FOURTEEN

This past Valentine's Day Nate and I celebrated 14 years since our first date (yes, i think i said "14" years last year, but that was 13. Always thinking ahead, I am.)

Fourteen years. FOURTEEN. This is so strange to me. Our first date was actually an invite to church and then lunch at his family's house in Milford, but turned into an all day event. I remember wishing later that day that I had known how long I would be out because I would have brought a change of clothes or at least some make-up to freshen up. This was my first clue (although not realized until much later) that Nate would not always clue me in on the details.

Later that afternoon, after lunch with his parents and wisecracking brother (yes, Vonnie, you were quite a wisecracker back then...and yes, I was mortified by it) Nate decided to introduce me to his best friend from high school, Devon. Again, wishing I had brought some clothes or make-up to freshen up, we headed over to meet him and ended up spending several hours with Devon's whole family. That evening Nate took me to Chi-Chi's (at one time quite the Mexican restaurant to visit) and he got a chimichanga and I got a taco salad.

We headed back to the college that evening, talking about his family, Devon, and plans for Spring Break, which was right around the corner. Nate was thinking about visiting his sister in Atlanta, and said that if things worked out with us, maybe I could join him. I agreed, although it seemed like such a big deal--I mean, this was our first date and Spring Break was about a month away.

Well, if you have been reading this blog for some time, you might remember how the story goes. We made the trip to Atlanta, which just happened to be the exact week of "The Blizzard of '93." We were snowed in most of the week with Nate's sister Andrea and her then fiance (now husband) Ward. I threw up the first night, we played some pretty intense games of UNO, and then we broke up on the way home. Seven hours of awkwardness and cigar smoke I hope to never sit thru again!

But here we are today, living in Atlanta, raising our girls here. Our first house was literally 3 blocks away from the house we were snowed in at years before. We've been around the world together, across the US numerous times. We've seen grandparents pass, and jobs come and go. It's been a rollercoaster of emotions, I tell you... heartaches and lots of love.

But when we are sitting close, and I breathe in all that is Nate...you know, that scent we all have that is just our own...I know I am home. We are solid, we are one. Life can be really hard sometimes, and at other times it is a kite in the sky on a windy day. It isnt just love anymore, although there is plenty of it between us. It is so much more than that. It's where I want to be for the rest of my life.