I was invited by Deborah Cooley and Tonya Spencer (mutual friend of Joe's) to a weekend camping trip on Lake Travis. Tonya said "most of the people going will be married couples, BUT a couple of single guys going." I laughed because at this point in my life looking for love was not on my radar; my happy place was spending time with family and friends so I accepted her invitation. (Thursday) Off we go! I traveled with the Cooleys and upon arrival we all claimed our rooms in the lake house. At some point I left the house and came back to Deborah saying "man, you just missed one of the single guys named Joe, he's cute". I chuckled "I am sure I will meet him later". (Friday) some of our group were going out on a boat, however, I decided to stay back at the lake house to hang out by the pool and so did Joe. Our first one on one interaction was Joe asked me to hand him a pool float because I was sitting outside the pool. Deborah for whatever reason captured a picture of our encounter and it is now a FIRST picture. The day was a success in my book because I had laughed, relaxed and thoroughly enjoyed hanging out with friends and making new ones! (Friday night) Deborah and I were in charge of dinner, and I had brought a salad made by Frenchie's, my favorite restaurant in Webster. Joe made an off the wall tacky comment about the salad which I pretended not to hear, but I did. Up until this point I really thought he was a nice guy. After we finished dinner, I noticed Joe had walked away from the group and was sitting all alone at a picnic bench and to be honest he looked sad. I saw Deborah and Steve had walked over to him, as well as Courtney Holmes so I began to make my way towards them to see what was going on. He explained a phone call he had gotten that had clearly frazzled him and I was determined not to let it ruin his weekend. Everyone else walked away and I stayed talking with Joe. We specificallWe made ply talked about my political life in Webster. I told him there may be some opportunities for him in Webster and his response was "they can't afford me" and my response was "don't be so sure about that". I thought for a second, he sure is full of himself, but he was smiling now and that was the goal. By this time the rest of the group had begun partying and I asked Joe if he would like to take a walk down to the boat house on the lake to finish talking and he said “sssuuuurrrreeee I would”. It didn't take me long to feel like I had known Joe for a very long time. Lucky for me even after the teasing, rude comment and being full of himself he was someone I wanted to get to know better. From that day we became friends and in the past 2+ years Joe and I have grown together stronger and happier. We are best friends, partners and we have laughed together, cried together, taken many trips, cheered for the Longhorns, welcomed my 2nd granddaughter Claira and spent so much quality time with family and friends. We sadly went through a tremendous loss losing my mother and our dog Dakota, but through it all we remain solid; trust, respect, open communication and no imbalance of power ever. We thank God for the roads we have traveled so far in life, the good and the bad because it led us to cross paths (with the invitation from friends) and bring us together as ONE.

Taking trips with long-time friends is always a joyous time for me and quite frankly live for those moments. Before 2021, I was invited to join a rambunctious and enjoyable large group of first responders on a river trip. Well as we all know, a little thing called COVID happened and the trip was cancelled one year and couldn’t make it the next. In 2021, we were all ready to get back to normal so I was not saying NO to the trip. This summer, I was going on trips with friends every weekend and the primary goal was to relax and look ahead. This trip was no different as I understood it to be a majority of couples going. There were teams assembled who were responsible for one meal, breakfast, or dinner. We all arrived at the lake house in Lake Travis in the late afternoon of Thursday. Friday was a day where most of the group went out on boats to enjoy the lake and I stayed back with several others. That day I noticed this woman who was introduced to me the afternoon before, poolside and constantly on her phone. I didn’t know much other than she was the Mayor of Webster and we had mutual friends. I teased her about being on the phone a few times but was careful to not cross her boundaries. Later that day, the team in charge of dinner had cooked up some delicious Chicken Spaghetti and salad. Donna was part of this team and she was in charge of the salad, which was prepared by Frenchie’s in Webster. The salad was delicious and I decided to stick my toe over her boundaries by stating what Donna mentioned above😊. I got zero reaction from her and didn’t want to make things awkward. Here is the part where I will state that all desire for me to date again had left my life agenda. After dinner, I went all the way to the other end of the patio to listen to a voicemail that had me perplexed. I wasn’t sad one bit, even though that is what it appeared to everyone. Beyond pissed were my true emotions. Seeing me stare off into the distance, Deborah and Steve Cooley walked over to check on me. Closely behind, were Donna and Courtney Holmes. After being asked what the issue was and my explanation, I found Donna and I alone engaged in a conversation. I indeed stated “They can’t afford me”, which is not what it sounds like. As I mentioned above, this group was rambunctious and ready to party rightfully so. Donna asked if I wanted to walk down to the boat house to continue our conversation. I didn’t know much about her, prime example, as we got to the boats and proceeded to board one, I asked her to remove her sandals before boarding, Duh!!. We had a great conversation on that houseboat boat and after not hearing the crowd, we proceeded to come back to the house where there were some lone survivors still going at it at midnight. I had surgery a month before and the only form of exercise I could do was walk. Donna agreed to go walking with me the next day, however, it would have to be around 5 or 6 since my team was cooking breakfast. We stayed up with the lone survivors until around 2 AM then we both parted to our sleeping area. As I waited for Donna to wake up and get coffee, emotions were fighting between my head and heart. After doing our 3-mile walk, she supported me in cooking breakfast by keeping my mimosa class full. With her love and genuine care that morning, I knew I wanted to get to know her so much more. Over the next few weeks, I began to realize how much I loved her and wanted her in my life. One of the realizations was meeting Justin and how well he must have been raised to turn out to be the man he is today, that Donna is the woman I want by my side through the good and bad…and the rest is history as they say.