It's been almost ten years since I met my Valentine and the famous "red bucket" incident which catapulted us into what is now the Kossan Family of 5. I was 26 and running my own business as a window cleaner and house cleaner. I was pretty busy and had business all over the county. I had started that business with $200 and built it up to nearly full time. Full time enough for me to be able to spend a lot of time with Brynn and still make a living. It was what freed me from the welfare checks as a single mom and enabled me to begin a new life.
Since I was starting out with a shoestring budget, I had to get my name out there the old fashion way. I made little flyers and walked neighborhoods and dropped them at front doors. I focused on neighborhoods which had great views and a lot of windows for obvious reasons, and there are alot of those around here. One day I did a neighborhood in Pismo Beach and shortly thereafter got a call from Pat Wittman. I gave her an estimate, and then went out and did the job. She was very happy with my work and come to find out she and her husband, Tim, were Realtors in Avila Beach and had a lot of clients looking for my kind of services. Thus began a great referral relationship.
Then one day about a year later I had stopped by their office to show my face and get my networking in, and Pat says, "you know, my son is renovating a house downtown and just had the windows replaced. Do you think you could go and give him a bid on doing those windows?" Well of course I could and I gave her some more cards so she could give him one.
A couple weeks later I arrived at the house, and there was this long haired construction worker blasting regae music and looking so great. Which was funny because I was totally not into regae music or guys with hair longer than mine. Nonetheless, I really wanted to get this job so I could come back so I gave him a rediculous price estimate, and left. Needless to say he did call me back a few days later to schedule the job. I went back to the house, did the job, and sent Philip to the car (sometimes I was so busy that I needed to hire him to do some ladder work). Poor Phil sat in that car for like 20 minutes while I just stood on the front deck and flirted mercilessly with my future husband. He had just moved out here from "the cities" and I in my naivete and having never been to Minnesota thought he was talking about the bay area. He didn't know that, though. So I finally left and was completely frustrated all the way home. I couldn't believe he didn't ask me out! I mean come on! I was a hot window washer California girl and he was new in town. What more did he need!?! Perhaps a little help from me?????
So the next day I called him and asked him if I'd left my red bucket at his house because I had just finished up for the day and I didn't see it anywhere. He said no and I said "are you sure it's not around back? You should go and check" knowing full well that the red bucket was in my van. Well after listening to him dutifully walk around the house and look everywhere for a red bucket that was NOT missing, I relented. "OK well I guess I'll just have to get another one. Say, I'm gonna go boogie boarding this afternoon. You wanna go?"
...and the rest is history! We dated for a year and a half, had a baby, and then three years later eloped and got married at Sycamore Mineral Springs in Avila Beach. We've had a regular date night for EVER and on one of these date nights we decided to go ahead and tie the knot. We got a really nice suite at Sycamore, the Aspire, hired a minister and his wife to come and marry us in front of the fireplace, and viola! Man and Wife! Then we called our parents and told them what we did and everyone was super excited. We stayed at the hot springs for several days and had the kids come stay with us after the second day and it was a wonderful time. The most romantic part of that day was just prior to the arrival of the minister, I was buzzing about getting myself all put together and Jason was just lounging and enjoying a glass of Champagne. He said "What is wrong with you?" I said "I'msonervousaren'tyounervous?" and he said "What's there to be nervous about?" When I heard him say that, after waiting five years to marry this man that I found on the deck in Avila Beach, suddenly the earth was rotating on it's proper course. Everything that had been spinning in my world earlier was finally right. I was calmed, relaxed, and oh so happy. That was Wednesday, November 9, 2005. I called in sick to work the next morning on account that I had just eloped and gotten married. My bosses were not upset. Then last year we had our baby boy, making us the Kossan 5. The roads we've been down in the last ten years have been smooth, hilly, curvy, and sometimes a little bumpy. But how do you spend ten years with someone and not experience a hiccup or two? What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, right? And we're not dead yet! This last ten years has been the happiest ten years of my life, and I have learned more about love, kindness, humility, forgiveness, selflessness, sacrifice, joy, and peace than I EVER could have imagined. I can't wait to read this after ten more years and see where God has taken us.
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