Dustin and Nicole Stevens

We met in Culver in the summer of 1991 when her father was my youth league baseball coach. She would attend our games and cheer on the team but we never really got to know one another to well. A few years later we were in our high school’s performing choir together. I got her attention one day in class with a card trick. I taught her how to do it and we began talking daily. I was struck on her from the summers on the ball diamond but the timing never really worked out. At the end of her senior year in 97’ I gathered the nerve to call her and ask her out. We started dating before she went off to college that fall. For the next year we would do odd jobs like painting, leaf cleanup, and work for my dad on weekends to afford gas for her car so she could drive from Ohio each week to see me. After I graduated high school in 98’ we moved in together in a tiny 300sqft trailer in Argos. We both worked and went to school and saved money until we could afford a bigger apartment. We both had career goals and regular full time jobs but on the weekends we would work together. Once I as a cook and her as a waitress at the Culver Eagles. On Oct. 28, 2000 we said our vows in Culver Military’s memorial chapel. On Oct. 28, 2003 we broke ground on our home that we would build together in Argos just a few blocks from our first place together. The next twenty years seemed to pass much faster. Life can become so busy. With your careers, your children and all their activities, it’s important to make sure the ones closest to you know how you feel. Marriage isn’t easy and life will test you both. After 20+ years of marriage I appreciate spending valentines day with my wife more than ever. I love you Nicole happy Valentines Day.