20th Wedding Anniversary

20 years ago tonight, I was enjoying myself at our rehearsal dinner around Mike and Lanett's pool. Has it really been 20 years?? Geez, I can't believe I'm old enough to have been married that long.

Here's the story of Amy and Willard....

In February of 1986, I was cheering at a basketball game. Half way through the game, I noticed these REALLY obnoxious guys across the gym. They were yelling at the my team, my fans, my CHEERLEADERS!!! After the game, this one guy (yep, Willard) asked me for my phone number. Since I found him utterly annoying, I refused to give it to him. I did, however, find his friend quite cute and so I gave HIM my number. I'm not sure how it happened, except that Willard was bigger and meaner than his friend, but somehow Willard ended up with my number. When he called me the next day, I was *not* a happy camper. I told him I had a boyfriend and figured that would it the end of it. But nooooo.... he showed up at the basketball game that night so I had to get a friend (thank you, Darin!) to pretend to be my "boyfriend". Darin gave me his classring, his letterman jacket, and was completely attentive to me. Hahaha. All to rid me of that Falkville boy!

Although I'm fairly sure I've never laid eyes on Willard before that first basketball game, I was suddenly seeing him everywhere. At McDonald's, at random ballgames, etc. And dang it, he got cuter and cuter everytime I saw him. Finally one night at McDonald's, I decided just maybe he deserved another chance, so I went up and asked him to buy me an ice cream cone. He agreed and called me the next day, and the next, and the next....

Did I mention I was only 15 when we met? Yeah, 15. Scary, huh? We met in January and I didn't turn 16 until February 21. By mid-January, he was calling me everyday and showing up at as many random events that we could come up with. The Randolph rule was that we couldn't date until I turned 16 and the days were DRAGGING by. One week before my birthday was Valentine's Day. Delivered to me at school were 7 red roses and a card that read (in Willard's handwriting) "Counting the days..." awwwww My mom thought it was so sweet that she agreed to let us go out that night..it WAS Valentine's day after all! The only problem was that he spent all his money on roses and so he didn't have the cash to take me anywhere. Ha. So we just rode around Hartselle and Decatur until time to go home.

Four and a half years later, we got married. Even though he lost our wedding rings on the way to the church (and they were never found), and even though the power kept flickering during the wedding (a sign??), and even though the hotel forgot to give us a wake-up call (we BARELY made our flight), AND even though we had BUNK BEDS for a week on our honeymoon cruise (I kid you not!!!)... we were husband and wife. :)

Now, 5 kids and 20 years later, I smile as I type this. My life is not perfect - whose is??? But I can say this... The happy times far outweigh the sad times, the blessings far outweigh the tragedies, and the laughs far outweigh the tears.

And that's how this chaos all got started...