16 Years Later...........

It is the day before my 16th wedding anniversary. I can remember this day as well as the actual wedding day. I was sitting at KCC in the Lusby Lounge waiting for Casey to pick me up, so we could go get our wedding license  and some cheap wedding bands...Dad drove me in that morning because of the weather, and I skipped class because Casey was suppose to pick me up at 8am...SUPPOSE to is the key word here. I sat there, and sat there, and 1/2 hour went by, then an hour..I went to the payphone (no cell phones then;) and called his house for the first time ever. His sister Kara Zane answered, I asked for Casey and she said "Hold on, I'll get him, he is still asleep"...REALLY? He OVERSLEPT on the morning that we were going to sneak around and prepare for our enormous wedding the next day? *I say that sarcastically* So, he eventually makes it to pick me up and we head out....

For some odd reason, I remember what we ate for breakfast as we went through McDonald's drive thru...he ate a breakfast fajita and I ate an Egg McMuffin...odd that I remember that 16 yrs. later. We drove to Ashland to visit Leigh Anna at work so she would believe that we were actually getting married...she had set us up on a date at her house at the end of January..I think the 28th...it was 2 weeks later and we were getting married...she really didn't know what to say, but pretended to be happy;)

We then headed back to Grayson and stopped at Haney's Jewelry to pick out 2 plain gold wedding bands...I think they were maybe $30 a piece? Ran up to the courthouse to get our licence. The lady who gave it to us was kin to Casey's ex-wife, so I'm sure other people found out before our parent's did...(I was nervous because it was her, which is the reason I missed what his first name really was)

We then went and told both sets of parents, his mom first, then his dad (first time I met his dad) then my mom....dad was at work so we didn't get to tell him....the only one that seemed thrilled by the news was Sandy (Casey's mom). I can't blame the rest of them, I mean, I would be furious if one of my kids told me they were getting married after 2 weeks of dating...when I told Granny Brown the only thing she said was (and I quote) "Well, I hope this one works out!!" And she said it just like that, very grouchy like...LOLOLOL....I tried to explain that I had no control over the first marriage failing, but well, you understand if you knew my Granny;))

Fast forward to the wedding day (next day) Casey and I went to the courthouse in Grayson. Mom brought Sammi (she would turn 2, 10 days later) Dad couldn't miss work, Mike, Sandy, Chad and Kara were there. Our witnesses were Leigh Anna and Anthony....the little room could barely hold us all...Casey and I got out our rings, and the grouchy little man said "I don't do the ring thing"...Ooookkkk..we just handed them to each other and put them on our fingers ourselves. He started the whole, "Do you ____. take ____ to be your"....when he said "Robert" mom and I were very confused...in our minds we were thinking "Who is Robert"???? That was when we found out that Robert was Casey's first name....it was a 30 second ceremony. Sandy has always said that when she started to cry at the beginning, the tear only made it down to her nose before the ceremony was over....LMBO!!!!!!

Nonetheless, slipshod wedding, a wedding dress from JC Penney's, cheap rings, no ring exchange, learning your husbands real name during the wedding, parent's scared and doubtful, snow blowing as we took off for Gaitlinburg with a sign on our tailgate (compliments of his Uncle Tom) which had the wrong date on it , we beat the odds. We made it to our 1st anniversary, our 2nd, had another child to the family by our 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, another baby by our 7th, and on and on and on...until our 16th...

It has flown by...good times and bad. Laughter, tears, angry words and words of comfort. There is no one else I could imagine sharing my life with...no one else who would be so patient with me and loves me despite of all my faults...So, here is to another 16 years...and beyond...Love you Robert "Casey" Brammell