October 6, 1996

Almost eleven years ago was my wedding day. Here is how this day went. I got up, had breakfast and lounged around the house til almost noon. I took a shower and shaved my legs. I then ate a BLT from Thrifty's. Said BLT did not settle well on the early pregnancy, so I spent the next 30 minutes sitting very still. I put my make-up on and got dressed in my off-white, knee length dress, WITH JACKET, and fixed my hair. At this point I will point out we were to be married at 2 pm. It was now 1:45 and I realized I am going to be late to my own wedding. So I ended up with a bad hair do and my lips were lined with lip-liner, but I couldn't find any gloss to fill them.

I rush up to and into the church right at 2. I find in the hallway Billy's dad has three of my friends pinned in the corner as he cries and talks about how lonely he is going to be now. Kathy is in the back preparing for my reception. And there were about 20-30 people waiting in the sanctuary for me. I quietly slipped in and went and sat across the aisle from Billy, who was already there waiting for me. There would be no walking down the aisle for this girl. That is a privilege reserved for the pure I guess. But when I sat down and looked across the aisle at Billy, he said something that still moves my heart to this day. He looked at me with all the confidence he was probably not feeling and said, "Hi, Angel." All my nerves disappeared and all the love I could hold in my seventeen year old heart spilled over for him. After a simple service and an awkward reception we got ready to slip out. Amy and Krissy handed me a Victoria's Secret bag with a beautiful nightie, that I still have, and my brother gave us $100 that we quickly spent. We were saying our goodbyes and getting ready to head to the hotel when Billy's older sister Alana asked us to give her and her two children a ride to her house.

So all five of us loaded up, we made a pit-stop to drop off Alana and then made our way to the hotel. We got there, check in and we getting ready to start the Honeymoon. Right about that time we received a phone call from Alana saying she had left Gabriel's bottle in the car and she needed it now. So Billy went back across town to take Alana her bottle. Meanwhile I am beginning our marriage with some very hard feelings. As the weekend went on we got food poisoning from Rick and Carolyn's ( luckily it only lasted one evening) and we received a prank call from Brandon Hawk which I am still trying to forgive him for. So looking back I can say we had an adventurous first few days of marriage. But that is nothing compared to the next ten or so years. But that is for another day.