He’s Florida, I'm DC. I was born and raised in a suburb right outside of Washington DC and spent my summers in DC. He was born in Louisiana and grew up in the Tampa Bay area. We met at our Maryland high school in 2004. It was his second year there, my first, our senior year. I guess you can say that we were acquaintances of the sort. Having common friends and going to a small private school meant our paths crossed quite often. It wasn’t until we went with a group of friends to a movie that I really started to get to know the Florida soccer star that I had seen in the hallways and that sat at my lunch table. It was this night that we found out just how small our worlds were. His sister and brother went to the small college as my twin sisters and seeing as though the college wasn’t very large they all knew each other. In fact, I had seen him 4 years prior when his sister graduated and we went to pick up my sisters from college. As the year progressed we found that we enjoyed spending time together whether talking on the phone or taking me to my church’s Valentine’s Banquet. We had developed a relationship that was quickly becoming more than we had once thought. Eventually phone calls turned to longer conversation ending in the wee hours of the morning and we came to the consensus that this was more than just a friendship. We went on our first date to the movies and then the rest was senior year history…
When the year ended and we had made our college plans, his at Palm Beach Atlantic University in Florida and mine at the Art Institute of Washington we decided to tough it through the long distance. It proved a lot harder than we thought and it wasn’t long before we decided that we needed to make plans to be closer to each other. In the midst of those plans we were surprised by how much we had fallen in love. Each day that passed I knew I was in over my head. Then we got the biggest surprise that changed our lives forever… Landon. I don’t think either of us knew how much we would fall in love with the little boy that stole our hearts and made our love that much stronger. Becoming parents and sharing that journey cemented that we had found who we would spend the rest of our lives with.
Jon made it official by asking me in November of 2009 to marry him. I remember the text message and thinking sure of course I’ll marry you as I laughingly finished my laundry. To my surprise the next day Jon went and talked with my Dad and then called to ask “So when do you want to have the wedding?” After the shock wore off and he presented me with my engagement ring, my grandmother's heirloom. I got down to planning the wedding. After almost 5 years together we decided to tie the knot quickly in 6 weeks on January 2, 2010. Having experience as a wedding and event coordinator it should had rung in my head that I needed a planner for my own nuptials. Of course I decided that with my experience I could pull it off. And oh it got pulled off but I was stressed with everything that a bride and coordinator deal with at once! After all the planning had subsided and the dust settled on the day we were ready to say our vows I couldn’t think of anyone but the man standing right in front of me. Although I noticed every detail that wasn’t executed properly and according to specification I wouldn’t change the day for anything.
After a year of marriage Jon enlisted in the Marine Corps and the craziness ensued almost instantly. He went from leaving for boot camp in February to finding out he would ship out the next day in September. Three months of boot camp, which was the longest 3 months of my life to 17 days of boot leave, the fastest in my life, through 1 month of MCT in which I was completely clueless to MOS training not too far from home. The journey has sure made our lives interesting!
Living in Jacksonville, NC by way of Camp a lot has happened. We have seen Landon graduate Kindergarten, welcomed 2 little munchkins to the mix and moved a myriad of times. All this and more has made the ride that much sweeter and exciting. I'm just a mom and wife learning to make it in this crazy world. For us smiles are our secret language and to break a pinky promise means war. I am so proud to be a wife and mom to three mini lovelies. I am truly blessed with the best family that I could have ever dreamed or prayed for.
