In for the Long Haul

* Please excuse the quality of the photos, they are in scrapbooks so I took photos of the original*

Who would have thought that this girl....

And this boy.....

(especially in light of our senior photos - GASP!) Don't you love my Laura Ingalls hair and Ray's mullet?

Would end up like this???

So, here we are 16 years and counting! Never mind that we had to plug the date into our Palm Pre's to remind us! Don't judge!

A few fun facts about us (and not so fun)

We were set up by our boss

We were totally UNATTRACTED to each other.

I was totally naive and he was a total partier. Well, in between working and attending the U of O full time.

Our first date was with his parents. We saw the production of CATS at the Hult Center in Eugene, Oregon

His parents told him to "Hold on to this one, she's a keeper." He responded (with cigarette in hand) "We are just friends."

I dumped an entire Peanut Buster Parfait down the inside of his car door, peanuts and all!

He made me a menu so I could choose a meal and then prepared a picnic for me in the center of his living room floor.

He introduced me to Prince Puckler's ice cream in Eugene (thank you, thank you!)

We went into the mosh pit together at a concert but I freaked out and waited out front

We got engaged 2 months after we started dating.

We were engaged for 1 year

Ray proposed to me on Thanksgiving Day, 1993 ( I said yes)

Our boss made us sign a sexual harrassment agreement, stating we wouldn't sue the company if our relationship went awry (I'm not kidding!)

I had to get confirmed into the Catholic church so we could have a Catholic wedding.

We laughed our heads off as we did Catholic marriage prep and were told to use the "Rhythm Method" as birth control

My grandparents danced at our wedding.

Ray supported me through all my compulsive schemes, even when they turned out bad, which was most of the time.

We waited 9 years to have kids (smartest decision we ever made!) Although, now we are old and tired!

I am biased, but I think Ray is an amazing, incredible father to our children.

I am biased on this as well but I think Ray is a wonderful husband to me.

For some reason he has stuck around all these years - a big undertaking!

Hoping for many more....