The Beginning of the End

I had convinced Nate that it was time to add children to our family. We hadn't talked a lot about kids before we got married. We didn't rule out kids, but we were in no hurry which was fine since we had married at a young age. We eventually learned as with everything in life, we really weren't in control like we thought we were. Looking back, God has shown me that His timing for adding kids was way better than any plan I had come up with. However, at the time I became frustrated and emotionally drained when "nothing was happening". We were unsuccessful after trying for 1 1/2 years.

In the summer of 2003, Nate coached a collegiate baseball team called the Twin City Scrappers. At the beginning of August they qualified to play in the World Series in Ohio. I made plans with Nate's dad & step mom to make the trip to Ohio to watch. Nate was not aware of this but I had let our friends the Bertas know who would be there to watch their son play. I was at work at the Telephone Company when my phone rang and the caller id said a dentists' name. I answered and Ray (Berta) was on the other end. He informed me he was with Nate and that he had been hit in the mouth when the baseball came through the screen in the batting cage. The ball split his lower lip and and messed up his two front teeth on the top. One was 1/2 gone and the other was bent back to the roof of his mouth. A plastic surgeon had stitched up his lip at the ER and this dentist cleaned up the teeth, pulling out the 1 that was bent back. He left the partial tooth in for the time being. He remained in Ohio to coach and we made the trip out to cheer them on. I remember seeing him for the first time. He looked like he had been in a fight with a baseball and the ball won! During some free time we had gone to the mall and many heads turned to stare. He was quite the site. :) The team lost a couple of games and we headed back to IL. Season over.

Ray hooked Nate up with a good dentist in town and he had an appointment on my birthday (August 14th). He had the remaining part of his other tooth pulled that day. After work, we went out for supper and returned home and finished our celebrating. (I'll keep the blog clean and you can fill in the blanks). :)

Where It All Started

Here's the story of how it all began. Picture me almost 20 years ago, 1992-1993, a freshman at Greenville College.

before church on Sunday of move-in weekend

Nate was a junior. During the month of January, Greenville has Interterm. 1 class, 4 hours a day, equals a semester credit. Nate and I both registered for Multi Cultural Awareness. At the time, we were dating other people, but I think it is safe to say this is the first time Nate "noticed" me. My freshman year came to an end and I returned to my home in WI. The relationships we were in came to an end as well (I remember why his did, not so much mine though). I had a job that summer that allowed me to sit outside with my workbench while sorting good & bad parts for automobiles. That meant I returned to Greenville for my sophomore year with a fabulous tan. Something Nate noticed about me.

me, my cousin Lisa & high school classmate Jenni

(When Morgan saw this picture she had to ask which one was me. When I pointed myself out she said, "That doesn't look like you". I said, "That's because it was a long time ago"!)

If I remember the story right, Nate posted my picture and phone number on his bulletin board. Greenville had a directory called the Preview that had each students' picture, phone number & dorm room number. This is where he got my "information". We had a couple of mutual friends that played with him on the baseball team. I think they let me know he had some interest and we eventually started talking on the phone and he visited my room during "open house". Greenville does not have co-ed dorms and back in the day we had open house 2 times a week when the boys visited girls for 2 hours 1 night and then the girls visited the boys for 2 hours the other night. Room doors had to remain open and all feet on the floor at all times. Our first official date was in November (I think) and we went to dinner at the Olive Garden and then to the world's worst movie, Flesh and Bone. After that first date, the rest I guess you can say is history! We dated the rest of my sophomore year, his senior year. I went home for another summer and he was lucky enough to get to go on a trip to Europe with his mom and brother. When I was a junior, we were still dating and in the fall Nate did his student teaching in Highland, IL. He had an apartment in Greenville and I no longer lived in the dorm but in a house on campus owned by the college with about 8 other girls. In the spring, Nate left and moved to Lexington and substitute taught and coached baseball at Gridley. That summer, he returned to Greenville to work at his dad's grain elevator and I moved into his dad and step mom's basement. I had a job at the college financial aid office. July 31, 1995, started out as a normal day. Nate drove me to work and his step mom Martha picked me up. Little did I know what had been going on while I was at work all day. He had been busy putting together a little scavenger hunt that led to an engagement ring!

me before work on August 1, 1995 posing with the new ring!

our official engagement photo

My senior year of college was busy with school things and planning a wedding. Nate returned to Gridley to teach PE and coach baseball. I graduated in May 1996 and we were married in Platteville, WI on July 20, 1996.

We had a nice honeymoon in Puerto Rico and we returned to our 2 bedroom apartment on 10th St in Gridley. I started my job at the Gridley Telephone Company in September 1996. Nate stopped teaching and coaching there after the 1997-98 school year. We bought our house in Normal in December of 1998. I continued to work at the Telephone Company until October of 2006, completing 10 years. Nate was self employed doing private baseball lessons and coaching at Parkside Jr. High, Normal West High School & summer collegiate teams. We were married 8 years before Shelby joined us. Details about her beginning will come in future posts. Thanks for joining me in remembering days long gone!