Our First Date

Our first Date:

If you want to get really technical, my husband and I’s first date was on a hot summer day in July. He was 16, me 17. We both got hired at Hoss’s Steak & Sea House at the same time and went through orientation together. Never even gave him a second look, as I was dating someone else at the time. We had a scorcher of a summer and I had heard he had a pool. I razzed him about not inviting me and suddenly I had an open invitation to come swim. (HellOOOO hot chick in a bikini…mom & dad are at work all day = DUH YES!) He had a car and could drive…I’m 9 months older than him and I had neither at that point. We found out we only lived about 5 miles down the road from each other, yet our paths never crossed. Always -sooo- close, but not quite. He picked me up at 10:30am and thus started our 12 hour “date”. We swam in the pool, sat pool side; he made lunch (brownie points for him!!) and was back outside. We pal-ed around all day, a solid 12 hours. Meanwhile…I’m still dating someone else. I got to meet his parents to which I was very impressed. Still married after all these years (Mine split when I was 9), his dad did the cooking, and it was GOOD. I instantly fell in love with his parents; kind hearted, still in love and generally cared for their two kids and wanted to know what went on during their day. It was then I knew I had found what I wanted…but then there was the mess with the older guy I was currently dating. Scott took me home at 10:30pm, still talking and laughing. By the time we hit my driveway we both concluded it very much felt like a date. No kissing. No hugs or hand holding. But very much felt like a date…

I saw how wonderful both he and his family were and I tried desperately to hook my best friend up with him. It is now a running joke that she was “baby sitting” my husband until I figured out my life. Ayren and I are pretty much inseparable. So any time Scott and Ayren hung out, I wasn’t too far behind. This went on for about 4 weeks or so. Things with those two kind of fizzled out and then Scott disappeared.

School started in the fall. Come to find out that Scott and I have Spanish class together. It also happened to work out that he sat right next to me. Our awesome teacher always smiled at both of us, just a little bit brighter with a twinkle in her eye, more so than she did with anyone else. She knew. Before long I was bumming his hoodie off of him because I’m always freezing. It started out I’d just wear it for that period, then after a while I had it on all day. He came in on a Wednesday wearing his flag football uniform…swoon!

At this point I was with my current boyfriend for about a year and a half. He was 21 and out of college, living two hours away. I was only 17 and still had my senior year of high school ahead of me, hadn’t even thought of college. He would come home on weekends. This had gone on for about 4-5 months with 2 hours in-between us being an issue. He came home one weekend and it just hit me. He is not right for me. What I want out of life and what he wants did not match up, and I was unwilling to budge. That and the fact I always felt like he was babysitting me. I had to be home by midnight and then he’d go out to the bar with his buddies. I felt like a baby. Add insult to injury, I couldn’t drive. At all. I hated it. He went back to his work on Sunday. I stewed over it for about a week and everything pointed to…move on. I had to break it off over an [I]email[/I] because he did not have cell reception where he was and he changed his apartment phone number 2 or 3 times so I didn’t have the working number. I just wanted to get it over with. I hit the send button as tears streamed down my face. Mom was there to pick up the pieces and she said “I’m surprised it took this long for you to figure it out. It sucks, but life moves on and you will find someone who really fits you.” My step dad even said “I’m surprised you weren’t BORED 14 months ago!” (Why doesn’t anyone tell you these things before all that time goes by???)

A few days go by and I caught Scott on ICQ (oye…that dates us all right?)…I didn’t bother to say hi. Just sent him this: “YOU ARE SOOOOO MINE AT THE DANCE ON FRIDAY NIGHT!!!!” I honestly can’t even remember what he replied. Obviously, he said yes he will go! Scott picked me up on Friday and we stopped at Mr. Pizza in the mall where his best friend Craig worked. We hung out and walked around before the home football game started. We watched the game (we lost…my senior year of football was HORRID. We sucked!!) And he had his arms around my waist the whole time. My friends would whisper and point when Scott wasn’t paying attention “Ooooo!! What is THIS!?!?!” pointing to his arms wrapped tightly around me. I replied with a huge grin and a wink. The dance immediately followed after the game. Scott busted moves that I had no idea he had. I was impressed and caught off guard in an awesome way. We were into each other all night and I couldn’t name another person that was dancing with us even if I tried. Our eyes were on each other, not missing a beat. There was about a half hour left of the dance and it was like the best cheesy 80’s teen movie; Everyone around us was a blur, music thumpin’, time started to stand still. With smiles on our faces and twinkles in our eyes, he moved in close, put his hands on my face ever so gently. Instinctively I closed my eyes, the last thing I saw was his smiling face, just beaming! And he kissed me. Gentle yet bold with as much passion one could muster while still being a gentleman. We were in our own little world. When we finally came to (lips still attached!) we realized that EVERYONE around us was clapping and cheering! And they stopped dancing to do it!!

Any other day I would have been so embarrassed. On that day, no. That day was the start of a fairy tale love story that is still being written, 10 years later. That day was October 10, 2003. We dated 5 years and tied the knot on October 11, 2008. On our first anniversary we found out our family was growing by 1 more. Lillian Gabrielle rocked our world when she came Earthside on June 14, 2010. With tears in our eyes and hearts so full they almost burst we welcomed our sweet little Lily. We’ve weathered losing loved ones, career disappointments and budgets that left us wondering how we manage to make ends meet. We’ve welcomed our own child and many (many!) nieces into the world and warmed our hearts as our friends marry and have children of their own. We’ve survived wrecks and the trials of house buying and selling. It’s crazy how much your world can change in 5 years. It’s even MORE crazy how 10 years flew by in what felt like the time it takes to drop back to Earth out of a plane. It still amazes me at the little things that just scream “you two were [I]meant[/I] for each other” that crop up as the days go by. You might not always understand God’s plan, but his timing is 110% perfect and so so so soooo worth the wait 🙂