For the First Time in Public, LTJG and Mrs....

Today, June 9th, is our 7th wedding anniversary. It's not the first he's missed (ahem, last year too...I think this is the 4th one he's been away for), and certainly won't be the last.

Bob and I met in our high school cafeteria one early morning in November of 1994. I was a 15-year old sophomore, and he a 17-year old senior. He was selling candy bars for a National Honors Society fund-raiser and asked me if I wanted to buy one. I am picky when it comes to chocolate, so I kindly passed up his offer and he was on his way. The next morning I was sitting at the same table with the same people, and one of them told me that the person here the day before wanted to talk to me and get my phone number. I had no idea who it was, but was curious to find out. A few minutes later he sat down next to me and we started talking.

That weekend we went out on our first date to a movie. It was November 12th and we saw “The Santa Clause.” My mom was working that night, so my Bob came in my house and met my dad and two sisters. He was very nervous and chewing his gum very quickly! He always chewed strawberry Trident.

The next week at school we walked to class together and talked on the phone too. On November 19th we went out with some friends and ended up at his parents' house; I met his brother, Chris, that night too. We were in the car on the Berlin Turnpike in front of Lechemere’s and I remember he asked if I wanted to be his girlfriend. I of course said yes, and we’ve been together ever since. That was the night we had our first kiss too...in the driveway at my parents' house...after the date of course!

On June 27, 1995 he left for the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland and in August of 1997 I started college at Eastern Connecticut State University. We had a long distance relationship while he was at USNA and until the day we were married.

On May 13, 1999 Bob surprised me in my apartment at college and proposed. He told me he was going apartment hunting in Charleston, but drove up to CT instead. He knocked on the door, got down on his knee, had a dozen roses in one hand and a beautiful diamond ring in the other.

In June of 1999 he moved to Charleston, S.C. then to Ballston Spa, N.Y., Groton, CT and finally to Kings Bay in November of 2000. During that time I finished high school and college and we finally got married on June 9, 2001 at Sacred Heart Church in East Berlin, Connecticut. Three days after the wedding we packed up my blue 1996 Ford Taurus and drove down to St. Marys, Georgia where we started our new life together.

It's been seven years since we got married, and now we've got two daughters. Hard to believe I've spent just about half my life with him...but it's been a great ride!

Thanks to Uncle Bruce for pictures 2, 3 & 5!