#38

i started dating this boy when i was

a toddler.

well not much more than that anyway. he was in eighth grade

and i in sixth when he laid eyes on me on a bus headed to Montevideo mn,

 and the rest, (as they say) is history.

i don't remember much about those early years when

he was all googly eyed about me other than the fact that

i had a major crush on a boy in my class and

dale- (pictured below) was an upper classman.

way too old for me,  however i may have thought

i was more mature than him even as a 7th grader.

(heyyyyyy, stop! ~ i did mature early).

his one awful pair of polyester plaid pants nearly cost him

a chance with me, (& the fact that he once-and i do mean ONCE- made a comment about

my "stash"), but then there was the fact that he was a gentleman and quite romantic.

he always offered to carry the heavy stuff and bought me cards.

oh the cards! hundreds of them by now, he's a sentimental guy.

many dozens of roses came my way and he always opened car doors for

me and wanted me to pick the movie or the restaurant. he was a

great listener too- (which is important cause i'm a talker) and he was ok with

the fact that my sister spent a lot of time with us too.

(and sang, loudly and slightly off-key from the back seat).

somewhere in the middle of the shrimp baskets from A &W and the

movies we saw at the paramont theatre, my feelings for this boy

begin to change and even though he told me he loved me way

before i was ready to say it back,

i begin to realize that i felt that way about him too.

he graduated two years before me and went off to college, but he raced home

to see me on weekends and we kept on dating

and by the time i graduated high school, everyone was asking

"when are you two going to get married"?

i was in......i was in love and it sounded like a good idea to me.

: )

he proposed to me on dec. 12, 1976 and we got married the following fall and

today is our 38th wedding anniversary. 

we were so young, only 19 and 21 and what did we know?

i guess we just knew that we'd been in love so long that there really

wasn't any reason to wait.

he finished his degree during the first year of our marriage and i was done with

community college and working as a floral designer.

 now 38 years, three great kids, a bunch of dogs
and a few moves later here we are, still in love, still together &

he's still that gentle guy i fell in love with. he's my soft place to fall.

i wish i had some pictures of the early years of our marriage to put on here, but there

wasn't digital photography then. so i just grabbed some photos of lars that

really show who he is.

this picture makes me laugh, not sure if it was a body part or

my necklace that poked him in the eye.

here we are in arizona

 here he is in arizona, delivering a glass of wine to me

while i watched a gorgeous sunset, in a ravine, with my sister.

he loves dogs~almost more than most people.

here he is visiting his Dad, for what would turn out to be the last time.

(he is a lot like his kind, soft spoken Dad).

35th anniversary trip to the north shore.

lars loves the outdoors. the outdoors and dogs. amen

here his is doing manly, dangerous things.

he's a hunter and has provided a lot of fish and wild game for us.
(whether i like to eat it or not). lol

and this summer, 38 years after we said "i do", here his is getting ready to walk his 

daughter down the aisle.

oh, it hasn't all been wine and roses, and there have been a few times when i would have liked to give him back his class ring (and he mine), 

but we made promises to each other and i'm glad we did.

he is my rock and there's no one i would rather spend the rest of my days with,

Lars~ I love you to the moon 

happy anniversary to us.

xo

*OH MY GOSH... I JUST WAS GOING TO HIT PUBLISH, AND MY DOORBELL RANG.

LARS IS UP NORTH AND HERE IT WAS A DELIVERY MAN WITH 

A DOZEN RED ROSES FOR ME.

FROM HIM!

#feeling loved.