Dan and I met in junior high and became good friends when his family moved in across the street from mine. We actually started dating right after high school graduation and before moving off to different colleges. We dated for four years, through college and my trip to study abroad in Spain. After graduating from college I had plans to return to Spain for the summer and asked Dan if I should plan to come back to MN or look for a job and apartment in Madrid. He insisted I return, so I did. We got engaged shortly after, married a year later, and now it’s been 13 years!
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My favorite Valentine’s Day we’ve shared goes all the way back to freshman or sophomore year of college. I went to UWEC to spend the weekend with Dan. We were broke college kids and he lived in the dorms. He bought me my favorite Disney movie, “Lady and the Tramp”, and made Stouffer’s microwaveable spaghetti in his dorm room. We snuggled up on the futon and ate our spaghetti while watching the movie. I still have the VHS tape even though we haven’t had a VCR in our home for years!
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I think we have both sets of our parents to thank for setting exemplary models of marriage – mutual respect, friendship, cooperation, spiritual faith, complimentary personal strengths, and family values. We look up to our parents a lot and they are always our first source for advice in anything!