play a game of pool, but we had no skills to show off in front of my new boyfriend. It took us forever to get done playing. We danced some and then a slow song came on. Not necessarily one of my favorites, but one that got Chris out onto the dance floor. It was When a man Loves a Woman by Michael Bolton. We held hands until we got onto the dance floor and then did the stand and dance in a circle thing, with his arms around my waist, my arms around his neck. Not knowing what to do next. Do we stand apart? Do I put my head on his shoulder? Do we talk or just stare into eachothers eyes? Things are always so complicated when you are 16!

You know you're in love when you don't want to fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams. ~Dr. Seuss

Chris and I lived about 50 minutes or so away from eachother (depending on who was driving). We saw eachother once a week and when I was lucky twice a week. I didn't get to go out just whenever I wanted to. There was always some sweet talking to do to Dad to keep him happy too. Every Saturday I would bake him a pie. It started out with apple or cherry, but I had three hungry brothers in the house that seemed to like my pies as well. So soon it changed to always being minced meat pie.

I was happy going out with Chris, but I knew he had alot of girls in his class (like 30girls vs 6 guys). Girls that liked him. I knew he knew them much better than me and I never really saw how he interacted with them, so soon after school started back up I felt that our relationship probably wasn't strong enough for long distance. This was about six months into our relationship. I was nervous until one day I had stayed after school to use the computers in the library for homework. It was our six month anniversary and VERY much to my surprise Chris comes in with a balloon (with my name spelled correctly on it too!)and roses for me for our anniversary!! This wasn't just a nice gesture on his part~he had basketball practice, it was his bowling night and there was a blizzard that he drove an hour in to see me. I never doubted him after that.

Some people come into our lives and quickly go. Some stay for a while, leave footprints on our hearts, and we are never, ever the same. ~Flavia Weed

This post is very important. But I am not sure how to start it. Justin was one of Chris's closest and best friends when we met. He was a large part of the reason we even met eachother. We spent many a double dates with him and partied even more.

One night we doubled with him and his girlfriend Brandy. We drove to the Cities and stopped at the mall for a short time, where he picked up a singles track "Fishin in the Dark" by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. We listened to it a few times on our way to the hockey game. I had never been to a hockey game and the guys were bringing us to a NorthStars game (vs the Blackhawks). We didn't win, but we had an amazing time! Of course I didn't know this at the time, but that was the NorthStars last year playing in MN. Justin couldn't really remember where we parked, but Chris has an excellent sense of direction and found both the car and the way home again. Now for those that don't know, at the time we lived approximately 2 hours from the Cities and that makes for a whole lot of "Fishin in the Dark"! But that night was great.

Justin stayed with Brandy for a coulple of years. They had a son together. Justin was so nervous about raising a kid. He wasn't ready and just didn't know what to do. But when Zach came, he was a good Dad.

Justin died in a car accident in 1995, only three very short years after he helped bring Chris and I together. Zach was only 2 and while I did not know Justin nearly as well as Chris and his friends, we lost and miss someone very special to us.

Sweet 16

The year was 1992. I had just turned 16. I just got my first car--Grandpa's 1976 gold Ford LTD with no air conditioning or music. I was ready to go, but I was still grounded, I had to wait. My high school friend Melissa Kiefer had been set up on a blind date at about the same time with Justin Battleson--who went to high school in Alden, MN. They were ready to double date and each had a friend in mind. On May 30th 1992, I probably changed clothes more times than I ever had in a day, trying to find something that would look good on me. I did not know much about this friend of Justin's and I was nervous. Not about what I would think of him, but how would he react to me??!

We had kind of a long drawn out night. We decided to go to a movie in Austin and saw Encino Man. Afterward we played "What do you wanna do? I don know. What do you wanna do?" The four of us drove around for a bit. Stopped at the A&W. We were all too nervous to order anything so we ended up driving around Albert lea for a while. Then of course it was my super early curfew so we had to head back.

Chris had been a good date. We really didn't talk much to each other, but ohh how I was impressed that he had both a job and his own car. That was so totally cool! Oh yeah--he was pretty cute too! We decided to go out on a second date. I was so excited. It was just going to be the two of us and I thought we would get more of a chance to talk and bond with it only being the two of us. Unfortunately, it was one of the quietest nights I have ever had. I went home crying to my Dad and telling him how Chris probably didn't like me, cuz he didn't talk to me. Yup, I was sure it was over. That's it. We are done. I liked his company and for whatever reason he did keep asking me out. We had Godfather's supreme pizza and then went to a movie every weekend. He would drive from Albertlea (Alden actually) to Dexter every weekend to take me out. I loved spending time with him. He was very thoughtful and curtious and fun.