"Kindie" love.

If you ask my mom, she has been in love with my father since they were 5 years old.  They were in the same kindergarten class ... this is their school picture ... can you even believe that?  (It's true.)

As my mom tells the story, she always had a crush on my dad.  She loved it when my dad would come to school and have red lip prints on his cheek from where his mother had kissed him goodbye that morning.  She was certain he was showered with love at home ... and got to go home to a hot meal at lunch time.

My dad grew up in a very traditional home.  His father worked for the railroad company "all the days of his life."  His mother was a stay at home mom who got up and got dressed up "all the days of her life."  I never saw her in pants, ever.  She wore hose and heels everyday.  She wore a slip under her dress, and earrings clipped to her ears.  She had a wonderful array of gloves and purses that my older sister and I used to LoVe to get into and play dress up with.  My father had one older brother and one older sister, but with 13 years between he and his sister, he was raised pretty much as an only child in a lovely adult world with road trips and culture.  (I bet you can guess which little boy he is.)

Suffice it to say, my mother's upbringing was a tad less traditional, but she looked at Bobby Winebrenner with his etiquette and cultured self, all through their school years admiring who he was and what he had to offer.

My dad played the violin and was involved with the theater department in high school.  My mom played volleyball and basketball and could bowl a perfect 300 game.  They didn't hang with the same crowd during those growing up years.

But as luck (or maybe destiny) would have it, my mother's sister, Mary, got engaged to my father's cousin, David.  And at their wedding, my mother served as the maid of honor and my father served as the best man.  There they were, together again, but this time, they stayed together.  And they couldn't be any happier.

So here's to you mom and dad, little Bobby and Sally Jo from East Rochester, New York ... congratulations!

Happy Anniversary!!!

I love you!