My Happily Ever After.

   Once upon a time a man jumped into an ice cold pond (literally with snow and ice) to save a neighbor's elderly dog from drowning. When he had pulled into his driveway that cold afternoon there was woman screaming/jumping/ and crying by the side of the other neighbor's pond. The man did not hesitate and jumped in to save the dog who was struggling to stay above water in the middle of the pond. There was a knock on my door, and I opened it with a gasp, for there stood my husband soaking wet holding his shoes and wallet. "What happened?" "Let me in I'm freezing". The neighbor later came over and dropped off a thank you card and a gift certificate for Applebee's and the very animated tale of his heroism. As I listened to the retelling I couldn't help but giggle on the inside because Joel's retelling was so much different. "I pulled up and that lady from next door was losing her mind, I thought a kid or something was in the pond, so I ran over there and her dog was drowning and so I had to jump in there and get it. I don't know why she didn't just jump in and get it..."  It was pretty funny. He didn't want to do it. He wanted to walk away because it really wasn't his problem, and the lady really could have rescued her own dog. (Honestly who wants to jump into ice water after working a 12hr shift in the winter?) The point is though that he DID do the right thing, even though it would have been much easier not to. Bless that little neighbor, She just froze up in the crisis. The ice on the water, not knowing how deep the pond was. Basically she wasn't sure what she should do so she panicked. My God father once explained this to me when the movie The Titanic came out and out of all things I couldn't believe about the story, I picked that Jack was so calm and always knew what to do. I thought that was ridiculous, how could anyone stay that calm in all of those situations AND know exactly what to do? My God Father said there are two different kinds of people. Those who shut down in a time like that, and those who can function and think through it to save their lives. I believe in science they call it fight or flight,  but my God father explained it much cooler. In any case, my neighbor flew, my husband fought, and the fluffy white four legged granny dog lived to see another day. My husband is that kind of guy. He faces his fears and steps up to the challenge. It would be so easy if he walked away from all the responsibility he has, and I'm sure some days he wants to, but he doesn't.

   That's just one day in our lives, not even a whole day, just a breif moment that became a good story. We've been together long enough now to have quite a few good stories. My nephew asked me how we met, and it had beena long time since I had told the whole story. The story about how we grew up in the same small town, went to many of the same places, attended the same middle school and high school, but never ran into one another. (Although, he does say that he remembers seeing me in the library but only remembers because he thought I was a really pretty redhead, and he thought pretty redheads were very rare, funny now that we have two red haired children that he thinks are absolutely gorgeous) . The story about how my one cousin I had that lived in Cincinnati, lived in the same neighborhood as his cousin, and they just so happened to be friends. About how my car broke down on Washington St., and we had to push it into his Grandpa's driveway a year before we ever met. My Grandmother and his Grandmother had recently passed away in the intensive care unit at Columbus Regional, and my mom had called my Grandfather to go over there and take care of my car because she was recently divorced and working. It makes me teary eyed now thinking of our two Grandpas talking to one another briefly about him leaving my car there until a tow truck could pick it up later. Now that they are both gone it comforts me that they met one another. Maybe not at a wedding or reception or at the birth of their great-grandchildren, but they shook hands one day long before that. Strangely Joel stayed home from school that day and his Grandpa told him that a nice guy had left his granddaughter's car in the driveway until later and not to mess with it. Of course, as rotten as he was, he went through my entire car, and still we had no idea who each other was. I even knew his older sister, but never knew she even had brothers. The day our paths finally crossed wasn't in some beautiful serendipitous moment that you would think would have happened, but rather it was a girl working at a greasy fast food drive thru and a boy just pickin' up some chicken. I know, you laugh, but it is true. I met my husband face to face for the first time at a KFC drive thru window. I was working, and looked out the window to see what I thought was a cute guy. So I did what any girl would do. I flirted, and asked if he wanted a job....just so happened he needed a job. So I gave him an application. That was that. I stopped working so much because I had school activities, and he went about his life. Until one day....my car broke down. It broke down at my high school, and for some weird reason I chose NOT to call any of my friends or parents. I chose to walk to KFC, not the one in town, it is exactly 10.9 miles away from the high school. I have NO idea why I wanted to do that. I couldn't have given you a good reason then. In fact a couple of kid that were in my drama class gave me ride the last 5 minutes of my walk and asked me why, and I really didn't know. Just felt like walking there. When I walked in there stood the guy from the window, and he was turning in his application. He asked if I needed a ride home, and I politely said no, that I would have my brother come get me, and he left. I then looked at my manager, who was a friend of mine, and BEGGED her to hire him even though they weren't really hiring. She did, and she scheduled him every shift with me. He asked me to go fishing, and the rest is history. When I finished telling that story to my nephew he looked at me like I was crazy " Like, you guys were really meant to be, like that's weird".  I guess it would sound weird to a kid that hasn't experienced love before, but that's how love stories go. You meet someone by chance. You could have met any number of people the day you met them, but you didn't. For Joel and I it was chance that brought us together, but a perfect storm of situations that made us love one another.

   

    It's been 12 years now since I met that boy that became my man. We've had five, yes, FIVE, children together. That's five pregnancies. Calculated to 45 months or roughly 4 years of insane hormones. I honestly don't know how he deals with me sometimes, although during those times I would NEVER admit that I'm crazy...probably because it's legit and I am, indeed, crazy.  He works and I stay home, and I have to admit that I take that completely for granted sometimes. I don't take it for granted when it's snowing out and he has to go scrape his windows off and I get to snuggle in bed with our sweet babies. On those days I say an extra prayer of thanks for my husband. I'm thankful that I don't have to do it on my own. That he does come home and play with our kids, and he does love them so much. I'm thankful that we can still stay up late and crack up about stuff. I'm thankful that going to a lake with him will always make me feel like a kid again. I'm so so so happy I have a man that is strong enough to deal with my strong personality and not feel like his manhood is threatened. I'm glad that he taught our girls to fish and play in the mud and to mow the yard and doesn't make them feel like the are "just girls". I'm so so glad that our son will have an awesome Daddy cheering him on in life and teaching him things. I'm glad our kids have him to be there for them, because he's the kind of Dad that will be there for them in their 20s and beyond when they need his help.  We fight. We've gone through hard times where we couldn't stand one another some days, but so far we've managed to understand that life without one another would be terrible. We understand that even though it can be hard and trying, it is twice a rewarding. I'm fortunate to have a man who wants to do the right thing, even though it's hard. He loves his family. He works his butt off for his children. He has developed and improved himself so much so that he could be a man they could be proud of. No matter how mad I can get at him, that fact always humbles me and brings me back to what truly matters. What truly matters is that I love him. I adore him. From that first night we went fishing, to all the days we've spent together, to all the tears, and sweat and love we've poured into one another...I have always adored him. I know that if we keep God first, we keep praying for one another, and we keep making the choice to fight for us we will make it to those two rocking chairs under a covered porch over looking a lake or river. In a world that tells you that you deserve this and deserve that it's hard to remember the take the "de" out of it and just serve one another. I'm so grateful for him. I'm so grateful   He is my knight in shining armor, he and our children are my Happily Ever After.