jeff and i met on the playground.
i was in fourth grade.
he was in fifth grade.
i was digging holes in the dirt.
he was doing lord knows what.

i knew about him-his DAD was his TEACHER. and that was really cool. (i was NOT cool)
but you know, i was in fourth grade. i was on his sisters softball team. (i begged for the team to be called the purple unicorns but the blue dragons won out. whatever.)

then i moved away. onto another elementary school. and we didnt meet up again until 9th grade.
we were in drama together. a couple plays together.
i thought he was so cute. and he was taller than me. double bonus.
but i never thought he would like me. i thought he was too cute for me.
but we were friends, kind of. in that nervous flirty weird way.
then we both started mock trial.
and we got partnered up.
he was a lawyer and i was his witness. we had to practice together. a lot.
we started hanging out more with the team. i was a junior, he was a senior.

one day, after practice, he offered to give me a ride home. another girl on the team also asked for a ride home. as he was exiting the parking lot, he said “okay which way do i go?” the other girl said-if you are going to my house go left. i said, if you are going to my house go right.

he went left. so he could get me alone. i remember in that moment knowing something was going to happen.

he drove me home in his blue honda prelude. and dropped me off. NOTHING HAPPENED.
fifteen minutes later the phone rang. and it was him. and he asked me out on a date. it was my first date. i had just turned 16. we decided to go see home alone. when we hung up i screamed and jumped up and down on my bed.

thats when we began. we have been together ever since, minus a month or two due to stupidity.

we went to prom together. we moved away to college together. and at the end of our first year of college, we got pregnant together. with mckenna. i was 17. he was 19.

when those two lines turned blue in our apartment bathroom with me sitting on the toilet and him sitting in the bathtub…everything turned upside down and right side up all at once.

our parents were PISSED. we were so busted. but we all got through it somehow.

we moved back home. i turned 18. we got married. (in vegas at the chapel of the bells) jeff worked as the overnight security guard for our apartment complex, getting us free rent plus $400 a month. he went to a computer training school during the day. he got his first real job at the tender age of 21. his salary was $21k. we were rich.

then came drew when i was 20.
then came nathan when i was 23.
and then anna when i was 26.

4 apartments and 3 houses in 5 cities. 4 jobs and 8 cars.

15 years later and i look back at where we came from and what we have done to get here and it seems like a miracle. we went from teenagers who knew nothing and had nothing to adults who are doing what they always wanted. we are so lucky that we still work together. that we still need each other.

ive been with him half my life. only him. and i truly truly feel that we were destined for each other. it wouldnt and couldnt have happened any other way.

jeff and tara circa 1993