The story of us

*Edited

It may surprise all of you how Rich and I met, but first a little background...

We have both been married before.

Rich was married and they had two children during their marriage, Wyatt (now 13) and Hayden (now 10). The marriage ended on bad terms and that's all I have to say about that. Although it's hard for me to bite my tongue.Anyway they divorced in 2002.

I was married to a man that lives in California and has come out to see the kids once a year up until two years ago and has not been back since.

That's all I have to say about that.

Now onto us....

I decided to move from California at the age of 30, right after my divorce. I wasn't thinking about dating and anyway I had sworn that I'd never get married again, so my choice of places to live wasn't swayed toward the available men in the area. All I wanted was to get away from California and go some place where people were nicer and life moved at a slower pace. I wanted New Orleans, Savannah, Natchez or even a nice Midwestern state, so that I could get some snow. My mother had decided that she wanted to move too so that she could be by her grand kids. She turned down all the places I mentioned because of the hurricanes and tornadoes, but most especially the snow. She found Mechanicsville, Virginia and liked it because it had mild weather (hello hurricane Isabelle, two years after we moved there LOL). I thought.. why not? It's a small town and they get a little snow, which I love.

So off we went..... I started thinking about dating again after a while and went out a few times, but it was a nightmare. Most men were either married or a lot like what I had divorced. I dated a few, some too young and some my age or a little older, but they were awful. My friend Jamie in California told me that she was dating people she met on the Internet. I had a great laugh at her expense.

Well, another year went by and desperation was setting in. So after a lot of prodding and as a joke (who actually meets anyone of substance this way??) I took a look at the guys on match.com. I searched in our immediate area.....um... not good.... and kept moving outside of it until Virginia Beach (2 hours away on a good day) came up. Low and behold this pic came up of a guy sitting at a NASCAR race with sunglasses and a baseball cap on, but with a really sexy half smile.

I looked at some of his other pics and I had butterflies immediately.
Yeah, I know.... ;)

Then I started thinking... what's wrong with him?? Why is he on the Internet looking for women if he's that good looking?? I decided to write him anyway and he wrote me back! He said that he noticed that I hadn't included a picture and I told him I wanted to Instant Message him for a while before I sent one. He said okay, but later on, when we met, he said that it was weird he even wrote me back because he usually didn't unless there was a picture.

Anyway, we instant messaged back and forth for about a week and I found out that the reasons he was on Match.com were for the same reasons I had checked it out, except that his problem was that the girls he met in Virginia Beach were young and shallow. I finally sent Rich a picture...
and then he sent me his number. When I finally got up the nerve to call him, I waited until I knew he wouldn't answer and I blocked my number because I wanted to hear his voice first. Eureka!! Nice Voice!! So I called him again that night still blocking my number (Never know, right?) He was very sweet, so I finally gave him my number and he immediately asked if we could meet, but I made him wait about two weeks. He now says it was the longest few weeks of his life.

When we first met I knew I was in trouble (he was even better looking in person) and he said later on that he knew he was in love immediately. It took a while for me to let my guard down, but when it did we were attached at the hip and have been ever since. Alex had a little trepidation towards him at first, but Annie took to him right away.

Six months later Christmas came and I gave all of us a family ski trip. When we arrived at the cabin we were staying in, Rich lit a fire and told me to sit down. Then with Alex and Annie watching, he got down on one knee. He told me how much I meant to him and that he had never loved anyone more and pulled out a ring. I don't remember the details of what he said, because I was in so much shock, but I remember saying yes. I think he asked me about three times if I was sure, but I really was. This time I was extremely sure.

Rich even gave Annie a promise ring. The promise was that he would love and take care of all of us. Later I found out that he had asked my mom and Alex permission to marry me and Alex told him I would say no, just to mess with him, so he was really nervous. My mom's only request was that we wait two years to get married, so that we knew that this is what we really wanted.

So a year and a half later (lol) we married each other in a small ceremony at a very old home with only immediate family in attendance.When we took our vows, Rich was really nervous, because he kept thinking I was going to run off at the last minute.See the death grip on the back of my head? lolI wasn't nervous at all. I knew he was what I had waited for my whole life. Annie ran up and gave him a big hug after the ceremony. I love this picture.Now this is our family ....and I love him as much, if not more, than I did the day I married him.About a year earlier, he had asked for a job as recruiter in his hometown and we moved right after our honeymoon.

The rest as they say is history....
and I haven't stopped smiling yet ;)

So that's it.... a modern day love story.

hugs and love,
rue