18 Years

18 years ago today Russell and I were married at 8:30 a.m. in the Salt Lake Temple on the record breaking coldest day of the year.  I must start off by saying I am so sorry to my mom and dad for getting married 4 days before Christmas.  I was the oldest of 6.  My dad had just been shot in a hunting accident and had been in the hospital a month prior to that.  My mom had to deal with my dad, Christmas, and this wedding all at the same time.  Now that I am a mom I realize how that just might have been her ticket to the funny farm but she did a great job and I love her so much!  Also, 8:30 am is not a great time for people to have to be to a wedding but we only had an 8 week engagement so there weren't a lot of options.  When you are young and in love, those things don't really matter to you!

We had a wonderful ceremony followed by freezing cold pictures.  I would take my coat off for the shot and immediately put it right back on.  It was miserable to say the least.  We had soup and salad at the church and then prepared for the reception.  All I remember is being the happiest girl in the world!  We stopped at Subway on our way to the downtown Marriott that night and the rest is history!

When we first got married Russell was working construction.  He was told a week later that he didn't have a job.  He spent a week or so doing work through a temp agency before he got hired on at First Security Bank.  He was making $5 an hour and I was making $5.50 working at Tel America Long Distance.  We lived in my aunt's basement apartment in Sandy for 3 months but hated the commute so we moved into the other side of my Grandma's duplex in West Valley.  I drove an electric blue Geo Metro and Russell drove a '78 Celica fully loaded with a sunroof!  He was a size 30 and I was a size 7.  He had a nice bushy mustache and I had nice bushy hair.  We shopped at the thrift store for his suits.  We found good ones most of the time but I remember looking at his butt once wondering why it looked so funny.  The pants to his suit had been taken in so much that the back pockets touched each other at the middle seam.  He obviously had not taken the jacket off in the store to notice that.  He made sure he always wore the jacket when he was wearing that suit!

Our first vacation was to Disneyland.  We got 50 miles to the gallon in my little Geo, stayed in a room with my parents (Thanks for that.  What a sacrifice!) and went in the pouring rain from ride to ride.  It was so much fun.  We saw Phantom of the Opera in LA and drove home.  I learned then that Russell only makes stops for real emergencies and you better learn to hold it!

We were so excited when we bought our first house for $69,000.  We did all of the sweat equity we could and hoped we would be able to make the jump from our $350 rent to a $591 mortgage! 

We spent the first 5 years child free and had fun fishing, camping and being carefree.  Those were really fun times.  As much as I loved them, the boys have made life together even better.

It's hard to believe it has been 18 years.  We are the same couple with a whole lot of life experiences under our belt and a few gray hairs.  I wouldn't change a thing and I look forward to the next 18 years!