Where it all began

Once upon a time, I was a single mother of an almost two year old and had devoted the first two years of my sons' life to being his mom. As my sweet baby boys' second year was about to come to a close, I remarked to a co-worker (Mel) that I finally felt ready to date. Truth was, I was tired of being alone.

A week later, Mel approached me at work and told me that she'd thought of someone to introduce me to. "I think you guys would have a lot of fun together . . . but I don't think he'd be interested in anything serious." His name was Jeff and he was her husband's best friend. I asked her all kinds of questions: "Is he cute? What does he do? How old is he?"

We met at our mutual friends' home several weeks later. He was so good looking and I was instantly attracted to him physically. He didn't ask for my number that night so I figured he wasn't interested. Later, he told me that I had made him nervous, and that girls didn't usually make him nervous. A month or so later, we met up at their house again and Mel forced us to exchange numbers. Jeff handed me a piece of paper with his number on it and underneath it said CALL ME, underlined. I wrote my number on a piece of paper with 'You call me FIRST.'

Our first date was at his best friends' dad's surprise 60th birthday party somewhere north of the town. Apparently, I still made him nervous. When he dropped me off at my apartment that night, I asked him what he was doing the next night and said we should go to the movies. And then we lived happily. ever. after.

Not really.

The last six years or so have been a rollercoaster of sorts and this blog is my catharsis . . . I'd like to use this space to recall and replay the events, identify red flags and early warning signs.

I don't want to use this space to bash my husband, but I do plan to be completely honest about everything.
Currently, we are living with our three children in the aftermath of the effects of mental illness and trying to recover from damages done and make changes in order to keep our family intact.

Here goes . . .