From "I like you" to "I Love You" Before we said "I Do" we moved to SoCal

I want to go back for a moment - to the early 1990's... the time when I didn't smile much... not for lack of being happy but because I had braces LOL - I hated them so I used to try to hide them by not smiling... in hind sight I wish I hadn't done that. (hind sight is always 20/20) But that's life right? right.
Here is my hub and I when we first started dating. We are standing in a hall way of what we had no idea would be our future wedding spot. We were at his Aunts Wedding held at the Chateu La Mer in Lindenhurst NY. He invited me to go with him since we had been dating for about 4 months. We liked each other but it wasn't anything real special... YET...

Look at him... he's got such long bushy hair LOL - still a cute guy though. I always seemed to go for the bushy guys anyway. Rocker partier types were my thing :)

We met at our job - "Friendly's" We always joke that the only good thing that ever came out of that place was us. (working at Lindenhurst Friendly's was like working in the dredges of some nasty pit... the back part where no customer should ever step foot was disgusting.... the floor was so rotted that everyone would joke that one day we would all wind up in the basement. )

We each bought some nice fun cars to drive... My first car was the camaro - bought it with the money I saved working at Friendly's (so I guess more than one good thing came from that place ;)

and hub had the evil mustang... yes it was posessed and hated me. LOL (seemed to get jealous like the Christine car - remember that movie?)

so anyway - I dated this cute guy for a while and then he went out and got a new job... (doesn't he look so snazy below) had to get all clean cut for the interview so I cut his hair - that was the first of many many haircuts. I've been cutting his hair for nearly 20 years now! (with the exception of the one time he was away on biz last year and "cheated on me" (he got a hair cut from another woman!! - how dare him) ;) guess he was desperate.

We dated for a year and realized that we had more than just "like" for each other . We had "LOVE" So we decided to move in together. (At the time I thought that was the best idea, but now I believe it's better to get married first and then move in) but like I said before - hind sight is always 20/20) We lived and worked in Lindenhurst for the next year and then took a fun vacation to see my sister in California in the summer of 1992. It was so great that we decided we could do what we were doing anywhere, So why not in California? We came back and gave our 2 week notice. 3 weeks later we were having a "going away party"

after the party we got all duded up in our work clothes and packed up the Ryder truck... ready for our long 3000 mile journey across the USA. (no wonder his mom disliked me so much... I took her baby away from her to So.Cal.)

She's smiling at me above... but I know what she's really thinking.... (you can probably guess too)

My dad giving me ol' "You can always come home" talk. He had tears in his eyes - it was so sweet -I love that man - he's such a wonderful guy!

Saying our last "goodbye's before we hit the road" ( I remember that shirt - I painted that Garfield on there - Loved to paint artwork on my clothes back then - when I actually had time to draw and paint)

Welp - we went from just liking each other to Loving each other... It was a fun journey along the way. lots of ups and downs and "getting caughts" Some how we survived those times to keep on- keepin' on.

I'll write the next chapter about "US" real soon... It's just my way of celebrating the love. :) I hope you celebrate your love as well.