Happy Anniversary, my love

15 years of marriage
14 different hairstyles (at least)
13 trips to the hospital
12 years of pregnancies and parenthood
11 employers
10 moves
9 major appliance purchases
8 vehicles
7 years of homeschooling
6 children
5 years in the Air Force
4 different cities
3 years of college
2 souls
1 flesh

A Trip Down Memory Lane, pt 7

Engagement and Wedding Shower Pictures

Back to BIG Hair. Here are our official engagement pics, taken in March of '93.
My hair was longer by this time, so I guess that meant it had to be poofier.



I had several wedding showers. That spring my roommate and a friend of mine gave me a lingerie shower. I don't remember how this happened, but my mom AND future mother-in-law AND grandmother ended up coming to the shower hosted in a living area of our dorm building. Much as I love all three of those women, it was just a little embarrassing. I'm not sure which was redder, my face or some of the items given to me - especially one from MY MOTHER IN LAW!

Here are April, Lara, and I - the two very sweet hostesses, and one nervous bride-to-be, trying not to look as embarrassed as I really was.
My church gave me a traditional wedding shower that summer. Here are the aforementioned mother and mother-in-law. Fortunately blenders and dishes don't embarrass me.
Kelly's church gave us an old-fashioned "pounding." It was terrific. We got a quilt made by the ladies from the church who still met once a week to quilt on a frame that was suspended from the ceiling in one of the rooms at the church, as well as all sorts of handmade goodies and necessities for our kitchen.

Someone gave us this rolling pen as well. Since my cooking skills were negligible at this point, I believe I was making some comment like, "Oh, is this to keep you in line?" And Kelly was saying something like, "Keep that thing away from me!"
We had no official wedding coordinator. But my mom and I had everything under control. Here I am at the rehearsal handing out everyone's marching orders - er, I mean, handing out the order of events so that everything could run smoothly. yeah, that was it.
What a bunch of hooligans! Somehow I don't have a picture of the girls in the wedding. I think my mother-in-law was biased - her two sons were in the middle and her nephew is the red head beside Tony, my brother-in-law.
Always trust Tony to add a bit of fun to any circumstance!
My mom had to rehearse every part of the wedding - even crying!
The old-fashioned tradition of not having the bride go through the rehearsal allowed me to stand back in the aisle and direct traffic. That's why there is a red-head (Kelly's cousin Becky) beside him. I did NOT dye my hair right before the wedding.
As an aside, the little girl who is my flower girl? She is my cousin's daughter, and last year, we went to Abilene for her wedding! Talk about making you feel old!

Everyone was such a great sport at the rehearsal and we actually had a good time. Then we went to the little church Kelly's dad was pastoring for the rehearsal dinner. (This church wasn't big enough to hold the ceremony in, so we were married at Second Baptist in Odessa, where Kelly's family had been attending before FIL became a pastor. My parents' church was in the next town, and we wanted to be married in Odessa.) Kelly's mom and grandmother grilled up a ton of hamburgers and hotdogs, and it was a very fun, casual time. At least for us. My mom tells me she was pretty stressed out. I understand now - I'll probably be that way too in a few years when it is my turn to be the mother of the bride.

A Trip Down Memory Lane, pt 6

Pictures from our freshman year of college - the year we were engaged. We were married the summer between our freshman and sophomore years of college, when we were both 19.

This weekend I had driven up from the town were I was going to college, and Kelly's parents and brother had driven up from our hometown. There was some sort of to do that weekend, maybe homecoming, which is why Kelly was in his ROTC uniform here.
That evening he was in his normal civilian attire: wranglers, boots, a western shirt, and cowboy hat. And yes, in case you were wondering, I have on wranglers and ropers.
This is Kelly in his honor guard uniform.

A Trip Down Memory Lane, pt 5

Assorted pictures from high school.

Here we are after an awards ceremony right before graduation. I think it was National Honor Society. But, ya know memory is the first thing to go...
Kelly and I were in a pop singing ensemble. This shot is of Kelly and a couple other members of the group. My guess is that Kelly had just messed up on something. Probably choreography.
The group was matched up as couples. Can you guess who we were paired up with???

A Trip Down Memory Lane, pt 4

Today's pictures come from our senior prom. I must have been going for a more sophisticated look with a classic French twist hairstyle. So instead of a corsage, Kelly's mom ordered flowers attached to a hair comb that I could wear in my hair instead of my dress or wrist.

I don't have a really good shot of the dress, but it hit right at my knees in front and was several inches longer in back. Very 90's.

A Trip Down Memory Lane, pt 3

I am having so much fun looking at these old pictures. And I cringe at my hair nearly every time. What was I thinking? How did I even get it to do that? Oh, and I have a correction from the last post. Kelly says he and the other football players were Tahitian drummers, not hula dancers. My apologies.

Anyway, today's pics are from prom our junior year (our school did a junior/senior prom). My grandmother made this dress in a size I will never see again in my lifetime.

A Trip Down Memory Lane, pt 2

I only have one senior picture of my husband. Not sure if he took any more, but this is the only one I ever saw, besides the tux shot in the year book.
For those of you who don't know, Kelly was born with his middle and ring fingers webbed together. He didn't have this surgically corrected until after Kora was born. So he could not wear a ring on his ring finger. He could only wear it on his pinkie - thus the pose. I promise he is not having delusions of grandeur. Actually he didn't wear it that much, because he had given it to ME.

Since that's the only senior pic I have, I thought I'd add some from junior high. Although, when my husband sees these, we may not make it to our 15th anniversary. :-) But I'm going to blame his mother, who not only took these pictures of a junior high musical production, but emailed them to me. I didn't even know Kelly at this point. If I had seen this in person, history might have been changed.

This number is called "The Long Tall Texan." I'm not sure what he had in his shoes, but the lifts and the hat just really make the costume, don't you think?

And this last one, well, frankly renders me speechless.

Yes, that's Kelly front and center along with several other members of the football team, dressed up in hula skirts and bikini tops, doing a hula dance. And yes, they all had, er, something, stuffed into the tops to make them, um, more anatomically correct looking.

Remember, honey, it's all your mom's fault.