~and so we did~

Come next Monday the calendar page shall turn over once again to the glorious month of May! Hard to imagine that the first 5 months of the year 2017 have gone by this quickly.  It's even harder to think that the 21st day of that new month will mark 4 years now that Mike and I have been married.

Honestly, I wasn't sure we would make it through the first 4 weeks.
Sad to say, but most certainly true.  That's another story.

On my classroom wall here at Big Pasture School in southern Oklahoma, I have a little area reserved that recounts the story of how it came to be that Mike and I got married.  It tells of our wedding in one of the most unusual places that a person could think of.  We decided about a month before we were going to be married that we would hold our wedding service at the school I was teaching at.  I didn't want all of the kids at Lincoln Elementary to wonder what happened to their old teacher when she didn't come back in the fall.  With plans to move to Colorado as soon as the school year ended, I thought it was right and fitting to invite them all to our wedding.  I wanted them to be witnesses to it.

And so we did.

On the last day of school at the 4 o'clock hour, they all crowded into the gymnasium and waited for their teacher to come walking in.  There must have been a couple of hundred people there, kids and adults included, who came and sat on the folding chairs leftover from the 6th graders' promotion only a half hour beforehand.  Those sweet children surrounded us on the floor, directly underneath the most romantic basketball goal we could find.  Honestly, they were so quiet that we didn't even realize they were there.  

So many of our friends helped us that day.  My good friend Sally transformed a common gymnasium/lunchroom into a pretty decent looking site for a wedding.  My teacher friends and other friends from the area provided punch, cookies, and even a cake.  It was simple and that's just the way that we wanted it to be.  By the time our good friend Buck pronounced us "husband and wife", only 20 minutes had passed.  After that, everyone enjoyed refreshments and they were on their way home.  By 5:00 the gym was empty.

I remember standing there with Mike after all had gone, realizing that my time as a Kansas school teacher was now finished.  35 years had come and then gone.  As they say, I forgot to not blink.

Sometimes I look back at the pictures that were taken that day, especially now when it gets closer to May 21st.  I smile at the thought of how happy that day was.  I taught school to the very end and as a matter of fact, by 3:30 someone reminded me that I really needed to change clothes if I intended to get married.  

And so I did.

Of all the memories that I have made in nearly 4 decades of being a teacher in Kansas, Colorado, Texas and now Oklahoma, I believe that May 21st of 2013 provided  some of the most long lasting ones.  Not everyone gets the chance to get married at school.

I'm thankful that I did.

Happy 4 years upcoming Mike Renfro~
We made it!

                                4 years younger~

                                
Plenty of good food and drink, thanks to special people who cared about us.

My good friend Kris who taught 4th grade there made this wonderful cake for us.  A young man in her class designed the top of it especially for Mike and I!

My two sweet sons escorted in a dear friend of mine who always volunteered at school.   She volunteered one more time that day to sit in as my "mom" because my own mother was already gone from this earth.

These two children were students of mine and volunteered to read the Bible verses for the day. I was so proud of them!

These two kids were the flower girl and ring bearer.  They had something in common with me.  We all had broken arms together the year prior to this one.  As a matter of fact, that sweet little girl was on broken arm number 2.  We got through it together!

Not even being homesick for Kansas could change things.  I got over it, thanks to a wonderful community called Olathe, Colorado.  4 years later, here we are!