As David graduated and we began to be able to support ourselves better, we were able to move out of our apartment and build our first home.  It was a 1500 sqft 3bd 2bth home in Mesquite & it was perfect for us.  We cooked, ate, played, faught, and lived life in that house.  It was our first property ownership which came with the fun of gardening your  own yard, but also the not so fun of upkeeping everything!

After I finished nursing school, we felt rich (although we were no where close by American standards).  We started thinking about all of the things we could buy.

I remember the day I asked David for a boat.  He was shocked as if the question came out of nowhere!  He would say it did!  I’m not sure why though, what is a girl raised with 3 older brothers supposed to be like?  I loved water skiing, fishing, and camping growing up and I wanted to experience these things as an adult with my best friend and husband.

So, we bought a cheap, used, outboard fishing boat that was strong enough to ski behind.  We pulled that thing all over Texas and then some camping and skiing along the way.  We were young, strong, energetic, and still in love.  We lived near family, had great jobs, and had wonderful friends from church.  I’m sure if you asked us during that time of our life if we were happy, we would have said that we needed more money as things were never easy and frequently stressful.  However, since then, we look back at this time in our lives as the most peaceful, happy, and enjoyable time.  It is amazing what life holds for people.  This was just a blink in our time on earth.  We have since learned to do the best we can with what we have because things will not be perfect here.  I wonder if I would have been less stressed out then if I knew what was to come – or more??  Nevertheless, God had a plan for our lives and was giving us this gift of happiness for the time.