Patti was my very first friend that I can remember. We were just toddlers in the church nursery when we met. It's kind of funny, because my mom says Patti used to bite me all the time and I was scared to death of her.

PATTI'S BABY PICTURE

PATTI'S BIRTHDAY PARTY

When my family lived at Klamath, Patti and her parents would come to visit from Eureka. Patti, my brother and sister and myself were very creative with the games that we played. We would go out in the woods for hours. I remember when Patti and I used to play like we were getting married. My brother would be the minister, and my sister the flower girl. We always promised each other we would get married for real when we grew up.

In 1979, when my family moved to Kentucky, I had to leave Patti behind. We kept in touch all through high school.

In 1984, after graduation, my family took a vacation and we drove out to California to see all of our friends again. Patti and I got to be together again and it was that summer that I found out that I was really in love with her. Saying goodbye this time was much harder than when I was just a kid.

PATTI'S SENIOR PORTRAIT

While attending college, I got my first job the next year in Madisonville, KY as a computer operator at a local mine supply. I saved up enough money to pay for a plane ticket for Patti to come out to Ky to visit me. We had a great time together that summer, and I will always remember it as a very special summer. We went to Opryland in Nashville the night before she had to fly back home. Saying goodbye this time was even harder than the summer before.

We both decided that we just couldn't live without the other, you know how teen love is. Patti came back out to Western Ky to stay with my family for an extended period while I was in college.

Patti stayed with us through Christmas and then in February, we got the news that her father was dieing back in California, so I decided to go with Patti back to Eureka to be with her. Her father died about a month later.

We were married on October 25, 1986 at Trinity Baptist Church in Arcata. My parents drove out and my dad performed the wedding ceremony. We didn't have much of a honeymoon, just a week off in our little cottage in Eureka.

We had our first child, Ryan, out in Eureka. Then we moved to Eastern Ky in 1989, when Ryan was only two months old. That was a rough trip.

We lived in Pikeville, Kentucky for 15 years and had two more sons, Matthew and Alex.

We moved back to the North Coast in the spring of 2004 and are very happy to be back.

Patti was employed as an Inclusion Specialist working with disabled people for two years. In the winter of 2006 she decided to leave her job and to become a homemaker again, something she truly enjoys.

On October 25, 2007, Patti and I celebrated 20 years of marriage together!