This was suppose to go up on Tuesday, but new babies can make free time scare.

I have been married to Amy for seven years today.

We have one of those stories that is hard to believe. Let’s just say we were meant to be together.

Amy and I both attended Michigan universities (UofM and Michigan Tech, respectively) and both studied mechanical engineering.

We both got co-op positions with Dow Chemical. I spent a summer in Fresno, CA making Ziploc bags. She spent the next summer there. She even found stuff in the desk that I left. It was a little odd because it was a set of photos from the Winter Carnival at Tech. All the pictures were of snow sculptures. She asked where they came from and somebody said, “Oh, those must have been from Todd Sattersten.” She put the pictures back and didn’t think much more of it.

Upon graduation, we both took jobs with General Electric and both got positions in their Manufacturing Management Program. She spent her first year in Louisville and I spent mine in Roanoke. With only about 100 people on the program, we heard each other’s names in passing, but that was about it.

The program was set-up so that people rotated after 12 months to a new location. The timing was never perfect, so you sometimes you had a chance to met others who were rotating in. Darla showed up in Roanoke about two weeks before I was off to Columbus. At the last minute, I needed someone to help drive my car while I drove my truck of belongings. Darla was best friend’s with Amy in Louisville.

Amy had taken a job in Peterbrough, Ontario. In a call to catch up, she asked what Darla was doing for the coming weekend. “Oh, I am helping this guy, Todd Sattersten get moved up to Columbus.”

That was the final straw for Amy. “Darla, I need this guy’s number. I have to call him.”

I came home one night and found a message on the machine – “Hello. My name is Amy Buckley. You don’t know me, but we need to talk. Call me.”

For whatever reason, I called her back. We talked for about an half hour.

That led to email (remember this is 1995, so it is mainframe email).
And that led to more calls (international long distance calls, before the rates got cheap).
And that led her driving down to meet up with a bunch of GE folks in Columbus.
And that led to me driving to see her.
And that led to more international telephone calls.
And that led to plane trips back and forth.

Fast forward a year – we moved in together.
Fast two forward two more years – we got married.

Happy Anniversary, Honey!

(We’ll tell you about the wedding some time. It was pretty cool.)