I am happily married to Randy
Keeling who was my high-school sweetheart. We have two
children
who are in their early and mid teens. Knowing we wanted to
spend
our lives together from a young age we married just 3 days after our
high-school graduation.
After marrying in 1993 we moved to Tennessee in 1994 to be closer to
Randy's family and go to college. We both graduated from
E.T.S.U.
and have done some graduate work there as well. While working as an
adjunct professor Randy got offered a teaching position in Southern
Missouri and feeling we could make a difference we packed up the kids
and our stuff and moved to a little country area south of St.
Louis. For financial and personal reasons we decided not to
sign
a contract to stay a 2nd year in Southern Missouri and moved back to
East TN.
Then in October of '06 Randy was contacted about a position in Raleigh
N.C. and we once again found ourself moving. And that 's
where we
still find ourselves now. After moving 4 times in 2 years we
were
hoping to hold tight for a little while, but in August of '09 they shut
down Randy's Raleigh office and told him if he wanted to keep his job
we'd have to move to Atlanta, GA where their corporate office is.
Luckily my company's billing headquartters was already located in
Atlanta, GA so I got spared the hassle of job hunting :).
It's
weird
we're working for the same companies, just in a different state.
.
To go back a bit further into my history I am originally from Kansas.
My family reside around Leavenworth, KS (the town not the
prison) and when I was 5 we moved to St. Joseph, MO where I spent
my fundamental years. I liked it in St. Joe and reveled in
the
fact that the houses were close and almost every one had kids my age in
it. My first boyfriend lived next door and my best friends
lived
2 doors down. I was terribly upset when at the age of 13 my
parents decided to move to Southern Missouri where the closest person
my age was over 1 mile away. Going from such close
confidences to
only cows to talk to was a bit of a culture shock (okay more than a
bit) and for the longest time I resented my parents for their decision
to move.
Going from a graduating class of 500 to a school where everyone knew
each other from Kindergarten I always felt the outsider and pretty much
kept to myself.., During my sophomore year a new student
transferred in and I found my life-partner. Randy Keeling
moved
back to Southern Missouri from Texas returning to his grandparents farm
with his mother and two brothers. Randy and I became quick
friends and by the middle of our Junior year we knew we would
marry as soon as we could.
I feel very lucky and blessed that I found my love as young as I did so
we could grow together and spend all the time possible with each other.
I look forward to spending our 75th anniversary together with
as
much love between us as we had on our wedding day!