A Dating Story:

  (November 2000)

   On February 25, 2000, Ken and I met. We were both at the same place (A.J.'s in Destin) and I had lost the keys to my brand new car. Ken, being the kind person he is, helped me find them. I stayed a little longer and we talked and danced. Without knowing it I had just met the man of my dreams. I had went with a friend from work, Stephanie, and she was ready to go, but I was not. Since I was the driver, though, I had to go. Ken was about to let me walk out of his life forever when I asked him was he going to ask for my telephone number, something I have never done before. He looked surprised and went to find something to write on and this is what he wrote:

(A.J.'s overlooks the Destin Harbor)

and I wrote mine for him too!

The next day, while I was at my cousin Cole's basketball game my cell phone rang. It was Ken! He asked me if I still wanted to go out and he asked me to dinner. I told me mother and she advised that I not go because I did not know this guy at all. And that is exactly the advise I would give my daughter too. I don't even think I was sure I was going to go through with it until he drove up at our meeting spot, The Walton County Tourist Development Center. I was so nervous, and so was he. He stepped out of his car and I thought he was the most handsome man I had ever seen. He opened the door for me (which he stills does to this day) and we went to dinner. The place we went to was packed, to say the least, so we had to wait with a pager. We sat outside the Red Bar and talked for an hour and didn't realize that our pager had been going off for a while!! That night was beautiful. He asked me, not wanting to himself, if I wanted to go back to my car and I said no. We went to the beach below the Hilton at Sandestin, and talked until early in the morning. That was it: I knew I had met the man I was going to marry. Since then we have barely spent a minute apart.

Ken took me on my first roller coaster when we went to Orlando with his father. We spent the day at MGM, just the two of us. Here we are in the "Honey I Shrunk the Kids" playground & outside the Boardwalk Resort:

Then he went even further and took me to Six Flags over Georgia. Plus, we went to our first Atlanta Braves game together and did some shopping at Phipps Plaza.

We try to go to FSU games whenever possible: Ken is taking both of these. Here I am with the Garnet and Gold guys and then tailgating before the Florida game with Deidra, Karen, and Mandy:

Sometimes we just hang out with friends: Here we are with Todd, Brian, and Chesley bowling and with Karen at Potbellies in Tallahassee after the Clemson game:

But mostly we just like to hang out with each other. We can be anywhere together and that is all it takes to make us happy. Our usual routine is to hang with my parents and play Scrabble, Yahtzee, or Uno.

Although, we did go skiing this past December with Ken's family. It was quite a learning experience for someone who had never seen real snow, let alone tried to snow ski. It was quite and adventure, between learning to ski and deal with the cold, and wiping out when we went tubing.

And we do know how to have fun together. Here we are at Mr. Stange's wedding after Ken got finished playing the construction worker from the Village People:

And that brings us to December the 25th, the Christmas that I will forever remember as special.