AN ANNIVERSARY OF SORTS....

it was 27 and 1/2 years ago today that, on the prompting of my friend danielle, i peered over my english text book and saw the most beautiful set of brown eyes looking at me from across the room.

danielle whispered to me that she was sure they were looking at me but if they weren't, she wanted to meet the guy who had those eyes.
everytime i looked up from my work and glanced over that way, those big gorgeous brown eyes were staring back at me.
and then at the end of the lesson he stood up and boy...did he have the cutest butt too...LOL
why had i never noticed this boy before...???

at lunch i saw him talking to one of the guys i was friends with and when he walked away i casually wandered over and asked my friend who he was.

"what's going on with you two?" asked my friend, "he was just asking about you !!!"

later that lunchtime, my friend dragged the guy with those big brown eyes over to me and said, "you two obviously have things to talk about"

his name was mark. he played soccer. he sailed catamarans with his father. his family owned one of the bigger car dealerships in town. he had two older sisters and a younger brother.

by the end of lunch we had swapped phone numbers.

every lunchtime after that, he came and sat with me and we talked.
i had lots going on in my life at that point in time. ian, my cousin, who had lived with us and was like a big brother to me, had been caught in singapore with drugs and there was so much tension at home as we fought the authorities to get him out of jail.

i was still broken and fragile and probably a little out of control after years of abuse as a child.
i didn't trust many people but this guy had a way of making feel like i was special and important and that i mattered.

it took a few weeks for him to eventually ask me out. we went to the cinema to see ice castles.
that first date we didn't even kiss...he just sat with his arm around my shoulder and after the movie was over, he held my hand as we left the cinema.
i can remember thinking that maybe had decided he didn't really like me after all because, as we all know, the gauge of whether a boy likes you when you are 16, is whether they kiss, or in some cases, attempt to kiss you.

but the lunchtime visits continued, and the occasional phone call.
and the rumour mill of 16 year olds and the bitchiness of teenage girls, as it does, worked overtime.
girls walked up to me at school and told me he liked someone else too and was trying to choose between us. being the person i was at that time, i spent hours at night crying and writing these painful letters to him (which i never sent), begging him to pick me over whoever this other girl was, promising that i would always love him.
looking back i must have looked so desperate and dateless.

a few weeks later i was at the beach with my family and i looked up to see this figure running up the beach towards us. it all sounds so corny and so cliche but i can still remember what he was wearing and what i had on too.
i introduced him to my mum and step-dad, we sat on the beach and talked.
when mum called me to go, he leaned over, put his hand on my cheek and kissed me.
it wasn't a passionate, "from-here-to-eternity" rolling-in-the-sand kiss, but a gentle first kiss.
i will never forget how i felt but i do remember thinking one thing.....

"this is the man i will spend the rest of my life with"

and the rest, so they say, is history
and here we are.....
3 kids,
2 dogs,
a mortgage,
a business,
almost 21 years of marriage
later.

mark and i at my 21st in 1985
look how young and in love and skinny we were...LOL
(i looked for some earlier photos of us but tis is all i could find)

so happy anniversary to us darl.
the road to this point hasn't always been an eight lane highway.
in fact at times it has resembled a country lane full of potholes.
but i still do love you.
thank you for 27 1/2 years of happiness and love, tears and joy, friendship and laughter.
thank you for our three beautiful children and fulfilling my dream of being part of a loving family.
thank you for believing in me when no one else did.
thank you for standing by me when no one else would.
thank you for being my anchor when the stormy seas of life got really really rough.

have a wonderful day everyone
and remember to look for the things in your life that make you smile
~~ and let those you love, know that you do ~~

shazz xo

HAPPY THOUGHT FOR TODAY
he loves me
he loves me not
he loves me
he loves me not

no.....he really does love me !!!!