A walk down memory lane

Picture it: it's 2002 and I'm in college and working. I haven't had a boyfriend or even a DATE for two and a half years. I have been noticing this TOTALLY hot guy in my Sunday School class for months now, but he was only in Maryland every other semester for work, and the rest of the time he was out of state for school. I didn't want to crush on this tall, dark, and handsome guy who wasn't here half of the time. Well, at the Superbowl party in 2002 with all my friends from Sunday School, he casually mentioned he will be transferring to a college nearby. BING! My ears perked right up and I was hooked ever since. We had so much fun at that party, we talked and played cards and laughed and laughed. My heart was already moving in his direction. I realized he would say yes to hanging out with all of us in a group setting, so I decided to email him and see if he wanted to go to a party on a Friday and if he said yes, call everyone and have the party. If he said no, I would just let it go. After a few weeks of this totally smart and partly sneaky plotting, he finally asked me out! I was SO excited and SO happy. I said yes immediately! Not only was he SO good looking, but he was incredibly smart, was very strong in his faith, and had a lot of Biblical knowledge.

I knew he was something special when he organized two different options for our date based on the time of the movie and when we want to eat dinner, then let me decide. Organization? Letting me decide? Oh yeah, he's awesome.

The night finally came and I put on my favorite outfit at the time - something comfortable, and modest, but still made my figure look lovely (at the time, it was lovely!!) :-) He arrived with a yellow rose in his hand, wearing a green sweater the exact same color as his eyes (that day - it changes based on what he's wearing/his mood) and I was captivated. Oh my was he good looking - that curly black hair didn't hurt either.

We had a great time at dinner - Ruby Tuesdays - I ordered chicken fingers and fries and he ordered ribs with fries. I was surprised to see him eat them with a fork and knife! This was a guy I could take nice places, not an animal! After that we headed over to the movie. As we were leaving the restaurant, he opened the door for me (something he still does and I LOVE), and I reached over to unlock his door. I found out later he thought it was nice and thoughtful of me to unlock his door for him to make his life easier. Remember getting excited about such little things?

He took me to see a cartoon on our first date! We saw Ice Age. We both loved it and I remember the MANY times he laughed out loud. Not only was it nice to be in a PG movie on the first date, I thought any man who could enjoy a cartoon so much would be a lot of fun. And boy was I right!

When the date was done, he walked me to my door, did NOT kiss me (boo :-( ), and went home. After that, we talked on the phone or saw each other every single day. We went out every Saturday (our second date was to DC to see the cherry blossoms and was the most romantic day of my life - he asked my permission to hold my hand that day - we held hands for like 8 hours straight!).

He continued to bring me yellow roses for every date and I would often find one on my windshield in the morning before work. We had the most wonderful, romantic, whirlwind romance of a courtship. He was always a gentleman, being very strong in his religious convictions, and I was head over heels before I even meant to be. We were inseparable and he was annoying his roommates every day by acting like a goofball. :-)

We were married 8 months after our first date. We both smile and look at each other and say, "when you know, you know!" :-) Several houses later, two Bachelors degrees later, one beautiful baby girl later, we have a great life. There have been several highs and there have been several lows. But it all started on March 23rd, 2002. :-)