Thursday, May 21, 2009

HAPPY 26TH ANNIVERSARY TO MY PRINCE CHARMING

Today I get to celebrate our 26th anniversary with my Prince Charming. At first I thought he was my frong so I thought you would be interested in how it all began.

My first impression: When I first started High School as a freshman ( I was 14 years old) I was eating my lunch in the cafeteria way in the back of the room. I saw a boy come through the lunch line clear across the room that had the whitest hair I had ever seen. His bangs were hanging down in his eyes. I thought to myself, "That is one ugly boy."

His first impression: At the time I was "in love" with a boy named Randall White. He was the tallest, biggest, strongest, boy in the 9th grade. He was a football player!!! Every day during 5th period I would walk by his study hall class where he sat right in front of the door on the front row. The door would always be open. I would walk by....smile real big....bat my eyelashes....and wave at him with that little flirty hello like us girls do you know!!! Little did I know that that ugly blonde headed boy sat behind him thinking, "I'm going to marry that girl one day" as I walked by the room every day.

As time went on, me and Randall broke up. Shortly after I started liking another boy named Jerome Ray. He had all sorts of family problems and ended up living with his best friend. Jerome would always talk about his best friend. How wonderful he was and he wanted me to meet him. One day during lunch, Jerome came and got me and said that his best friend was in the lunch line and he wanted me to meet him. It was that ugly blonde headed boy!!!! Well, to make the story shorter, as time went on I got to know that ugly blonde headed boy very well - his name was Randy White. Jerome didn't have a car so Randy would have to drive him every where which meant he would take him to my house. Randy would just sit in the car wishing that it was him with me and not Jerome. The more I got to know Randy, I started "liking" him. He was so much fun to be around, everyone liked him, and he was a great person to talk too. He wasn't ugly to me anymore. I started falling in love with him. Eventually, Jerome and I broke up and it also ended a very good friendship between Randy and Jerome.

We were the best of friends. We did everything together. He was the person I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. We dated all through high school. In my Junior year, my family moved to Texas. I was leaving the love of my live and my heart was broken. We continued to talk to each other by phone and we wrote letters to each other. My parents let me get on a plane and fly down for his Junior Prom. The next year he got on a plane and flew down to my Senior Prom.

After we both graduated from High School, we wanted to be together. My parents told me I could not move back to Mississippi unless we had plans on getting married. So Randy proposed to me, gave me a beautiful ring, and I moved to Mississippi. I didn't have a car, a place to live, or a job. But I found a job....a ride to work....and lived with another girl in an apartment. I was so happy that we were finally together. Everything was all wonderful at first until he started to slowly change. He would much rather be with his "buds" partying and having a good time than be with me. He was a wild little thing!!!! As much as I loved him, I knew this wasn't the kind of guy I wanted to spend the rest of my life with and he couldn't be the kind of husband that I wanted. So I broke up with him and gave him the ring back. I was really hoping that he would see that he was wrong, ask for forgiveness, and tell me he would change. But he didn't. He said that I was right and it was best that I move back to Texas. Ah....that crushed me!!!! My parents came to get me and helped pack me up and I moved back to Texas.

I was determined to get Randy out of my thoughts and my life. I got my old job back....moved into an apartment....and bought me a fancy sports car. It was a yellow convertible Triumph Spitfire. Oh....I LOVED that car!!! Everything was going fine until about 5 months later I received a phone call at my work from Randy. He apologized and told me how he had changed. He wanted to see me again. I told him "NO!!" Several days went by and I couldn't quit thinking about him. I realized that I did still love him and I would give him a second chance. So I called him and told him he could come see me. He was right. He had changed. We kept in touch through phone calls and letters again and got to know each other all over again. He was living with a rowdy group of guys in college and he moved out and lived with a widowed elderly lady. He concentrated on his studies and removed all the negative influences that were in his life. Eventually, we got engaged for the 2nd time but this time it was for good. My Prince Charming had turned into the kind of man I wanted to spend the rest of my life with.

We got married in the summer between his Junior and Senior year of college. He was going to USM in Hattiesburg. We moved into the married dorms on the college campus. They were so tiny and made of concrete block walls. I bought our furniture from a garage sale. The springs were sticking up and it was so uncomfortable. But at the time, I thought we lived in the most beautiful place in the world. It was my home and I was living with my Prinice Charming. We didn't have any money and living off love!!!

Here we are 26 years later with 7 children, and he is still my Prince Charming. Don't get me wrong, he can still be a frog at times but I learned that when I said "I do" and "until death do us part' that is exactly what I meant. Being married to somebody is probably the hardest thing a person will ever do. It takes a lot of give and take, a lot of sacraficing, a lot of forgiving, a lot of putting yourself last, and a lot and lot of commitment.

So here is to you - My Prince Charming - Happy Anniversary!!!

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