Prologue - Start HERE

Starting a personal blog at the age of 36 is hard.  Especially when there isn't a set subject that will be discussed.  It's hard to just jump into talking about my life without giving a little bit of back story.  Like I say in my "About Me" section, my goal is to someday right a book about my life with my husband, because it's somewhat of a real-life fairy tale.  Don't worry, I'm not going to write the book here, but I can write an introduction, a summary if you will, of what got me to where I am now.  I'll try not to go on too long, and you'll learn more along the way, but I figure the best place to introduce my blog is right here...

When I was 16, I fell in love.  I guess you can say it was my first love.  He was my best friend.  We did everything together - hung our, watched TV, listened to music, talked about our lives, shared our hopes and dreams, and all the other stuff teenagers did.  One small catch:  He was two years younger than me.  So, a sixteen year old in love with a fourteen year old was a little... urm... weird.  I know that no matter how much I press the fact that he was no ordinary fourteen year old will sway those people that wonder how on earth a sixteen year old falls for a fourteen year old, but oh well.  It happened.

I ended up moving in with him because my family weren't too thrilled with my life choices at the time, and I was a rambunctious teenager that wanted to do what I wanted to do.  Jumping through the chapter of that whole story, one thing led to another and after a few months of living together, I ended up pregnant at the age of seventeen.

Now, any "normal" almost fifteen year old boy would have died if they found out they was going to be a father.  But, Casey didn't.  In fact, it was the complete opposite.  He was happy.  Of course there was fear, nervousness, uncertainty, but overall he was extremely supportive and vowed to stand by me and be the father of our child.

Here's where the sad part comes...

His family had other plans when they found out that I was carrying his child, and whisked him off from out under me in the blink of an eye.  One minute he was there, the next he was gone.  And this is where I make an AWESOME plug for my book because, again, there's soooooo much more to the story, but I'm trying to keep it short.

After Casey was torn away from me, I was faced living the life of a pregnant teenager alone and not sure what to do with my life.  I gave birth to our daughter two months after I turned eighteen, and spent the next fourteen years living my life.  I had two more children in two different relationships, I worked at lots of different jobs, I moved a lot, I went to college and got my teaching degree, I became a teacher, I bought a house, and I did all the things that grown ups do.

Fast forward fourteen years and I got a friend request on Facebook that rocked my world.  I'm skipping over the years I spent searching for Casey, and the brief encounters we had over the years.  However, in 2014, I got a friend request from Casey, and we started talking.  It was as if it'd been fourteen days since we last spoke, let alone fourteen years.  We shared what we'd done with our lives, we talked about music, we talked about the "good old days", and most importantly we talked about the daughter he'd never met.  Payton ALWAYS knew who her father was.  I had told her a lot about him, showed her pictures when I was able to find some, and gave her the absolute power of deciding if she ever wanted to contact him.

In August 2014, after Payton had spent some time talking to her dad on Facebook, she decided it was finally time.  So, she and I packed up a bag and drove the eight hour drive to Tennessee for her to meet her father for the first time.

I won't get all gushy, but I will say the feelings I had the minute I saw him are very hard to describe.  To say that feelings came flooding back is the biggest understatement I've ever made.  For fourteen years I'd thought about him, wondered what he was doing, wondered if he ever thought of me, and honest to God, I never, EVER stopped loving him.  But, I honestly, in a million years, ever thought I'd have the feelings I had when seeing him again.  The trip was good.  It served its purpose of Payton getting to meet her father, grandmother, and grandfather.  After the trip, however, it left me with a hole in my heart and a head full of confusion and upset.

Another quick fast-forward a few months, and I got another message that rocked my world even more than the friend request.  Casey wanted to pack up and move to Arkansas.  I should point out that I lived in Arkansas, at the time, as did his father, brother, and several other family members.  The plan was that he was going to live with his brother until he got on his feet, and it would give him the opportunity to spend time with Payton.  The day after Christmas, I took off to Tennessee, again, and I got the honor of driving him to his new home in Arkansas.

The first few months after he moved back to Arkansas were a whirlwind.  I saw him AT LEAST four or five times a week.  I just couldn't spend enough time with him.  On April 16th, 2015 he proposed.  He asked me to marry him!!  Again, several chapters missing, but of course I said yes, and we were married on July 6th, 2015 in Las Vegas.

We have now been married for three years.  We have had our ups and downs.  We've had great times and really bad times.  A lot of that I chalk up to getting married so quickly, but I truly believe with everything inside of me that he is my one, true soulmate.  I couldn't imagine my life without him.  He completes me in every way possible.

And, our lives together are just getting started.

So, now you've got the very quick summary of the life of Casey and Joanna.  While I won't always write about my husband, he is my inspiration.  He's the reason I started this, pushed me back towards my love of writing, and it's only fair I give credit where credit is due.  And yes, honey, this is where I get to put that if I ever make any money writing, you're entitled to spend some of it.

I hope you enjoy reading my stories, articles, opinions, and thoughts as much as I love writing them.