Be Wild and Free

One evening this week I found myself scrubbing the kitchen floor after dinner with my phone shut off so I could disconnect for awhile. With no worries over the time I realized that I've come to being used to not watching the clock for 4:45pm to roll around waiting for your phone call after work. I realized I no longer worry about dinner being on the table before 5pm. I no longer wait for that back door to squeak open at 5:15pm. I no longer wait for the squeals of "DADDY!" when you walk through that door. When did I become so used to this life? When dinner is on the table at 5pm and instead of waiting for you to walk through that door before we eat, we just eat. When having my phone shut off for a few hours of disconnect at the prime time of when you would be calling after work is no big deal because I've become accustomed to no longer receiving that after work phone call. When I no longer watch the clock and count the minutes to when you'd be h...

10 years ago today there were straw bales surrounding a big bonfire out in the middle of a harvested corn field. 10 years ago today there were trucks covered in mud each with a mud covered 4-wheeler in the bed. 10 years ago today, you held my hand for the first time "in public" sitting on a straw bale.  10 years ago today, we became, as you liked to say, "a unit." Back then everything was "a unit." That phrase seems like such a distant memory these days that I almost forget it used to be your signature phrase.  January 2006, a freshly 17-year-old girl met a freshly 21-year-old boy at the ole Love Farm for the first time. Little did we know that fate was about to happen and we would spend the rest of your life together. Who would have thought that a random phone call from a mutual friend to come to a party would begin the journey of "Ben & Brandy."  For a few months we talked on the phone, met up at the weekend ...