Love and life, as it happened to me.

 I fell in love in a high school cafeteria.

Just ponder on that a moment. Sounds romantic, doesn't it?

The entire story probably seems ridiculously cliche. Boy meets girl. Boy and girl fall in love. Girl waits for boy to serve mission. Boy proposes. Marriage, house, dog, baby... everything happens pretty much in order. Happily ever after.

And it's true, mostly. We are happy and blessed and still head over heels in love.

Like every real fairy tale, though, there have been bumps along the way. Our road of love and life has taken us into places we did not expect. We survived in South Salt Lake for an entire year, for one. We remodeled a house. (Try it sometime.) I survived a looooong 24 months while he was in Mexico, including several unfortunate dating experiences, including the gentleman who bragged about his ACT score (mine was higher) and ruthlessly mocked his little sister behind her back. And then I met her. And she was mentally disabled.

More significantly, we ached for a baby, and while we were blessed to get her much more quickly than many, it was not immediately. We've been poor. A car smashed in to our favorite car, and I was in it. My work life exploded, and we survived a hellish 2010. I cried. We had to put both of Paddy's childhood dogs to sleep, and one of mine, too.

Most significantly, Paddy's mother died.

And then his father died.

In fact, after a quick count, we've attended 6 funerals of immediate family and one close friend together. We have hurt together.

And, although this sounds cliche as well, we are stronger for every moment of it. I love my husband, and he loves me. We are in this together.

My faith in the Gospel is based on many things. That my family is mine forever is at the very root of it, the truth of it lodged immovably in my spirit. It is worth every minute of time in church meetings, every dollar in tithing donations, every second of time spent serving or reading or just plain tolerating the day to day requirements of a demanding religion. Every single last detail of it is worth it, because I cannot be forceful enough in this:

There is no heaven without him.

On the mish

California

CAMPING!

Bug's first date