Our love story began with an outing to Shasta Lake with mutal friends. I had to pick up Dave and drive him to the dock where we met up with our friends. The ride to the lake was a quiet one, those of you that know Dave would be surprised to know that he was a bit shy at first. However, as the day progressed, he grew on me and we spent the evening on my porch talking about our current relationships we were both involved in.

Then the courting began...Dave called daily, as you all know, he isn't much of a texter. And he eventually won my heart over.

He would drive up to Redding and surprise me with lunch and a walk in the park; sometimes he would stay for the weekend and sometimes I would go visit him in the Bay. This continued for about 6 months until he decided to move to Redding and we moved in together. The transition was a little rough at first, I supported him and eventually we grew his landscaping business here in Redding together.

When we first met, we both said we did not want to have anymore children, Dave had two daughters and I had two daughters, both from previous relationships. But our biological clocks were ticking and we decided we would try for one more. We tried for two years and realized that maybe God had already blessed us with our family, but just months after we gave up, we found out we were expecting.

God blessed us all with an amazing, healthy, fun baby boy, whom we named Justus (meaning "just us" growing old together). Since we had decided that we were going to grow old together, then we should make it official. We joked about this for years...and FINALLY 15 years later the day has come!