Our Story - Part 2

So post #1 brought us through the first 7 months of our relationship! We were madly in love and knew we were going to spend "forever" together, but we were poor and had things to take care of before we could do that. We had spent many phone calls discussing when we would get married. We had started the discussion saying we would have to wait the 4 years until Peter was done with school, but there was just no way we wanted to wait that long. So we finally found a way that we could get married after Peter's second year in college, but it would take a lot of hard work for both of us in order for that to happen!

But, I am jumping a little bit ahead of myself in the story. So off to Disneyland we went with my family at the very beginning of January 2005! Peter had officially transferred to our hometown University and would be starting classes in a couple days and I was just days away from starting my new job.

The trip was VERY wet and rainy, but it didn't stop us from having a great time. The parks were almost completely empty as it was over the slowest days in Disneyland and the regulars do NOT brave the rain!

So the short version of the proposal - Peter insisted that we MUST go in to DCA (Disney California Adventure) to get some pictures at night in front of the pier. I really didn't want to, but I went with him on the whole thing. The park was just about 10 minutes from closing, but we went in anyway. Peter wanted to get a picture of us in front of the pier so he set his camera up on a garbage can, came running over and ended up on one knee with a ring out as the picture took! Yes, it is a wonderful story to tell our children and grandchildren :)

A fun little side note as I look at my beautiful engagement ring. During his first semester at school, he went to classes during the day and washed dishes at Denny's during the night (sometimes ALL night!) in order to purchase me this most valuable gift. Did I pick a good man or what?!?

So we were on our way to forever! We set the big day for July 29th 2006, a full 18 months away! We knew it would be hard to wait so long, but we also knew it would take that long for us to be able to afford to be married.

So off to work we went! I started working at what would become my employer for the next 5 years while Peter went to school full time, where he would have to take a very full class load (25-30 credits a semester) to meet the CPA exam requirements (basically 5 years of school in 4 years) in ADDITION to working 30 hours a week AND keeping his fiance happy by going out on lots of dates. We were a busy couple, but we knew that all this hard work would pay off in the end!

Some of these pictures still make me giddy to think back about. We loved each other so much and just KNEW everything would work out. Compared to where we are now, it was still a baby sort of love as we have grown so much since then (and I know as we continue to age together our love will continue to mature!) and our love is so much deeper now, but there is still something sweet and amazing about that young love we started with!

We made it through and finally arrived upon the summer of 2006! We were just months away from starting our marriage. Things were definitely not easy through that engagement. In fact I still think some of our most difficult and most frustrating days were during our engagement phase. I often here people say how hard the first year of marriage was, but our engagement was so long that I think we pretty much lived that first year while we were engaged. The first year of marriage was a breeze compared to being engaged for 18 months :)

We tried our best to not waste the time while engaged. We spent a lot of time reading marriage books and attending marriage counseling together. We knew marriage would not always be easy and we wanted to go into it as prepared as possible for all the unknowns and any hard times that could be thrown our way. I have to say, we were VERY prepared by the time we walked down the aisle!

It was a hard wait, but we did see the light at the end of the tunnel. We were about to be married!

Summer brought wedding preparations in full force! While I pretty much had every little detail of the wedding planned with 18 months to figure it all out, we were finally ready to DO stuff for the wedding! It was time for wedding shower's and everything began to feel VERY real about the whole thing! Finally!!!

We were still relatively poor, but our hard work had paid off enough for us to be able to make our first big purchase together. Two months before the big day we bought our first big purchase. Our first little home sweet home!

So in the midst of our jobs and wedding planning, we were also quite busy working on our new home. This was a great way to pass those last few months as there was a lot to be done at our new house (please God please, let our next house NOT be a project house!)

By this point in time I was sooo OVER wedding stuff and just wanted to be married. So pouring myself into our house (our real future) made me happy! After a lot of hard work and help from the in-laws the house was really starting to look like a home!

I have so many fond memories of those first two years of marriage in our little condo. It was a great place for newlyweds but just was not big enough for us once we started to think about growing our family!

So finally the big day was approaching! One week before the big wedding day Peter celebrated his 20th Birthday! We were so full of excitement at the week ahead!

And before we knew it we were to rehearsal! This is one of the few pictures I have documenting the night before the big day! It was almost hard to believe that were at the day before our big wedding! After 18 months of waiting, we were about to start our lives together!