Our wedding day

When Dennis and I were dating and talking about getting married, of course we needed to talk about where we would actually live. I told him flat out that I could not live in Corona, where he was from, or anywhere in the LA area because of my fear of earthquakes.

I did however, agree, to marry him in the Los Angeles LDS temple.

So my oldest son Brock drove me, McKay and Tyler to Corona the night before our wedding. (We missed Logan who was in the Philippines in the middle of his 2 year mission for our church.) After visiting with Dennis and his daughters, who had also arrived for our wedding, the boys and I checked into our hotel for the night.

My sons fell asleep around midnight but it took me till about 1am to doze off, finally. At 2:46am guess what happened? AN EARTHQUAKE. Found out later it was a 7.1 coming from Hector which is located about 90 miles from Corona. The whole place shook terribly. I screamed. The boys woke up, from my screaming I think, not the earth shaking. I went outside and noticed several fellow hotel people outside looking around...the water in the pool still swaying wildly.

My boys told me it was over, so I should just go back to sleep. I don't think Brock even got out of bed. I tried to doze off but we kept having aftershocks, and I felt them all. I never did go back to sleep that night. I wanted so badly to call Dennis, but this was the night before our wedding so I didn't. I found out later that he wanted to call me because he woke up too from the shaking but was afraid of waking me up. He obviously did not know me as well as he knows me now. I DO NOT sleep through earth quakes.

So that is how our wedding day began.
This was 9 years ago today!

This picture was actually taken at the Oakland temple, not the one we were married in.
I looked too tired the day of our wedding to put any of those pictures here.

This is our combined children the day of our reception. 2 sons are missing.
Dennis and I both had a son on a mission at the time.

Why is this the only picture we have of ourselves at our reception
when over 100 pictures were taken that night? Because instead of hiring a photographer, I gave McKay and Tyler a bunch of disposable cameras and instructed them to take pictures. I didn't know till AFTER the reception that they took pictures of everyone eating. Yes, they went around and actually waited till the mouths of our guests were open and then they snapped the shots. What was I thinking??!
They couldn't help it. They were BOYS, ages 13 and 15!

If you don't want to read my list of why I love Dennis just skip to the song below.

*He wakes up every morning asking himself what he can do today to make me happy.

*He often empties the dishwasher before leaving for work.

*He says he likes to go grocery shopping with me. He patiently pushes the cart while I take my time filling it.

*He asks me nearly every night after dinner, "Are we going anywhere tonight?" And when I tell him where, he takes me. If I say, "Oh you look tired tonight. Maybe we should stay home." He will say, "I'm never too tired for you."

*He helped me everyday for the 3 1/2 weeks my mother lived with us until she died. He was the last one who saw her. He says it was one of the greatest experiences of his life.

*He still opens the car door for me. He opens all doors for me. He has me so spoiled that when I go out with girlfriends I sometimes will just stand there waiting.

*He is an excellent listener. If he sees me stressed he will say, "Come and sit here and tell me all about it." And he will sit there and listen to every word. I feel I am a good listener too, but he is even better than me.

*He LIKES honey do lists. He will ASK for them and seems to enjoy going down the list and getting everything done one by one checking them off as he goes along.

*He never wants to be late for anything, especially church. To him, being on time means being there at least 15 minutes early. His motto is, "I'd rather be 30 minutes early than 1 minute late."

*Dennis helped me finish raising my 2 youngest sons. He was right there front and center, doing it all.

Perhaps you think I am exaggerating. I promise, I'm not. Perhaps I should tell you some of his faults to make this more realistic. Let's see. Oh I know one. *He will sometimes go to the store for me but I don't think he can do that with out calling me 3 or 4 times while he is hunting for things.

*And here's another....he has a hard time throwing anything away. He is very sentimental...so I try to do de-cluttering when he is not home. Also, this is probably his biggest fault...he does not put anything away. For example, he is so good about wrapping gifts for me because he knows I do not enjoy that. But it never even enters his brain to put the scissors and tape away. (He does not believe in gift bags.)

*Oh, and if I have been gone and I come home to all the cupboards open and things sticking out of the drawers, I know that he had been on the hunt for something lost. Yep, that's about it

I will always have memories of Den and I driving down the coast of California
on our honeymoon with him singing this song to me over and over again.

Happy Anniversary, Honey.
Thank you for asking for my phone number.