12 years and still going strong

12 years ago on August 1, 1998 at 10:30 a.m. I married a wonderful man. We had been engaged less than a year, were getting married and moving across the country to Connecticut. I am pretty sure our family and friends thought we were nuts, wait I know they did. Some said we hadn't known eachother that long, but we had. We had worked together at the pool since we were 15 years old. We may not have liked eachother when we were 15, but we knew eachother. I may not have wanted to work at the same pool as him because he thought he knew everything, but we knew eachother. We worked together summer after summer and really didn't talk to eachother much. I invaded his territory at Story Pool and tried to be friendly by offering him some Infusium for his ratty chlorine bleached hair, but he was too cool for that. Then the summer came when our boss put us together to manage the same pool. I would work the morning shift and Tim would come in the afternoon and as he likes to say clean up my mess from the morning. Ha Ha Tim. I wasn't sure how the summer was going to work out, but there wasn't much of an alternative.

So, the summer began and things were going well at the pool. Tim and I were getting along, which was kind of surprising. I can't pinpoint the exact moment or day because I think it happened gradually, but at some point during the summer of 1997 I fell in love with Tim. I had a boyfriend that summer, but we had been headed for a break-up long before Tim, so having strong feelings for Tim made my decision to break-up with the boyfriend pretty easy. I found myself staying a bit later at work just to see and talk with Tim. I found myself coming into work when I didn't need to just to see Tim. Basically, I found any opportunity I could to see Tim.

I do remember the night we both realized our feelings for eachother. Tim and my brother were acid washing the baby pool one night and I was there hanging out with them. They were almost done cleaning the pool when they went to pour some more acid in and someone had mistakenly put chlorine in the acid bottle. When the chlorine was poured in, it had a nasty reaction with the acid. Tim and Todd both inhaled the fumes and were feeling as if their lungs had been burned. I took them to the ER to get checked out. I remember sitting by Tim's bed holding his hand. So cheesy, I know! They both ended up being fine and from that night forward Tim and I knew we had feelings for eachother.

Since Tim is such a smooth operator he had invited me to dinner with him just to say thank you for managing with him that summer. He says that he would have taken who ever he managed with that summer out to dinner, but would he have driven down to Laguna Beach to take them to dinner, I don't think so. So, we headed down to Laguna Beach and had a great dinner. He was leaving a few days later for Europe and would be back two weeks later. I was dreading him leaving, but knew that I had to break-up with my boyfriend, so Tim and I could start a relationship. While in Europe Tim sent me some beautiful flowers for my birthday. I was so surprised and touched that he did that. When Tim got back from vacation I had broken up with the boyfriend and we were free to date. Dating was going to be challenging since Tim was starting his senior year at UCR and I was starting the legal studies program at ULV and working, but we would make it work. We did make it work. We officially started dating in September, were engaged on October 31, 1997 and married on August 1, 1998.

I look back now and think how grateful I am to our boss for putting us at the same pool and that Tim and Todd got along so well, which was a sign to me that Tim would fit into our family. It did take me 5 years to start to like Tim, but I think in end the timing was perfect.

We have had an amazing 13 years together. We lived across the country in Connecticut for 3 of those years. Living in Connecticut was amazing and I am so lucky to have shared that experience with Tim. We met some amazing people who have become great friends. We moved back to California and have made a good life for ourselves. I am so blessed to have Tim as my husband and best friend. He is an amazing father to Trent.

Here's to many, many, many more years of adventures, laughs and love. I love you so much Tim!

I wish I could have scanned some of our pictures from way back when. I will have to get to that some day. I never noticed before, but I tend to be on the right when we take a picture. I will have to try the left side and see how that looks.