Chris & Jen

This is going to be more of a “Meet Chris” page, but I did want to give you some background of how we met.

Chris and I are high school sweethearts. We met at the end of my freshmen and his junior year and I will never forget the day! It was May 25, 2000 and our school’s electricity had went out. Since it was the last week of school and almost the end of the day we were allowed to leave early since there wasn’t anything that could be accomplished without electricity. My best friend, Katie, and her boyfriend, Eric, were going fishing and asked me to go. I didn’t want to be the third wheel so I politely declined. They said that Eric’s friend, Chris, was going to be there also so I should go. I didn’t have anything else to do since school was out so I decided to go and it was the best decision of my life!

I don’t remember much about the fishing at all, but I remember that Chris kept me laughing the whole time and it was just “easy” to have a conversation with him. We spent 4 hours together fishing and it went by so fast. Well, summer came and since I was only 15 at the time we didn’t really “date” each other that much. I had a full time summer babysitting job and Chris worked for the city of Doniphan mowing properties. We did meet down at the walking track every chance we got and walked for hours at a time just talking and getting to know each other. The rest is history and I’ve been with Chris ever since that fishing day. We were married on June 12, 2004, I was 19 and he had just turned 21.

When Chris and I first got married he was in the program to become an assistant Wal-Mart manager at PB. As soon as he finished college, he was promoted to an assistant manager and was assigned the Wal-Mart in Dexter, which is what brought us to this area. When I graduated from college I applied at Dexter and was blessed to get a teaching job right out of college at one of the elementary schools.

Fast forward a few years to when we had Elizabeth and Chris was working 70+ hours at Wal-Mart. He NEVER saw Elizabeth and we knew this wasn’t the lifestyle we wanted. Money is not everything and I’m so thankful Chris has his priorities straight and realized he wanted to be around us more instead of making a 6 figure salary. So, Chris went back to college to get his teaching degree. It was a big sacrifice for us at the time, but knew it would be worth it in the long run. He was hired his first year after getting his degree teaching special education at Kennett, MO. The next year he was able to get hired at Dexter and is currently the Middle School Computer Science teacher. He also coaches football and baseball so stays very busy with that. He has his master’s degree in Educational Leadership from ASU and his specialist’s degree in Educational Administration from SEMO.

Chris truly is my best friend and we make a great team together! We work in the same building and have the exact same schedule and time off and I wouldn’t want it any other way! Marriage is hard work and we’ve been through a lot, but we have always came out stronger and more in love than ever.