18 years

June 21, 1995

I spent the day getting ready for a blind-ish date.

I say "ish" because I knew who he was.  

We had mutual friends.

We had talked in person - 1 time - a year prior.

But the reason for our actual date was the involvement of an elderly man we both knew.

The date was planned.

At 6:30pm I sat on my front porch, along with my parents, and waited.

He pulled up.

Met my folks.

And we headed out.

That evening was by far the best night of my life.

I've had many, many great days and nights since that moment.

But nothing will ever compare to that night.  

We laughed.

We talked without stopping

The feelings of a first date...the butterflies, the silly laughter, the joy!

It's a first I won't forget.

I was 18 years old.

That first date was 18 years ago.  

We looked JUST. LIKE. THIS.

Our Dad is better than your dad!

He's patient.

He's gentle.

He's kind.

He's the best dad for these kids...and their sister (who was probably outside playing with her spider).

And he's smoking hot.  Who can ask for more?

SNAKE!!!!

I wasn't there to witness the beginning of this event.

But the retelling had me dying laughing...

Here's how it happened...

Our neighbor/friend/landlord knocked on the door and told us that there was a pretty large snake in his shed.  And because he knows my Princess, he automatically wanted to give her the chance to see it.

The Princess was showering.

My first instinct was to NOT tell her.

My hubby went out to the shed to check out the snake.

When he came back inside he said, "We have to let her go look at it.  It's huge!"

Against my better judgement.

And because I'm such a great mom.

And because I knew two adult men would be with her

I said, "FINE."

She rocketed out of her room, after a reminder that she needed clothes (small detail), and headed for the shed.

As I understand the story, the snake was kind of behind a tractor-ish machine (leave me alone about my lack of farm equipment knowledge)

The two adult men were with the Princess.

One of them had a tool...I think a hoe with a long handle.

The Princess walked directly to the snake, bent down and petted it on the head.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME???

As she sat in front of it, the men could see the back end of what appeared to be a 5 to 6 foot snake

it began to coil up.

Suddenly, the snake recoiled.

The men jumped

There may have been some gasping.

The Princess wasn't phased.

She and the man with the hoe walked around the tractor (or maybe it was just a mower, who knows) to look for the snake.

Apparently, the snake started to make a break for freedom - heading outside.

That's when the Princess decided to alter the future.

She jumped onto the snake.

ONTO

People, this is not normal behavior for a 12 year old girl.

The details of what the men/guardians were doing at this moment are sketchy at best.

In my mind, they were screaming like girls.

As the story goes,

The Princess had that snake in her hands in a matter of seconds.

At some point in the process she said, "he got me!"

I missed it all.

God is good.

I was sitting inside, happily oblivious until my husband came in and said, "You need to come see what your daughter is holding."

"And you might want to grab your camera."

**Not pictured is the moment she was wearing it like a scarf.

16 Years, and counting. I do.

Some if the hardest promises we make in our lifetime. 

I, take you, 

to be my husband, 

to have 

and 

to hold 

from this day forward, 

for better 

or 

for worse, 

for richer, 

for poorer, 

in sickness 

and 

in health, 

to love 

and

to cherish; 

from this day forward 

until death do us part.

Timing

It's interesting how things have a way of working out.

How frustrations can turn to quiet realizations.

Today was one of those days for me.

We have been planning to make the 9 hour drive to Texas to celebrate a graduation.

Our plans were to leave the big kids

Take the little Knight

Load up and head to Texas

Crash at my bother, sister-in-law, and niece's house

And celebrate graduation with some of our very best friends.

Instead...

We left the big kids

Took the little Knight

Loaded up and headed TOWARDS Texas.

We were about 30 miles into Oklahoma.  2 hours into our drive when we came to a complete stop on the Interstate.

Up ahead we could see some concerning clouds and I decided to check the weather radar.

What on earth did people do without SmartPhones?

The radar looked pretty ominous.

We flipped on the local radio station and within minutes the announcer started giving locations of Tornado Warnings.  We were 30 miles north of all storms.  But...our trip would take us right into the middle of what became four different tornado warnings all along our route.

Couple of thoughts ran through my mind:

First, before we left earlier in the day, my Prince had pulled me aside and said, "Mom, do me a favor.  Pinkie promise that you won't drive into a tornado."  I happily pinkie-promised.

Second, my thoughts circled around the fact that my life is not my own these days.  I owe it to 3 kiddos to be safe and cautious.  I get that it sounds extreme.  But knowingly driving into tornado warnings seems dumb.  And I am certain my family members, who would be left to raise my children if my husband and I died, are happy with my line of thinking.

After some talking and a brief stop for ice-cream to give the storms a chance to get better or get worse...we decided that our best option was to turn around and head back home.

In the end we drove 5 hours for ice-cream.

Back home we had dinner with Nana and Papa and the big kids.  Everyone played in the yard and enjoyed the evening, despite the change in plans.

Everyone except me.

I felt awful.

Sad to miss graduation.

Disappointed to change plans.

Guilty that we were not going to be able to be with our friends during this big event in their lives!

All of it.

As we drove home to put the little Knight into bed for the night, we talked about getting up in the morning and heading back out on the road.  If we left at 5a.m. we could make it just in time.  Just talking about it began to lift my sour mood.

As my husband was putting pj's on the Knight, he said, "feel his back?"

I did.

Fire.

I felt his head.

Surely not.

He had been fine all day.

I checked again.

But his skin was hot.

Turns out it was 102 and climbing.

All of a sudden, all of the frustration I felt about missing the trip dissolved as I considered a trip 9 hours from home, staying at someone else's house, with a sick baby.

And then he puked all over everything.

And I realized...those storms in the middle of Oklahoma today were really just a big nudge.  (**Ok, I'm kidding.  I don't really think the storm warnings were for me, specifically.)  But I found myself grateful that it happened the way it did.  That we turned around.  And that the moment my little Knight spiked a fever and puked all over the bed, we were in our house with our washing machine and multiple changes of clothes.

It really is interesting how things have a way of working out.