Saturday, April 13, 2013

L is for Love

Today is Day 7 of my guest blogger series! As we wrap up a week filled with phenomenal bloggers and posts, I have saved my good friend for last.  Miss Cristyl from CHill Thoughts We have known each other since we were 12!  We grew up together, shared some of the same friends, went to school together for years, and even had the bad 1980's hair pic of us, and three of our friends, where we had one hand on our hips, toes pointed, and all of our other hands in the air, in some weird, pseudo-ballet pose! Bahahaha! I will spare you all the visual!(Think very late 80's clothes...acid washed jeans, sweaters, tshirts, jean mini skirts,and BIG hair! I think we all had big bangs! We are talking at least 3 inches of bangs going on!..okay okay I will stop now!)
  So we lost touch along the way, as friends often do, and we reconnected over FB.  Imagine that! Then one day there was a comment on my blog post of the day, so I clicked on the profile to investigate, and lo and behold, it was Miss Cristyl!  She had a blog, but no posts! So I wrote her an email asking why not? And the rest as they say is history, reconnected-check, rekindled friendship-check, CHill Thoughts posts-check, and her blog is fantabulous! She is an awesome blogger, well written, and an IT guru(so jealous!) She also just started a blog hop two weeks ago, which she graciously let me co-host! She was my first ever guest blogger, and now, she has agreed to do it again! She is crafty, witty, hilarious, makes baby food, has 3 kids, cloth diapers, has chickens and a rooster named Quasimoto! So of course I love her to death, and you will too! Happy Reading!

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My name is Cristyl and I write over at Chill Thoughts.  I write about my life and pretty much anything that comes to mind; I’m currently participating in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge so each day in April, excluding Sundays, are dedicated to a specific letter of the alphabet! I’m excited to be chosen as a guest blogger to celebrate W3G’s 5,000th page view! I’ve known Ginger since we were just wee 12-year-olds; I enjoy reading about her adult life, her family, their adventures and I thoroughly appreciate her sense of humor!  W3G is one of my favorite blogs and I regularly lament that I am halfway across the country from Ginger.  I’ll surely make it back to West-by-God-Virginia some day soon and I’ll be treating Miss Ginger to a margarita for sure!  Until then, we meet up on the interwebs…

is for Love!


I spend a lot of time talking about my take on things, Little Man, my critters and myself; but I rarely talk about DH – today that changes!  DH (aka my Dear, Darling Hubby) has stood by my side for longer than nearly anyone I know.  He’s been my main squeeze for 14 1/2 years!  His ability to not only tolerate me, but help me find myself and encourage me to chase my dreams is unsurpassed!  This is our (somewhat abbreviated) story…

During the summer of 1998 I lived in Columbia, South Carolina and was a single mom to Baby Girl and Monkey Man working as a waitress at a local bar during the evening/night and staying home with my kids during the day.  It wasn’t easy, but it was certainly easier than being in the marriage that I had left a year and a half earlier.  I had moved to South Carolina the previous summer and my parents missed the kids during the school year, so the kids went to visit my parents for a few weeks.

I was young and free for a one of the few times in my life.  I worked in a bar and most of my friends either worked there or frequented the bar.  On one of my nights off I visited another local bar and chatted with the bartender, a friend of a friend, and DH (who I didn’t know until then).  The conversation was one where I was declaring that I was mighty and strong and “I want the fairytale.”  I convincingly pretended that I had my act together.  That night I was strong and going to conquer the world!  DH fell for it…

The funny thing is, I still didn’t really know who DH was!  One night he came into the bar while I was working and he was really friendly…I was a b**ch and made it clear that his cute flirty-friendliness could just move on down the road.  I was such a fool!

A few months later I was attending a party with all my bar co-workers and friends and one of my friends suggested I sit with their roommate and share a meal because he and I were both thin and didn’t eat much! Ha ha ha!  We sat together, we talked, we drank, we talked more…and by the end of the night we were making out in front of friends!  (And I don’t do PDA!)  I gave him a ride home and my phone number and was certain he’d never call again.

He called!  We talked more.  And talked, and talked, and talked…over the next few weeks DH and I spent tons of time talking on the telephone and getting to know each other.  We talked about anything and everything, it seemed.  He invited me for a dinner date and I joked that I didn’t know if I could eat a meal that didn’t come with a toy at the end.  He took me out to dinner and just as the server was taking away our dishes, he pulled a Pez dispenser out of his pocket – my “toy” at the end of the meal!

    

After that we were nearly inseparable.  In 2000 we bought a house in Florida and moved away from everyone and everything we knew!  We were happy together.  I think we were both certain that this was for keeps, but we didn’t marry because we’d both had horrible first marriages.  He did propose eventually and I accepted, though I’m not sure if we ever actually thought we would really get married.

    

In 2007, we decided it was time to make it official and marry.  We tied the knot on April 28, 2007!  In 2008 we purchased our house in Colorado and though it took several months to tie up all the loose ends in Florida, by the end of 2009 we were both living in Colorado full time.  In 2011 we became parents together when Little Man was born.

    

Over the years we did everything together:  raised kids, got pets, lost pets, bought homes, sold our home, travelled together, watched children grow and graduate from school, watched Baby Girl join the Marines and leave, watched Baby Girl marry, watched the kids go to college, laughed, cried, lived and loved.

    

And here we are, nearly 15 years later.  DH may be the only person on the face of the earth with enough patience to tolerate me and my mood swings.  He’s seen me at my worst and not only did he still love me, he carried me through it.  He supports me like no one in my life ever has.  He laughs with me and at me.  He sees my potential and points it out to me.  I’m sure he sees my weaknesses, but he overlooks them and keeps on loving me.


And that’s truly what love is about.  Being together through it all:  good, bad, ugly, and everything in between.  Growing old together.  And I plan to point my rocking chair toward the west and be grateful everyday that DH is the one rockin’ beside me!

Hope you enjoyed Miss Cristyl! She had me in tears!

 

2 comments:

  1. I loved reading her story! She is a great storyteller.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Awe! How sweet. I am loving the year to year pictures!

    ReplyDelete