My Current Relationship: Thirty Day Writing Challenge Day 11

I am a happily married woman. :)

Ready for some relationship math? Okay, here goes ...

I met Steven when I was sixteen, so I've known him for twenty-nine years.

Our wedding day was March 11, 1995, which means we've been married for a little over twenty-one years. I'm not sure how he's put up with me for so long - but I'm glad he has. 

The first time we met was a sad day for me. My aunt had just given birth to her first child - and lost him the same day. I was (and still am) very close to my aunt. I'd lived with her for some time during the previous summer trying to help her out because she was on bed rest. I was at my locker, teary-eyed and distracted, and Steven came up to me and asked me if I was okay. We went to a small high school, but I didn't start attending until that year. Everyone knew everyone else, but I had been the new girl that year, and I didn't know Steven. I was not okay, and his asking meant the world to me.

He always thought I was too young to date. He's two years older than me, and was a senior that year. We did go out many times, but it was always with our good, mutual friend, Shawn. Steven lived in Idaho Springs (where our high school was) and Shawn and I lived in Evergreen. The three of us would go and watch movies in a theater off of 6th Avenue, and hang out afterwards at the Pizza Hut. I had a huge crush on Steven, but if he knew it, he didn't let on.

It was more than just group dates. I was a competitive ice skater back then, and Steven came to see me perform in an ice show at my rink near Denver. He also came and watched me skate in the opening ceremony for the 1988 Nationals. 

After his graduation, I saw him every so often at school. He came back and played in the pit orchestra for one of the plays I was in, and he helped his younger brother D.J. a few dances. I hadn't heard from him for a while when my high school career came to an end, so I was very surprised to see him in the stands on my graduation day. He'd come to see me and a couple other friends graduate - and he'd brought me a card and a rose.

Our first official date - just him and me - took place just a few weeks later. It involved another movie and more pizza. There was more to it, though. His parents were thinking about buying a van, so Steven and I drove up and down Broadway and ran through car lots in the rain. 

I didn't see Steven again for a while after that. Life got a little crazy for me for the next four years or so, and he went off to college - CU in Boulder. We lost touch until I was sitting at work one day in January. It was the fourth, and I had a very strange feeling that there was something significant about that particular day. I spent hours trying to figure it out. Later that afternoon, I pulled my address book out - I don't remember now why - and came across Steven's old contact info there in the pages. Next to his name I'd written his birth date down. It was January 4th.

I figured that was too coincidental to ignore, so I sat down at work - I was an authorizations clerk for Visa/MC at the time and hooked up to a computer with a headset stuck to me - and I wrote Steven a letter. I just said hello and wished him a happy birthday. Then I put his parents' address on it, because I had no idea where he was at the time, and hoped it would reach him. 

I didn't think much about the letter after I dropped it into the mail box, and was surprised when I received a response. Turns out that Steven was at home in Idaho Springs when my letter arrived. He hadn't yet gone back to school after his winter break. He included his parents' phone number along with his reply - a number I still had memorized from my time as a sophomore in high school - and I called him. We set up a date for February 9th ... and we've been together ever since.

The first photo ever taken of us as a couple. This was a few days before my 21st birthday in March, 1992.

This was taken a couple months later - May, I think - up at Echo Lake. We'd just been in a wedding for one of Steven's oldest friends.

On October 29, 1994, Steven proposed to me. Of course I said yes, and we got married the following March.

Our reception at Boettcher Mansion on Lookout Mountain.

Four years later, we had our first child, a daughter, and our son came in late 2002.

November, 2003

Steven and I have moved nine times, lived in seven cities, one village, two states and two countries. We haven't experienced many dull moments.

At Westminster Abbey in London, May 2013

At the Colorado Springs Hot Air Balloon Festival in late August, 2014

We've had a lot of adventures together, Steven and I. I'm looking forward to what lies in store for us. Whatever happens, we're stuck with one another. I, for one, am very happy about that.

July, 2015