Post High School: UCF, Freedom, & The Man of My Dreams

Mom, Dad, & Me before a UCF Football Game. Go Knights!

I made it! 15 weeks of my Mommy's Piggy Tales projects ends with this post. I can't believe I made it all 15 weeks! Enjoy as I relive my post-high school years with a few fantastic memories. This was the BEST time of my life!

Upon graduating high school, I was SO anxious to leave Perry. I was never happy in the small town and wanted to get back to the city. I was accepted to UCF and enrolled in the fall of 1995 as an Elementary Education major. I joined the UCF Marching Knights and it was truly the best decision I ever made. I mean, who doesn't love 180 instant family members?! The picture above are my parents and me before a football game. College was all I expected it to be and more. I marched for 2 years and focused on my degree the last 2. I made so many lifelong friends and also met the love of my life.

In the spring of 1996, the UCF Men's Basketball team won the TAAC Tournament and was headed to the NCAA tournament in Rhode Island. I was part of the Jammin' Knights pep band (and so was my future hubby, although I didn't really know him). This was the best spring break of my life. Mike and I started to hang out with some mutual friends and before I knew it, I had a 6 foot shadow everywhere I went. We ended up flying to Ruston, LA for the Women's b-ball tournament too! Once we returned back to UCF, Mike asked me out and the rest is history. Our first date was the day before my 19th birthday- 3/23/96.

We were married August 8, 1998, right before I started my senior year at UCF. We had a fairly small wedding, but it was perfect for us. I was so happy! We moved into our little one-bedroom apartment and were so proud to call it home. I began my last year of UCF and worked part time at the Undergraduate Admissions office. I did my internship the following semester and graduated May 1999 with my B.S. in Elementary Education.

3 weeks after our wedding, we adopted Ginger. Here she is at 10 weeks old. She is now 12 and still just as feisty and ornery as the day we brought her home. She is our very first baby and we love her so much. This is what happens when you go to Petsmart just to "look"!

Mike and I did all kinds of things together. We were pretty much inseparable. This is us on a hunting trip one Thanksgiving with my parents. Those were some really great times.

I got a job in the fall of 1999 teaching 2nd grade. WHOA, what an eye-opener that first yearof teaching was. I don't think I have ever shed that many tears. It was the hardest thing (besides giving birth) that I have ever done. I stayed at Lakemont Elem. for 9 years teaching 2nd graders. I grew to love my job and my students. I worked with some fabulous teachers and staff who became my family over the years. I dearly miss them to this day.

In the fall of 2001, we bought our first house and still live here. Talk about PROUD! We had only been married 3 years by this point. It seemed so big back then, but we have quickly outgrown it! It needed so much work when we first looked at it, but it got all spiffed up and looked brand new with all the things that we had done to it! This picture is right after we did the landscaping. I love my little house!