Jim and I have been married for a little over 6 years now.  We met in high school.  I'm not saying we dated in high school or even liked each other in high school, we just me there. We were in the band and he was (still is) 2 years younger then me.  Once I graduated and broke up with the boyfriend I had during high school I ended up back at the school during the summer band camp.  I was there to see some friends of mine that were still going there.  By this time Jim and I were friends.  Well it wasn't love at first sight, maybe lust at first sight but who really knows....anyway we started seeing each other.  After a short breakup we got back together and have been together ever since.  We got married on August 24, 2002 in Brush Prairie Washington and let me tell you it was the hottest day ever.  Jim did a little wild land firefighting and I worked at a law firm in downtown Vancouver.  After we celebrated our 1st wedding anniversary we got the wonderful news that Jim was going to be deployed to Iraq.  I was not happy to say the least.  We also found out that his dad was being deployed to Afghanistan at the same time.  I know, pretty sucky.  Well we rushed to find a house to buy because I wasn't going to live where we were living by myself.  We found this cute little house in Vancouver pretty close to his parents place.  Jim spent 6 months training in TX, he was able to come home on leave a couple of times so that was nice.  On his last leave before heading over the ocean we bought a new car and a puppy, Betsy.  Jim spent the next 12 months in Iraq, he made it home on leave in August and then he was home for good that following March.  Let me tell you, up until then that was the hardest thing I ever had to do.  I had to pretend to be a strong person when in fact I was dying inside. Fretting, worrying and just plain scared all the time.  Thankfully I had the support of both of our wonderful families and friends.  After Jim got home in March I think he took about a month of before he went to work for the Army fulltime.  Jim and I found out on Memorial Day weekend of 2005 that we were going to be parents.  We were thrilled and shocked and I'll admit I was a little scared.  Jim once again for a call to go and help with Hurricane Katrina relief.  He spent a month down there trudging through the nastiness of it all.  He got home on Sept. 30th, the day of my ultrasound.  Unfortunately he missed it but we found out that we were having a little girl!!  We were so happy, but now the painful process of picking out a name.  Jim sure didn't go for many of the names I picked out.  I'm not saying I chose names like Apple or Mojito or something but he just liked traditional names.  We decided on Allison Rose (Alli).  Alli was born 2 weeks late on Feb. 9, 2006.

Life was good.  We ended up moving to Forest Grove Oregon because Jim worked out of the armory here and the commute was killing him.  We like it here, it's quiet and pretty.  

We got pregnant again with little Jimmy in the spring of 2007.  He made his debut on Jan. 10, 2008.  He was such a peanut, 6 lbs. 11 oz.  a dramatic difference from his sister, she was 8 lbs. 9 oz.  

We have been living our life and having a pretty good time with it.  Jim is back in school and will be going through the OCS program here soon.  That will be fun for all involved.  :-)

~R~