Stories, Insights and Anecdotes from a 27-Year Marriage

In this episode of The Collective Questions: A Wedding Show, McKenzi talks to Laurie Mann, a special guest who shares her incredible stories and insights from her 27-year marriage. From the process of getting married to unforgettable wedding day moments, Laurie takes us on a journey through the highs and lows of their relationship. Discover valuable tips on handling conflicts, investing in your relationship, starting conversations, and networking.

Timestamps

00:00 Intro

00:50 Introducing Laurie Mann

06:25 The process of getting married and how it came to be

08:50 The story of what happened during the wedding day

14:45 1st year of marriage

16:30 Tips on handling conflicts in a marriage

19:40 Investments in the relationship

26:20 Tips on starting conversations and networking

29:40 Recap

30:30 Rock crawling and phases they went through as a couple

Full Transcript

So Lori, I’d love to start off by learning just a little bit more about you and then we, I’d love to kind of get into the details about you and your business, but mostly about your relationship that you’ve been in for how many years?

27 years. 27 years. Wow. Cool. So tell us a little bit about you kind of like your background. I’d just love to kind of get to know people cuz I haven’t had the opportunity of really learning all that much about you. I’ve just like known you a little bit through our photo shoots and some interactions there.

But I’d love to like know a little bit more about you and kind of, I mean, I know you through marketing, but gimme more like the real Lori. Will Mackenzie, first of all, thank you so much for having me on this call. I, , grew up in Orange County, California, one of those California transplants to Las Vegas, and I have to share with you, I’ve lived here for around.

17 years now. Okay. And it’s absolutely provided me so much joy. I wouldn’t wanna live any other place than Henderson, Nevada. Absolutely love it here. And it’s afforded me just really great career opportunities and friendship opportunities, and it’s just a great place to live. Yeah. But, um, marketing is my passion along with, extreme rock crawling, off-roading and hiking and running. And healthy eating and healthy lifestyle. And so all those things together, I just really feel like, have made me, you know, just who I am today.

 So let’s get into, that nitty gritty of like where you met your husband. What’s your husband’s name? Uh, My husband is Dennis Mann. Dennis. So, 27 years ago, you know, actually core to my being is my faith in God.

And, I went to a church service at Saddleback Church. Okay. And, I wasn’t feeling that well. so I wanted to go home, but I’d made this commitment to myself that I was gonna go to the Cowboy Boogie and take country line dance lessons. So I really didn’t feel like it, but I went and did it anyways.

So I walked in and I saw this handsome man, and I thought to myself, I need to meet him. He was with a girl though, so what do you do? He was with a girl and I thought, he’s so cute. I gotta meet him anyways. And so the woman that he was with, Came up and introduced herself to me and said, I am Dennis’s sister Debbie, and she just proceeded to get to know me and introduced Dennis, and then she took me to the bathroom and she did this full on sales pitch for her brother.

She even got my phone number. She took away all the hard work, you know, and this was back a long time ago before we carried cell phones. So she even called me. I lived at my parents’ house. She called my parents’ house for him the first time. And he took up the hard work after that. But, I knew when I met him that I’d met somebody that would change my life forever.

Right. Really definitely had that feeling. Kinda had a vision of who I wanted and, you know, through prayer. Also just, who I was seeking and, it’s changed my life forever, that’s for sure. Yeah. So how old were you when you, you and Dennis met? I was 27 and he was 24. So I am the Oh, the Cougar.

I love it. So 27 years ago you were 27. Wow. Yes, I am 54. Okay, so tell us a little bit more. So this country line dancing event was at Saddleback. No, no, no, no. Okay. It was at The Cowboy Boogie, which, if any of you are listening to this, and I hope there’s just a lot of people out there listening to this.

It is an Anaheim by Disneyland. It is the old American Bandstand building. Of course, it’s been gone for a long time, but if anybody was hearing this, there was definitely some memories at The Cowboy Boogie. That’s fun. So it was a bar. Of course. Okay. And then they had, like you were learning how to line dance because there was like school or there was a teacher or was like, you showed up and you kind of picked up line dancing through, watching others or was it like a class?

It was a class. Okay. So we learned line dancing and we learned how to cowboy chacha and other kinds of dancing. But yeah, it was a class that we all fun participated in. Yeah, that’s fun. So then do you continue to dance now? No, sorry. But when we go to weddings, what’s fun is, you know, we always dance together and he’s a great partner and loves to dance and has a lot of energy and he can do an egg roll, which is kind of fun.

What’s that? It’s a break dancing move where you like what spin on your head. What? Oh my gosh. I have to like really get him going to do it. , but then he does and everybody gets around him and clapped. He did it at our wedding. That’s so fun. I have pictures. That is so fun. I love it. I mean, I find all of this so interesting because 

I love learning about couple’s story. So after you kind of got corded by Sister Debbie. It wasn’t the whole, it was just the first. Yeah, yeah. So tell us like kind of what progressed from there. Like was it really fast romance? Was it slow? Did it take years to get proposed engaged?

Tell us like kind of that process. It was pretty fast, like, and I was kind of seeing other people and I just knew that, and you know how people come and go and you meet the right one and you just know and everything else falls away. Mm-hmm. So we, I think we dated for three months and then we lived together, lived in same.

So we lived together for three years. And that was a foundational time for us as well. Even during that, his mom came in and moved in with us, you know, so it’s like, definitely not without challenges, but, yeah. And then we got married. Nice. So tell us about the proposal. Do you remember?

Well, I’ll share with you before the proposal, like I wasn’t pushing to get married. I’d been married before Okay. For one year when I was like 24 years old. And so I was kinda a little bit like, uh, didn’t have to get married. But Dennis’s nephew died and, At the grave site, he became a Christian.

He gave his life to the Lord. And at that time, things just started changing for us, and I think that he really got convicted of, you know, just getting married was the right thing for us to do. So he started planning. He of course enlisted his sister and , he wanted to do it in some place that was meaningful for us, where we had a memory.

So we went, to Knoxberry Farm and we saw Diamond Rio. And he went to the little chapel that’s at Knottsberry Farm in Buena Park, California. And he got down on his knee and he proposed to me and I said yes. And, we got married not too long after that. How long after? I think less than a year.

Okay. Okay. So not like a huge planning process, but you still gave yourself, did you elope? No, no, no. Oh, okay. I have, I have great wedding stories if you wanna hear them. Yes, we want, that’s a juice. Oh, I got some wedding drama for you, Mackenzie. Okay. Give it. So we, decided to, get married at my parents’ house, I wanted to come to Vegas. It was before we were living in Vegas, living in California. I decided it’d be easy, let’s go get married in Vegas. And Dennis was like, absolutely not. And he. Convince me, and we did that, decided to get married at my parents’ house.

But the question is, where are you gonna get married at, right? Mm-hmm. So my parents have a pool in their backyard, and so Dennis decides that he is going to build a stage over the pool, okay? And he’s gonna turn the gazebo around facing the house, and that’s where we’re gonna get married. And so building a a stage over a pool is a tricky pursuit because you’re gonna have, we had 75 people there on top of the pool, and if it breaks everyone’s, that’s not, yes.

Okay. So it’s kind of an interesting story. He was building the parking structure, at Disneyland, the newest parking structure there. He’s an engineer or something. Is that. My husband is a superintendent, a concrete superintendent. Okay. So he can actually do this. Okay.

He’s not just some DIY. Okay. At least you’re giving me faith in this project a little bit more. And he did have an engineered. Okay. But it wasn’t totally, the engineer would, didn’t really give the total sign off on it. Okay. So, uh, he had stringers, which are the, the steel supporters for this, garage that he was building at Disneyland.

So he actually borrowed those from the job and use those, for the foundation . To stabilize the stage. So he used those, you know, across the pool, and then he put the wood on top, you know, and then he nailed that all in and he painted it. You know, we had our friends over and it was a pretty big undertaking, right?

It was painted white. It was beautiful and he turned the gazebo around and it was just my parents had a beautiful backyard. You know, it’s this beautiful wedding wedding of my dreams, right. So we have this ceremony. It’s lovely. And meanwhile there’s an old friend of mine at the wedding who’s getting drunk and, you know, I’m just like, oh, you know, it’s okay.

‘Cuz she was getting a loud drunk. Okay. And so then she came over and, Mckenzi, I think you remember, I’m a pretty small girl. I’m a five foot three. She came over to give me a hug and she laid all of her weight on me, put her foot behind me, and proceeded to trip me and I in the white full on wedding dress, I fall down.

Wow. And then she proceeds to walk away, not. Not help me up. Not say she was sorry. Nothing. She just walks away and I had a friend who was there and she said, you did not. And so my friend goes after this girl this is at my wedding. This is at my wedding in a very small space. And everybody, has the attention of everybody, right?

So she runs after her. But this girl gets a hold of my friend’s dress and tears it off. Meanwhile, her, her dad’s, no, her dad’s there watching this whole thing and there ensues a cat bite at my wedding. My sister-in-law has to get into it, and then my uncle’s like dragging them away. So my uncle drags them away.

And that was, all at my wedding. But. In the end, it was a beautiful wedding and a memorable wedding. Yes. Memorable. And nobody fell in the pool. Oh. And so then, of course, this was May 1st, 1999. So we have to do the Y M C A, so we’re doing Y M C A, we’re jumping on the deck. And that was the big test.

Would the deck hold and you could feel it. Yeah, but it held. Oh good. I thought I, you gave us a little bit of foreshadowing into that and I was like, oh gosh. Oh gosh. I people are gonna fall right into that pool. But, uh, the cat fight, you did a little plot twist to a cat fight. I like it. I mean, when I’ve preferred there not to be a cat fight at my wedding.

Absolutely. But it’s a good story. Yeah. So, you know, so did she leave after that? She left, my mom helped her. My mom had. So much forgiveness. And you know, it’s all fine. I hope she’s okay in her life because yeah, it was just, you never really unfortunate, never really had an interaction again.

I didn’t really need to. Right, right. Yeah, that’s very interesting. And that kind of leads me into the question of, she was invited to your wedding and it sounds like it was an intimate affair. It was an intimate event. How many people do you think you had there? I had around 75. Okay. And at one time she was a.

Close friend of mine, like we went out together, Uhhuh, but you know, to the cowboy and places like that. But you know, people fall away and, you know, they, they do their own things and that’s kind of what happened in this situation. Yeah, that’s so interesting. Just to kind of like know, I’m like gonna speak a little bit to the listeners if, if you are planning a wedding, know that these are good things to kind of take into account too.

Is that like, Not everyone that might be at your wedding, you might be close with forever. And that’s true of my wedding too. You know, like there are people that I had at my wedding reception that. I’m no longer necessarily, I’m not like have big dad taste or anything. We just, you just fall apart and, or fall not, well, you fall apart too, a little bit here and there in life, but, or you fall, fall away, you know, you’re, you’re not connected forever necessarily.

And that’s okay. I think that, that’s just the nature of life a little bit, you know? So, but. Let’s move on from the wedding, so, so tell us kind of like the next stage of, you know, actually let’s talk about that first year of marriage. You know, everybody always says the first year of marriage is the hardest year.

Do you have any like, thoughts on that? How do you feel about that with Dennis like, I’d love your insight on to kind of that if, if you can remember, I mean, you’ve been married 27 years so Well, so actually our first year of living together was really tough. Got it. So we worked a lot out in that process of the first three years.

I remember he had all these t-shirts like. All these t-shirts, you know, like he collects t-shirts from everywhere. And I’m like, why do you need all these t-shirts? You know? And he would like leave his stuff around in like piles and just like, leave it there. And then I would put it away. Cause like, I can’t handle stuff like random stuff hanging out.

Mm-hmm. And. That was, you know, things like, just little things like that. But then you kind of get into a groove where you know, okay, if I leave my stuff, it’s gonna get moved, so I might wanna, you know, you kind of get your little spaces and you know how you’re gonna live life, you know, together. And it did get a lot easier.

But I always tell people to be prepared for, you know, conflict because, You know, we went from the first three months when we first stated we didn’t have a single argument. Right. And when we first moved in together, we had a lot of arguments. Yeah. And so did you have any tips that you remember and maybe that you use today or things that have changed through your progression of marriage on handling conflicts?

Do you, you know, you obviously start to know your partner and. That’s great, but sometimes the things you like learn about them are the things, in my experience, I’m speaking from experiencers. The things I love about my partner are sometimes now the things that also drive me bananas. And actually somebody told me that so long ago and I just never believed them and I thought that was kind of funny to, to, it comes up now for us.

But do you have anything that. You can suggest to people for conflict resolution or any of those like golden nuggets, you’re like, wow, that really works for us. Well, I’m gonna share something. As I said before, my number one is my faith uh huh. And so I pray every day and I pray for my marriage every day.

And I, if I was to give the biggest tip for success. That’s it. Like, that’s, that’s been been the biggest foundation along with, you know, going to church and Bible study. And you know, Mackenzie, you see me, I’m not. I’m, I’m a normal girl, you know, I just know that my faith in God has really been what has been the foundational element that’s helped my husband and I make it through some tough times.

Mm-hmm. Um, so, and then we made an agreement when we first got married that if we were ever in a really super bad Fight to, you know, you have the little like tiff, but in a really super bad fight where there was a lot of disagreement, we would high five each other and make an agreement that once that happened, we would be, we would dissipate and be and stand down.

What? That’s an amazing tip. Yeah. And so it doesn’t happen that often. Mm-hmm. Because most of the times it’s more of like a conversation, but it’s definitely come into play. I mean, it’s definitely for my side and his side, like, and you, you have to have humility, right? Because everybody wants to be right.

Right. And there’s a commitment to not being right. And I will also say that I have the conviction God gave me the conviction to always listen to Dennis. So when he says some, and plus he’s not after me, right? , you know, he loves me. So when he says, when he gives me feedback, that might be hard to hear.

I listen and I don’t get defensive, and I’m really super committed to that because. I can’t, I can only see, I have blind spots. I can only see a certain part of myself, and he sees everything. And if I’m, you know, not showing up how, how I want it, how I should show up, he, he tells me, but not often. He is, it’d be hard to take that, like on a daily basis with Mckenzi.

And it’s, it’s not like that. I mean, it’s just, there’s sometimes that he gives me feedback. And it’s just being open to talking things out is just super important. And I would say, you know, before we got married, the church that we were going to, required us to get marriage, marriage counseling.

Mm-hmm. And, you know, That was huge. Yeah. I mean, my goodness, we spend all this money and time and stuff that really doesn’t matter, right? I mean, think of all the hours we waste watching TV or the movies or whatever. Like, I mean, you know, you’re being entertained, whatever, but what’s your marriage worth?

What’s your relationship worth? What are you willing to invest in it? You think it just should come naturally? You’re, you’re trying to blend two lives, two disparate lives, like you have to, and make the investment. Yeah. So what are some things that you do to make investment in your relationship? Like what do you, what do you like to do?

We have for all these years, had Friday night date nights. Every Friday. Every Friday. We’re committed to that, so people. There’s definitely things that I say no to and don’t do because that’s our night and there’s things that he says no to and he doesn’t do, and it doesn’t have to be super extravagant.

It’s a commitment to each other and trust and believe, like it’s a commitment that’s paid off. You know, Mackenzie, granted we don’t have children like I get it. Like it’s hard when you have children. I don’t know how you do it when you have children. All I know is. My journey. And that’s been super important to us.

And then, like I was saying earlier, like going to Bible study, having people in our lives to, you know, that, that are a positive influence on our marriage. Because believe me, we’ve had friends that have not been a positive influence on our marriage. Like you are what you hang around. You know, surround yourself with good and people that are uplifting your marriage.

And if you have people around you in your life that are tearing down you or your marriage or not supportive you in little ways, you know, it’s just little ways where you’re like, are they really supporting me? Are they just hanging out because my husband’s here? Got it. Yeah. Make the hard decisions. Yeah.

I love what you just said about uplifting marriage, your marriage and being around those people. I don’t think that I’ve, I mean, I’ve, you hear about like you’re the sum of the people you hang out with and you kind of hear things like that, but I’ve never actually heard someone say that specifically about your marriage, and it’s so.

True. It’s like one of the greatest tips I’ve ever heard, because you know, you get in a funk occasionally or whatever, and you might, you might complain and, and you might complain about your partner or whatever. And it is so true. You don’t wanna necessarily be around somebody that’s just gonna, like, you want a friend that can listen, but then you also want them to be a voice of reason or, you know, kind of bring you, lift you back up like you just said.

And I think. That’s some of the best advice I’ve ever heard, honestly. So, so good. What a great thing to say. Thank you. Well, thank you for listening. I think that it’s important in life and, you know, it’s like something I’m still learning because, you know, when we go through hard times, it’s always that choice of who are you going to tell?

Don’t tell everybody. Don’t tell everybody cuz they’ll remember it. They’ll hold it against the person and if, if they’re not helping you or helping your marriage, you don’t need that, you can still keep a relationship with them. Just be thoughtful about, you know, what you share. Be thoughtful about what you share.

Another one from Lori, tell us what typical date night with you and Dennis involves. Like, let’s go through the whole list. I wanna hear what you guys did when you were in your twenties, thirties, forties, and, you know, during covid. I think that people, or I, maybe I’m just curious for myself, but, we do try to go have a date night every week and, very.

Like you’re saying, you have to be very committed to it. There’s definitely times I’m like, uh, but anytime we get out, it’s so good. It’s good for our relationship. We do have children, so it’s a time to be just with each other. But I will say that sometimes the ideas get a little, eh, eh, or we do the same thing over and over, which is okay, but I’d love to know the good, the bad, the ugly.

Beautiful. The fun. All of them. The The boring. The boring. Yes, the boring. Cause that’s life, right? We get, we’re, we get stuck in a rut. Like you know, we live in Hendo, we live in Henderson. I love Chinitas. I love just going and chilling at Chinitas. What’s Chinitas? Chinitas is like, um, Mexican, Asian off of Water Street, which by the way, They promised us Water Street forever.

And water Street’s amazing. It’s, you know, Juan’s slimy fajitas, but we love Janita. So anyways, we go there a lot. We just go to dinner. Mackenzie, I don’t have anything super sexy for you. You’re like, where we do this, we just go to dinner. We don’t even, you know, every once in a while we’ll see, see a movie or whatever, but we just go to dinner.

You know, on Saturday we go on the jacuzzi or we have a fire in our backyard. We try to go out camping or hiking as often as we can or operating. Yeah. That’s our other passion. But yeah, just dinner and it’s really just been the same way when we lived in Orange County, maybe different places in Orange County, but, just.

The commitment to sit down and break bread together, you know, and, and connect. Yeah. So then do you have any sort of, do you have a hard time, prompting conversation with each other after a week? I mean, it doesn’t sound like it, but I have to ask the question. Do you ever like get in a rut with your conversation?

Absolutely. And sometimes, sometimes Mackenzie, I just let it ride. Okay. Because I don’t think that’s bad. I think that marriage. Includes silence. Mm-hmm. But that’s just me. But then there are some days where I have a lot to say and there are some days that he has a lot to say. And then there are some days where I do conversation starters.

A lot of times for me that’s like more I try to remember my favorite times that we’ve had together, and so then I start bringing them up and asking him, You know, what his favorite times are, or I’ll ask him about memories from his youth, or I try to remember things from his work and, ask him specific questions about work or what, what were his highs, what were his lows of the week or of the day or of a project or what’s he struggling with?

You know, just really trying to listen and hear him when he talks and not be in a rush to. To say my own thing and just really, honor him in that way. That’s awesome. I am actually constantly always working on active listening. Like maybe that’s even a, a reason I started this podcast is to like really pay attention, you know?

And in this time like we’re very like, oh, uh, shit, you know, I gotta look at my phone. Okay, I gotta catch up on that. Hey, I want the fajitas. You know, you’re not even really there. You’re not even there. And that’s something that I’m personally always trying to work on. Now, like with everybody in my life, not just my husband or my family, but everybody, and it’s like a, like a skill.

You have to like really be committed to that other person and listening to what they have to say so you can have conversation. You can remember that. You know, he might have been struggling with that job site earlier in the week or, or whatever, you know, then you can follow up. So I think that’s something that I also try to do, but it seems like it’s serving you guys well.

Yeah, and I wanna make a comment on that. I am shy. And, networking is hard for me, but networking is a big part of my business. Mm-hmm. And it really depends on it. So I’d go to these networking events and it was just like, oh. Well, first of all, I hated them. Um, and then I was just like, how do I do this?

And like, people give you conversation starters. They’re like, say this, this, and this. You know, where did you come from? You know, cuz every, nobody comes from Vegas, right? But I found the biggest thing that has helped me, that has served me well is I ask people, how are you?

It’s so true. And I stopped just like, I just, just that awkward and silence. You just, and then I was like, just, I look in their eyes and I listen and they can feel it. They can feel that I’m actually, that I actually care, number one, and then I’m listening and I always, I. Said it like as a standard to myself, like if there’s anybody who’s willing to engage in conversation with me, when I, when I’m out somewhere, then that’s my conversation.

I’m not looking for the next person. I’m not looking to make a certain amount of connections. Like, if you’re willing to engage with me, then I’m gonna show up for you. And some days in a marriage you’re not, well, you don’t feel like showing up. That’s gotta be okay. You gotta be just like, this is not his day to show up.

Like that’s okay, right? You don’t, as a woman, you don’t go try to fix that. You let them, you let them sit and, and be in their space. You don’t take any ownership over that space. You let that space be, and you own your space as a woman. Oh dang girl. I don’t like it. I’ve gone through. Yes. You know, give, give us more.

Give us more, Lori, that, you know what, Mackenzie, that is my biggest thing. I mean, I, I listen to, I mean, one of my biggest things, I listen to my friends and they engage, they argue with their husbands and, and they start calling names and I have to say, oh my, How did you even get into the name calling?

Because some something’s allowed that to be okay, and it’s not okay. It’s never okay to call names for either one of you. When somebody’s in a bad space, you let them be in their bad space. You don’t interrogate them if they’re starting to like not be kind to you just don’t, don’t fire back. Just wait until they’re in a better spot.

That’s what I do. Yeah, that’s, that’s probably true with, again, not just in marriage and every area of life. Right. I mean, that’s definitely true in my experience in parenting as well. So, you know, like let it be, give comfort, you know what I mean? So That’s great. Well, let me see if I have, Ashlyn asked, has any more questions?

Do you, so let me kind of do a quick recap. I mean, you gave us a lot of wonderful. Things here I am. I mean, I’m just, I took a bunch of notes, but you listen, I think that’s probably one of the faith, faith, very important to you. And you, do you practice your faith together, is that correct? Absolutely. Okay, perfect.

And then, you’re very active in listening and spending quality time with Dennis, it sounds like. Yes. Yeah. And then, enjoying some of those activities that you, you do together. I, I do actually wanna hear a little bit about this rock crawling. I’m just personally very interested in it. Is it with a vehicle or with your bodies?

Well, I wish I was with my body cause I’m into physical fitness, but it’s not. Okay. Uh, I’ll share with you that I used to have my own harley. Okay. I used to have my Diana Lowrider. And, my husband had a custom motorcycle. And so that was a phase like you were talking about phases. Yeah, that was a phase.

Oh, we went through the boat phase too. You know, all the phases you go through. So then we ditched the motorcycle for a rock crawler. We had a Jeep before that, but a rock crawler is like a Jeep on steroids. And you, crawl up. In the buggy or the Jeep, the face of rocks. So a famous trail that, you know, we love to do is the Rubicon Trail, for example, but just, you know, right here, you know, in, Summerland, you know, red Rock, there’s some rock crawling there that you can do the backside of Red Rock.

But it is just a good, a good way to get out there and explore. And now we did it I wanna say about seven or maybe eight years. And I was petrified of driving and then I just started thinking about it. I thought, you know, I wanna drive. And so then we were out on a trail one day and Dennis said, do you wanna drive?

And I said, yes. And that began, I started with easy trails, and then I just feel a, a sense of peace and calm when I’m going up extremely. Hard rock obstacles. Because it focuses, it takes all my energy to focus right there. And that to me brings peace in my life present, right? Yes. You can’t be like thinking about other things when you’re on that.

I’m on this journey of mindfulness right now and it’s people like you inspire me. And when you say things like that, I’m like, Oh my gosh. It’s like, because she’s like in it. That’s what you’re doing and that’s what you’re supposed to be, you know? So you can’t think of anything else. It’s like a bit of a little meditation in and of itself, right?

Yes. And my business, I have to say, talk about my business. Yeah. Cause my business is such a huge part of me. And it’s the same way, like when I have time and I don’t have to be out and I’m just doing my work. Like last night I worked till nine 30 cuz Dennis is like on a work thing. Mm-hmm. And it was. I was just so focused in on it.

I liked it. I made myself stop cause I needed to go to bed. Mm-hmm. But my business is my work. My joy, my craft is the same way. I love the focus that I have, that I get to have, and the opportunity to express myself and create for my clients is just the joy of my life. That’s so awesome. I actually have another question because you did mention running now, does Dennis run with you or is this something that you do to fulfill your own?

You know, the people that I see in successful marriages, like from the outside, I’m not in their marriage, so I don’t know. But it seems like people have some of their own interests, then they have interests together and you know, they kind of have their own things. I’m just curious if Dennis is a runner too.

He’ll run with me, Uhhuh. So he does run with me every once in a while. He is a mountain biker. Got it. Uh, so that’s his thing Running is my running’s been my thing since junior high. It’s depressing for me though, because he doesn’t run on a consistent basis. And when he does run with me, he, he kicks my butt every time.

So, you know, but I, but we run together. You know, I, I make it to the end with him. Yeah. I, I ran a 5K with him and I came out tough in my class cause I stayed up with him. So, yeah, he, he’ll run every once in a while with me. But he loves a good mountain bike ride and what better place to mountain bike than here, you know?

Yeah. So true. So true. Well, I, I love talking to you. I love learning about you and it’s fun to learn about something about someone other than just. Their business and through networking and then stuff like that. And so this has been a really fun interview for me. Is there anything that you think like, gosh, you know, I really wish we would’ve touched on that or this, or anything you’d like to add?

I just wanna thank you, Mckenzi, for being. An amazing photographer who really cares, and Oh, thank you. The fact that you’re doing this shows that you care about helping people in their marriages. And if, if there’s just one person out there who’s listening who may be struggling and you’ve, you’ve helped them by providing this podcast, then it’s all worth it, you know?

And, It’s just my pleasure to connect with you. You’re a wonderful, wonderful human being, and I thank you for this opportunity. Thank you. Oh gosh, goodness. I appreciate it. Thank you so much, Lori. We’ll talk to you later.