Today is a big day for Dan and I. Today is our ten year wedding anniversary. I remember the day. I remember decorating, and getting ready, and what I did before everything started. It sounds weird but I went to the gym. When I got in my car and was driving to the clubhouse to help decorate, I was flipping through the radio stations to find a good song. The scanner stopped on 94.5 (cool gold, which at this time was the oldie's music station) the song "Going to the Chappel" came on. I will admit I'm a nerd and like some of these old songs. I thought how perfect is this.
Dan and I were married on a Monday. Why a Monday? Well for a few reasons. May 20th was the anniversary of our first date. Second, anyone knows that weddings are expensive and when you pay for a wedding yourself you cut every possible corner. In the world of weddings getting married during the week is a lot less expensive and it easier to schedule dates. When we looked at getting married on a weekend it would be a year out. Dan and I did not want to wait a year to get married. We got married at Val Vista Lakes and the cost to get married there during the week plus the discount that we received because my Dad lives there was within our budget.
This post is not about our wedding but how we met and few special moments.
It May of 1999. I was attending ASU and worked part-time for the County Attorney's Office. I was a copy girl. I copied all the cases that came into our office for charging. Some cases were big and required boxes to hold everything. Other cases were smaller. I became good friends with a few attorney's and I started babysitting for them and then some of there friends. Often as a group they would all go out and I would have a bunch of kids to babysit. Usually it was a high number like 10. Dona who was a friend and I babysatt for worked at Mesquite Junior High. Her daughter Kristi was in 7th grade. I would have Kristi help me babysit and then split the cost with her. Anyways Dona would talk about someone who worked at her school and how I needed to meet him. I did not do it right away and I saw his picture in the paper one day. The school Dan worked at this time was in the paper and he was interviewed and photographed for it. After I saw him the paper I had this special feeling and I knew I needed to meet Dan. I told Dona and it ended up that I had a big babysitting job coming up.
I had Kristi help me and then I would drop the money off to Dona at the school and so I could meet Dan. Well it worked. Dona walked me around the school and pointed Dan out to me. Later I was in the office talking and in walks Dan. We talked briefly about college. He had a degree from UofA in Political Science. I was getting a degree in Criminal Justice. We bothed liked history and he knew I was interested in Law Enforcment. My ultimate job was to work for the Forest Service. Well the following weekend I had another big babysitting job and so the same routine followed. The second time I ran into Dan he asked if I was interested in doing a ride a long with him in the summer time. I said yes and gave him my number. The next day he called and instead of a ride along he asked me on a date. That first date was May 20. We went to Macaroni Grill then to Coffee Talk and back to my house and talked to 3 in the morning. I remember what I wore. Black skorts with a hot pink button up shirt. He had on jeans and a a striped polo shirt. He drove a blue Ford truck and gave me a white carnation. The next week we had lunch at Souper Salad. That night he asked me to his house for dinner. He made Green Chili Chicken burritos with
Red Enchilada sauce on top and his own Jicama Salsa. To this day we eat this at least once a month. That weekend we went on a date to the Improv. We did alot of stuff together. Cooking dinner or just hanging out. I was in summers school full time and worked full time so my weekends often included studying. I remember calling Dan up one weekend in September and said I wanted to take a trip. When? Right know. My grandparents and uncle were up at the cabin. My brother was working at the fire station and my sister-in-law Debbie was bored and knew Grandma and Grandpa were up there. She said you should ask Dan to come to cabin with us. Debbie drove the car with Lane. Dan and I drove up in his truck. His new truck that he only owned for a few months. After that weekend his truck had a few Arizona pin strippings on it.
I think back about this trip for many reasons. We were all sitting outside in chairs talking when Debbie announced that she was pregnant with their second child. My grandma caught on right away what Debbie said but it took my Uncle and Grandpa another round of words and trying to figure out my Grandma expression. That night we played cards until the early morning hours. My uncle had this dog who had terrible gas. The dog layed underneath the table and passed gas ("s.b.d.'s"silent but deadly). You always knew when it was coming because the dog would move around a lay at the next victims feet. Finally the dog was booted outside. It was Dan's first experience at the cabin. Besides the gas passing dog I'm glad this was his first trip. He really got to know my grandparents and uncle. It was a casual and relaxed trip. Usually the cabin trips are many people, can be chaos and something is always broken and requires multipe trips into to town to get the item repaired. This trip is also important because it was the last trip I had with my grandparents to the cabin. A few weeks later my Grandpa passed away. Ironically he passed away at the cabin, a place he designed and built. The cabin is still an important place for us. I think Dan's second trip to the cabin involved a lot of snow and him digging the vehicles out with a broken shovel and no water because the lines were frozen.
Dan and I had a great time together during our dating years. He even did a spur of the moment trip with me to Payson to visit some family friends and have Tacos. It was memorial weekend and my mom was cooking Tacos at Charlene's house. I think he thought I was crazy because who would drive to Payson for Tacos. Well if you had my mom's tacos you would know why. Plus Charlene's family is fun to be with and well Payson is used to be my home away from home. I was born in Payson and spent my summers in Payson as a kid with my Grandma and Grandpa Anderson. I got to show Dan all the special places in Payson. While we were in Payson a little black and white kitten took a real liking to Dan. We brought her home and guessed what we named her "Payson". She was our first cat and she was very hyper. This cat loved Dan and only liked me when he was not around. Dan would sometimes have to break us up because we would fight. She used to get mad at me and chase me around the house and bite me. She used to sleep between us in bed or on the couch and she would lay on him and stare at me. She was very possessive. The cat is no longer with us. We had Payson for 7 years, before we had to put her down for health reasons. To this day we still talk about her and laugh at some of the stuff she did. We also did get a cat after we were married and he became my cat. We got him from a co-worker who lived in Chandler. He was a cute grey and white kitten who was found in a drug house. Guess what we named this cat "Chandler".
In November of 2001 we drove to Santa Fe to visit his parents for the weekend. By this time I was working full time at the County and graduated in May of 2001 from ASU. Go Devils! I did not know this but the weekend had been planned for a long time, this was Dan's trip. the trip when he proposed to me. I had no idea it was coming. The first time we went to Santa Fe was right after my grandpa passed away. I loved Santa Fe and his parents took us up into the Mountains of New Mexico. It was so pretty and I loved the history. There is a church called the Loretto chapel. It is famous for the story about the miracle staircase. I loved the story of the church and this is one of my favirote things to visit. If ever get a chance please go and see it. So that weekend of our trip Dan and I went back to the Loretto church and that is when he proposed to me. I used to wear my Grandma Anderson's (Payson grandparents) wedding ring on my right hand. Dan and I were sitting in front of the church talking. He asked to see my Grandma's ring. I took it off and handed it to him and the next thing he is down on his knee asking me to marry him. I was really surprised and of course I said yes. I remember after it all happened there were people standing around who saw it happend and they clapped for us and told us congratulations. The engagment ring Dan had made for me was not ready in time for the trip. Kind of a big thing to have when you propose to someone. I knew he felt bad about it but he also knew how special my grandma's ring was to me. (What Tish did not know was when I found out the ring would not be ready in time I called her sister-in-law to ask if I should still propose. Debbie suggested I still go throught with it. A very good suggestion.)
We planned our wedding in 6 months and on May 20th, 2002 we were married. We celebrated with family and friends. We had about 200 people there. A good family friend that I knew married us. The day was perfect and actually the weather was cool for May. One of those odd May days that Arizona gets here and there. Dan had his brother, good friend Dave and my brother as his groomsmen. I had my sister in law, a good friend of Dans, and my niece who had just turned one as my bridesmaids. Dan's grandma Willkett and my Grandma Henney were both at the wedding. We have a wondeful 10 years. We have 3 kids. Michael was born 2004, Mattie 2007 and David 2008. Like any married couple we have had hiccups and challenges. We have grown and aged in the 10 years and learned a lot. Here is to another 10 years and many, many, many more.
