Blink of an eye/Four quick years

It would be impossible for me to keep my mouth shut today. I have to blabber even if I bore you. Today is Dennis and my fourth wedding anniversary. We met January 2002 through the internet. Who knew that eBay had so much more than Nikon D80 cameras and Brighton handbags? Our first in person meeting was supposed to be at the Family Y to play racquetball but I wasn’t able to make it. We did have lunch a few days later though and have been inseparable ever since.

At the time we met we were living in Joplin, MO. In February 2002, he took me to the Twin Cities for my birthday weekend. He was so sweet, making sure I had a wonderful birthday. We walked the Mall Of America and attempted skiing. He set up lessons for both of us and we spent more time on our butts than the skis.

The motel we stayed at had two rooms and he slept on the couch in the outer room. We didn’t notice until the day we were leaving that the couch would have folded out into a bed. So he spent two uncomfortable nights for no reason, while I had a huge comfy King-sized bed all to myself.

We spent our first vacation together (June 2002) covering 14 states in 10 days - hiking, biking and camping. Started our National Parks Passport, attempting to get them all seen.

In August 2002, a mass was discovered on my lung (not cancer) and he stood by my side through surgery (we still have my rib bone in our freezer) and once again in December when my lung herniated out the opening left by the missing rib. February 2003 Dennis, five of our six kids and I moved to Corpus Christi Texas. In April he surprised me by proposing and on May 24 we were married by a Justice of the Peace. We spent our honeymoon at Big Bend and Carlsbad Caverns - once again hiking and camping.

It was simply too hot for us in Texas so in November 2003 we moved to Wisconsin. Since moving up here three of our children have become adults and moved out. So we just have two left at home and one of them will be 18 in September.

Dennis has been my rock through so much chaos and turmoil. He firmly stands by me holds me up and loves all of my children as his own. I couldn’t ask for a better husband, father, nurse and best-friend.

I suffered depression off and on (more on than off) for many, many years and I can honestly say that even with all that we’ve been through in the last five and a half years I haven't sunk into a deep depression since I met him.

As great as he is (he hates compliments and will hate reading that) and as much as I know he loves me, I never anticipated how much support he would lend when I was diagnosed with Stage IIIC colorectal cancer Oct 18, 2005.

He insisted on taking me to Mayo Clinic. He learned how to help with my chemo and tried to work his schedule around my treatments. He never ran off to take care of a plant hundreds of miles away while I was on my chemo pump for 48 hours, although I did accompany him a couple of times so he could take care of me and his job at the same time. He not only learned how to remove the chemo pump and needle from me when time was up but he hooked up my saline IVs so I wouldn’t have to be hospitalized.

He stills holds me together through every test and trial - believe me there’s a lot of those with cancer and six kids ages 15-21. I hope he is by my side for forty more years. And I still wish we could find that little island we could run away to, as mentioned on one of the first cards he gave me.