So Pretty if…

Today is mother’s day. I can’t say I have a close relationship with my mother. I never have. “Tiger mother” comes to mind when I think about her. For most of my life I have had a very turbulent relationship with her. It got to the point where I just had to walk away and live my life. I’m very lucky though, I have had some many women in my life that have stepped in and became an emotional surrogate mother to me. My aunt Donna and aunt Jan were very much mother figures in my life. I feel quite blessed that these two taught me so much about life and love. I can only hope that I filled their lives with as much happiness as they have filled mine. Many of my friend’s mothers and my dad’s friends helped fill the void too. Somehow Beth Kelsey listened to the problems of a strangely dressed, purple haired teenager for hours. Then there’s Donna Huddleston that made my fist Cabbage Patch Kid and taught me how to sew. I can’t forget Chris Durrett that pretended to be my mom so I could get another piercing (with my dad’s permission of course). There’s really too many to list but all of them have helped shaped me into what I am today.

I am recently married and with that came a new mom in my life. Jeff’s mom, Jan, is a true mom in every sense. In the few years plus that I have known her she has let me cry on her shoulder and hugged me when I needed it. She has stood next to my hospital bed and waited patiently. She has made me appreciate the love and gathering of a family again. To that I say thank you.

Happy Mother’s Day to all the mom’s out there. Happy Mother’s Day to all the women that became a mom to me and Happy Mother’s Day to my own mother where ever you are. I hope you are all happy, healthy and safe. Even if you are not with me, you are still in my heart.

It has been several months since our blissful day on November 11, 2011 and we have made it through many holiday celebrations. I finally have a little bit of time to share our special day with all of our family and friends.

I thought I should start out by explaining the story of Jeff and I. We met during our first year of college many many…. many years ago at the Kansas City Art Institute. We soon found out and bonded over being from the same home town in Iowa. The summer after our first year we went back home and I helped Jeff obtain a job at my mother’s company. After the summer Jeff returned to Kansas City and I moved to Chicago to seek out new adventures. We continued our friendship through letters but we eventually lost track of each other as so many do.

Fast forward thirteen years. I was still living in Chicago and Jeff had relocated to Chicago several years before. However, when I found Jeff again, I was in Seoul, Korea visiting family and Jeff was living in Germany for work. In my need for English anything I stumbled across Jeff online. It turned out that Jeff and I were both returning to Chicago about the same time so we decided to catch up over dinner. Obviously Jeff and I got along quite well and we’ve been together ever since.

Here are a few things we discovered along the way. At one point Jeff and I had apartments one block from each other. Jeff lived two blocks from where I had worked. We both almost moved to San Francisco during the same time period. In fact for most of our lives we were at the same place at the same time and when I say the same place I really mean the same room. Strange right? You would think we would have found each other in a much simpler way other then two separate countries neither of which was the United States. We even have the same taste in just about everything. When we moved in together we had so many exact duplicates of everything it was uncanny.

Since the beginning, we both just knew we were going to get married. So when the opportunity came up to buy a wonderful house with an enchanting yard back in our home town we jumped at it. Our first year in the house was a challenge because of some physical challenges which we think was life’s way of saying “slow down.” After our down time another opportunity came up on the job front and we made the decision to commute between San Francisco’s bay area and our home in the midwest. This has brought on a whole new set of challenges but so far we are getting through them.

With everything we have gone through we discovered we loved each other more then ever and it was time to tie-the-knot. As much as we would have loved to have had our friends and family witness our marriage we decided, with a heavy heart, to just elope. We received our marriage license at San Francisco’s City Hall and were married in San Francisco’s Japanese Tea Gardens within Golden Gate Park. Our friend, Brian, married us and another friend, Chien, came in from Chicago to shoot all of the wonderful pictures you are seeing on this post. These two guys really went above and beyond to make our happy day wonderful. Chien has even endured a bit of grumpy Ann Marie during the video editing process (hopefully coming soon). These are true friends and we are very lucky to have them in our lives.

You were only a tiny grain in my landscape
Never to see the sun
Only for a moment our hearts beat as one
I may have not buried you but I shed many tears
As my heart felt the happiness we could have shared
So long my love
Sleep well tonight
May your dreams be full of happiness
As you take flight

I thought I would share this old photo of Jeff and I being silly in a photo booth. I’ve had friends comment that this was the first time they really saw me smile. Jeff has truly brought so much happiness into my life.