The Love of My Life

With Valentine's Day just around the corner, my thoughts are naturally on the love of my life, Dana. Simply put, she is AMAZING! It sounds cliche but I really cannot imagine my life without her. Here are some of my favorite memories that we've shared together.

After going out on a couple of dates, we ate breakfast together at Denny's before she had to leave town. We had spent a lot of time with each other that week and were really growing on one another. I didn't want to go back to school and not have a picture to show everyone. So, we stopped at the store and bought a disposable camera. We sat in my truck before she had to leave and I filled the camera up with pictures of her and pictures of us!

Later that summer, we visited Albert Pike for a day. Dana had camped here as a kid with her family, and she loves this place. She was always telling me about it. We spent the whole day swimming, hiking, and picnicking. We will definitely go back with out kids one day.

This picture was from our first Valentine's Day together. We had been dating almost a year, and we had plans to have a dinner at a nice restaurant. As you can see, the weather did not like our plans. It snowed hard enough to cancel our dinner plans, but we spent the afternoon together playing in the snow and building a snowman in the front yard.


This picture was taking before we went to dinner at Ashley's in Downtown Little Rock for our 1 year anniversary. We had a really nice dinner, but we definitely didn't fit in with such a fancy crowd. I can still remember that night because she looked so amazing. And I was wondering how she'd put up with me for a year!

A few months later, I drove to El Dorado to ask for Dana's parents permission to ask her to marry me. I was planning on doing something elaborate later that summer and making it a really big deal. That was Saturday. At noon on Monday, I decided I was going to do it that night! I drove to Arkadelphia and surprised her with a ring. This was taken outside the chapel were we were engaged and later married. It was an amazing night. I still have to apologize to her though because it was in the middle of her finals!


13 months later, we got married in the same chapel. This was taken as we exited the church after the ceremony. For those that know me well, you can see that I've already shed the jacket and I'm unbuttoning the shirt! My wife looked amazing. When the chapel doors opened and she walked in...WOW! I can remember tearing up and realizing that I was such a blessed man.


This is us on the plane heading to the Poconos for our honeymoon. The resort was not all that the brochure made it out to be, but once again we found a way to make it fun and memorable. We found a lot of cool places to hike and visit.

This was our first "vacation". We took a trip to Atlanta and stayed in the Olympic Village (in the background). It was a really fun week to spend with her and just relax in such a cool place. I love spending time with her!

So...years later and here we are. I love my wife more than ever now, and I know that will continue to grow each day of the future. We are anticipating the newest family member to arrive in August, and I can't wait to add "wonderful mother" to the list of things I love about Dana! I never thought that someone could make me as happy as she has made me. My wife is a great friend, a great support and encourager, an inspiration to me, and she definitely is the love of my life.

Dana, I love you!