Our love story

It was during my LPN (licensed practical nurse) training at Ft. Lewis, in Washington. I had just re-enlisted to serve 3 years in the Army (I was serving year 2 of my initial enlistment), I was 23 and the world was mine to enjoy. School was hard, five days a week of nothing but books and studying so on the weekend my friends and I ventured out to Seattle in search of spirits and fun. It was on one of those nights, while taking a break form dancing to smoke (it's disgusting and I've quit since then) that I heard a southern accent followed by a contagious laugh outside of a bar. Paul was the friendliest person there,  of course we immediately began talking and found out his home town (Columbus, GA) just happened to be my very first duty station. This sparked a conversation that lasted several hours and ended in him asking for my phone number. I left the bar that night thinking he was a nice guy with a great sense of humor and good looks, that I would probably never see again.

                                              Our first Christmas together in Washington

Fortunately I was wrong, the very next morning he called. He asked me to lunch, the problem here was that he was in the Navy, he was a diver and he was stationed 45 minutes away from me. Either way, I didn't stop to think about it and drove the 45 minutes, paid the fee to cross the bridge from Tacoma to Bremerton and found out he had just broken up his engagement ( she did, not him and it was long before we knew each other). Needless to say I was cautious to enter a relationship with someone who had been in a relationship for seven years and was engaged but it was too late, the minute I stepped out of my car and saw him chasing the ice cream truck, with no shoes on, I was already falling.

We dated for about a month before I realized he still had to tie up some loose ends, we parted ways and didn't speak again for several weeks. One day out of the blue he sent me a Facebook message and asked if I had a phone he could buy ( he is forever loosing cell phones) it turned out that I didn't but one of my friends did so don't 'you know I bought that phone just so I could see him again (pathetic). He came over and right then and there I decided we needed to give it another shot.

It has been 5 years, one of dating, one spent apart because I was deployed and 3 of moving as a dual military couple we have dealt with the hardships of military life and the ones that come from every day life/. We have moved 3 times, had a crazy huge (inexpensive) weeding in his parents front yard.