June 2, 1996

Can you believe that in 6 days Jason and I will be going on 11 years? I'm going to count down this whole week. June 2, 2007 is going to begin a new era for us. An era of only good things. That is insane to me. 11 years. Almost 1/3 of my life! We met on June 2, 1996 at a Village Inn in Manhattan, Kansas. Jason likes to tell people it was love at first sight. Or at least it was for him. I took a little convincing. We were introduced through a mutual friend. I had just decided that I was giving up on men (at the tender age of 17! HA!) So when Chad approached me wanting to introduce me to his friend, I about ran in the other direction. I figured I'd be polite and meet this fellow, but that was all I intended to do. What follows is "our story". It's so cheesey, so cliche', so Jason and Angel.

I walk up to the table with our mutual friend where Jason is sitting.
Chad says, " Jason, this is Angel. The girl I was telling you about."

Jason looks at me smiles, and says....." So, this is Angel, the woman of my dreams. I'd marry you."

And he did. How about that? We didn't have a long courtship. 4 months. We were crazy, young, and in love. I was 18 and he was 21. We had no business getting married. But we knew. I knew he was soul mate, I knew he was the father of my children, I knew I was going to grow old with him. There was never any doubt in my mind.

This is one of our first photos together. It was taken in Jason's barracks room.

I don't even know if we were "officially" dating yet.

This picture was taken at Country Stampede. This was about 2 weeks after we met. It was a 3 day country concert that we went to together. Like the sunburn???
I think this is the same weekend as Country Stampede.

This is Jason packing to go the field.

It was his first of many times leaving me for weeks at a time!

***Sorry about the weird crappy pics. I had to scan them from my first scrapbook pages!***