Best day of my life!

Ok im going to take a break from the gloom and doom of my usual posts (j/k) and spend a little time (warning long post imminent!) commemorating a pretty freaking awesome day. 6 years ago today Lisa Noel Branson become my wife, I became complete, and my life got dramatically better than I ever imagined it could be. The path that lead to that day was a long and rocky one that started when I was 13. I met lisa just a few weeks after I lost a couple of friends who were very very close to me and incidentally I should have died with them but the Lord in his wisdom saw fit for me to remain. SO when I met Lisa it was more of a "I noticed that she was there" but was not really in a mood to make new friends so that was our first encounter. A few months later she was my girlfriend and the funny thing about this is that later in life, like when we were married, we were going through some of her old notebooks and she actually admits to manipulating me (her words not mine) into becoming her boyfriend which was toooo funny! SO a few months later she broke up with me (a trend was starting) But what can I say I was hooked. Over the next couple of years we dated off and on (the off always initiated by my sweet sweet wife!) until my senior year her junior year when we dated exclusively for about a year. That was a tough year for me b/c thats when I found out I was color blind and not going to be a pilot like I had always dreamed. Lisa was really great and really helped me get through that. However things kinda went south on us and Lisa broke up with me yet again. I went off to college and she ended up taking my #2 Arch nemesis (#1 is gravity in case you were wondering) to her prom. At that point I was like WHATEVER home girl -- if thats the junk you want then I dont want to have anything to do wit ya. SO for a time there was another girl I was interested in but WOW did she really turn on me. Yes if you are noticing a theme its not just co-incidental. So for pretty much my entire freshman year at college lisa and I didnt talk hardly at all. We were barely even friends in my opinion and didnt really have anything to do with each other. SO yeah things were not so good between us. Well after my freshman year (summer 97) I was really torn about what to do with my life. I had no direction and I didnt like where I was and didnt know where I wanted to go. Well over the summer Lisa and I started hanging out again and she actually made the suggestion that we start dating again. I actually had the hootzpa to say no. I was like ok I have been burned like a billion times by you and now a month before you go off to covenant and I am who knows where you want to get together. It just seemed doomed to me so we stayed friends. Well I ended up flipping a coin and going to covenant in the fall. Really thats what happened. You would think after I described the summer were we had gotten close and the intrest lisa had in me that something might have started up again with us since we were at the same school but SUPRISE she was not interested anymore (woo hoo I dodged a bullet) My time at covenant was really really brief (2.5 months brief) and I was gone. In that time I decided I needed to find my own path and go someplace that had something to offer me school wise so I applied and was accepted at Embry Riddle Aero Univ In florida and I would start jan of 98. SO heres where things start to get more interesting. Lisa's family had decided to move to Ohio to take care of Lisa's Grandfather and they were moving in the beggining of january. My family was staying in Lynchburg. Lisa was going to college in GA. I was going to school in Florida. We basically decided that we wanted to go out one last time before we said good by to each other for what could have very well been forever. since we had no reason to be in the same geographic region as the other ever again. We went out for my birthday to a nice restaurant and saw the movie Titanic (in a first run theater mind you) And afterward we talked a bit and then we said good by. I left the next day for Florida to begin what I thought would be a new life. Well it was new but their was this little thing hanging on in the back of my mind and that was my lisa. I just couldnt get her out of my head so I decided to start pursuing her again. I knew that I loved her and that I wanted to be with only her for the rest of my life and I was determined to give it my best shot. Well She was not so receptive and was downright opposed to it for the most part but over the summer we got back together and then right before she went back to school we got engaged!!!!!!! Then on december 28th 1999 we were married. And like I said that day changed my life for the better in more ways than I ever could have imagined. SO here we are 6 years later and we are still uber happy. Like I said before the path leading up to that day was a very long and difficult one but it was totally worth it. And even though the last 6 years have had their ups and downs I really only remember the ups and I really truly feel that each year has been better than the last. Its been wonderfull to see both of us grow in maturity and love for one another and I am super duper jazzed about the next 10,25,50, 75+ years we have together. Yes I am optimistic about how long I am going to be alive. I have good reason to want to be alive!

SO happy Anniversary Baby. I love you so much and I cant wait to see what the rest of our lives have in store for us!

cheers!