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2014. It’s officially a new year. The beginning of resolutions, a new chapter, a fresh season in life, a start to everything exciting!

While there is always room for improvement, I was very blessed in 2013. Sweet boy and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary and it was our first year in our beautiful, new, mountain home together. I also began a great career with a fantastic environmental engineering firm. I won several recipe and cooking competitions and made so many great friends along the way. 2013 was truly a new beginning for me.

The one constant through all of the changes, was my sweet boy. My sweet, sweet Hass. With a 20 year failed marriage behind me, I remember thinking very clearly love wasn’t worth it and no longer in my future. It just wasn’t for me. After the divorce, I had firmly decided I would focus on my daughter and her children, and myself for the first time in my life. I would make the next few years about me and the kids. I would be happy and fulfilled. Yep. That’s exactly what I was going to do, because I had been burned before and let’s face it, there are no real gentlemen out there. Fairy tales just don’t exist.

Enter Keith Devin Hass.

Wow, was HE a surprise. He wasn’t riding a white horse, but that green Tundra was even more perfect for a country girl like me. Handsome, charming, a true gentleman in every definition of the word. He opened my doors, slid out my chairs. He asked permission to hold my hand. He helped me step down from curbs. He was respectful, kind and witty. He was my prince. A prince I had met 30 years prior in high school as a cheerleader and he as the high school mascot and track star. I knew I would marry him one day.

After dating for several months, we knew we were meant for each other. You know beyond a doubt when its right; when you’ve found the one that was created just for you. When loving that person is as easy and natural as breathing. He was the missing piece of me.

One beautiful summer evening, on the inter-coastal waterway, on a private sailboat, he asked me to marry him. I said yes. It was the best decision I have ever made. Almost 30 years after meeting my prince, I married him.

 

Keith is the same chivalrous, amazing, incredible man I met at 13. He never waivers in his convictions, or his values. I have never felt more blessed than I have with him.

The truth is, this man saved me. He saved me from a very lonely, bitter life. He saved me from the misconception that there were no gentlemen left in this world. Men who will love and honor you. Men who will cherish and treasure you. Men who will respect you. Men who only want one woman to have and to hold. That is my man. My life. My husband.

 

Ladies, I hear it asked so many times if fairy tale marriages are still out there, and believe me, hear me. They ARE out there! I know your doubts, I know your heartache. I understand some of the things you’ve been through. I was there. I had given up. But believe me when I say, happiness does exist. Real men are in this world. Marriages still hold the sanctity to some they once did.

Dreams and fairy tales come in all shapes and sizes, and some even in green Tundras. Happiness is there. Sometimes you will find it, sometimes it will find you. The one thing you need to do, you must do, ALL you HAVE to do…is believe.

I like fairy tales. Keep the faith y’all.

* We will resume our regularly scheduled recipes tomorrow. Thanks for allowing me a moment to show my love and appreciation for the biggest support in my life. I love you Keith. I’d watch paint dry with you 😉 *

Fawn Weaver, the founder of the Happy Wives Club wrote a book about the best marriage secrets the world has to offer. They say the book is like “Eat, Pray, Love meets The 5 Love Languages.” I say the book is inspiring. You can grab a copy HERE.