My heart was racing a mile a minute. My palms were getting sweaty.
“Why? Why is he opening this darn card now? This wasn’t the plan!” I thought to myself.
As Chris opened the card, I don’t think he truly knew what he was going to read. Could I run to my cousin’s Hyundai Sonata fast enough before he pulled the whole card out of the envelope?
Eh. Probably not. I’d fall and hurt myself before even reaching the car. I just had to wait it out.
There he stood outside the driver’s side door, glancing over the front of the card that said, “I’m always telling people how great I think you are,” as he opened it, the inside not only said, “and today I am telling you” but in my handwriting was a note asking him to go out with me. How would he respond?
I felt like he was taking forever to read it.
He looked up at me with a smile on his face. I was just waiting patiently for him to answer me. I had never asked any boy out before. “This was crazy. What was I thinking? He was probably not even into me,” I thought.
“Why the hell not!” Chris said.
I giggled.
“I’m assuming that’s a yes?” I asked.
“Yup,” he said.
Inside, I was jumping up and down for joy!
We exchanged numbers and hugged each other goodbye.
My family and I were getting ready to move into an old farmhouse off Grimesville Road and leave my childhood home on Roosevelt Ave. during this time. It was a crazy time as the phone rang that next day on our old white corded phone that hung from the kitchen wall.
“Andrea. Phone is for you!” my mom yelled.
It was my friend Danny. She was also friends with Chris because she was dating one of Chris’s best friends. She asked if the four of us could go on a date. (Didn’t take Chris long to tell people we were dating! This made me happy.) I asked my parents, but they wouldn’t let me because they didn’t know Chris or Danny at that point. I was so bummed — but felt like I understood why.
Once we moved into Grimesville Road, I had way more space to ride my dirt bike. Chris came over a few weeks later to meet my parents, and we had our first “official” date of riding dirt bikes together on a Sunday afternoon. That evening, he was introduced to our famous Sunday night dinner special of nachos, cheese, and ice cream. He still says to this day that he knew he was going to marry me after that! The nachos blew his mind, and to this day, we do nachos and cheese every Sunday night.
Our relationship grew as the years went on. He was older than me and sometimes that got tough as I had a curfew, and he didn’t. He could drive, and I couldn’t for the first year and a half of our relationship.
There were hurdles, for sure.
He was 17, and I was 14. He graduated a year before me, (he was one of the oldest in his class and I was the youngest in mine) which was also really tough. My senior year was awful not having him there with me. Seeing all these other couples holding hands in the hallways and walking each other to class. The year couldn’t go fast enough.
A year after graduating, I was engaged to Chris at the age of 18, and we bought a home right below my parents.
It was a fixer-upper, but it had land and potential. As most of you know, he proposed to me on Candy Cane Lane on December 19, 2004. We bought our home in May of 2005 and spent the time fixing it before moving in after our wedding, which was on September 17, 2005. One of the happiest days of my life besides the births of our two beautiful kids. Oh, and graduating high school. That’s high up there, too, with “THE BEST DAY EVER.”
Our first year of marriage was tough as we dealt with the death of Chris’s father and my parents getting a divorce. We always said if we can get through that, we could get through anything.
July 28, 2009, we had our son Tyler, who looked just like his daddy.
January 11, 2014, we had our daughter Kenzy, who also looked just like her daddy. Life felt complete at 28 years old, and our love for each other only grew stronger. We had a handsome son and a beautiful daughter to share our lives with. We made a family of our own to start traditions and share our love for each other, our passions, our religion, our story, and so much more with these two wonderful kids.
Chris and I just have a relationship that I can’t explain. It just comes easy. It’s truly never been hard for us. We share the same love for many things like motorcycles, food, music, cars, spending time together, and traditions built with our kids.
Our family time is important to us.
Our time at night just laying close together watching our favorite shows is one of our favorite things. Just watching an hour of our shows before hitting Dreamland is something we enjoy and how we unwind at night. It’s our thing, our time together.
Just like riding motorcycles together is our thing. How taking the kids out on the boat on a hot Sunday afternoon is our thing. How going out to eat each weekend with our kids and crew is our thing. How sharing new rock and roll songs with each other is our thing — how Sunday night nachos are our thing. How texting each other throughout a workday just saying, “Hi babe! Just want to let you know how appreciative I am of you! I love our love for each other, and I feel it grows stronger each day. Have a wonderful day! Love you lots,” is our thing. (That text was from my husband; it was just sent to me today, actually!)
How always working together is our thing. It’s about taking time not only for each other but also with family and friends!!
Twenty-five years together, and it never gets old. I love this man so much and our life together.
I love our kids more than life itself, and this is all because of young love that turned into falling in love and became true love. All because I changed math classes — THREE times.
Two lives joined together, and we had no idea what kind of life we were about to build.
I love our past story. I love our present life, and I look forward to our future.
I am so thankful for my forever Valentine and my little Valentines, who make me proud to be their momma.
Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!! I hope your day is filled with love.
Quick & Easy Valentine’s Drink
You’ll need a smooth clear glass.
Take a spoon, dunk it into Fluffernutter.
Place the back of the spoon into the glass and press along the glass to make one side of the heart. Re-dip the spoon to make the other side of the heart inside the glass.
Edge glass with fluff with a spoon and dip into fun Valentine’s sprinkles!
Then, fill with strawberry milk.
On Valentines, I’m going to do this, but make pink Oreo milkshakes and place in it!
Just make your favorite pink drink with these adorable festive glasses and show your family a little LOVE.
