Back in March of 2010, I was a lowly college student. I was in my second semester of College. I had just gotten my first job at a Day care. I loved my job and, turns out, I loved it so much that I changed my major shortly after I started it. Anyways, I was happy. I was just living my life and content.
Then, one Sunday, as I sang in the Choir at my church, I looked out at the congregation (as I did all the time) and spotted this tall, skinny guy in his NSU Navy uniform. Of course I saw him from far away, but I thought even from far away that he was pretty cute and I wanted to meet him. So, church went on and I kept thinking in the back of my head "Man, I hope I get to meet this guy" (Yeah, I know. I should have been focusing on Jesus. Judge me now.) After church was over, I casually made my way over to him and introduced myself. Turns out, he was fresh out of Boot Camp, had just been granted special liberty to leave base, and was recommended this church by his Pastor back home. We talked a while and then had to part ways because he needed to get back to base and I had friends wanting me to go out to eat.
A few weeks later he came back to church. After church, he found me and made some sweet small talk. We invited him to go out to eat with us and he graciously accepted. I drove him because the poor guy didn't have his truck (it was stuck back at his parents house in VA). Our food at the restaurant ended up being late and we had to hurry up to get him back to base by curfew. Turns out he was a few minutes late, but right before he got out of the car, he said "Hey, can I get your number? So that I can text you and make sure you get home alright." HOW CUTE! (Insert little teenage girl squeal here). About 30 minutes later, I got a sweet text from him telling me how thankful he was for the ride, and making sure I got home alright. He was the sweetest thing.
Short story, this went on for a few months until he went home on Memorial Day Weekend to get his truck. When he got his truck back, I guess he didn't need me for rides anymore ( to the mall, church, hangouts) so he kind of stopped talking to me (I know, jerk right?!) I tried to not let it bother me. I guess we never were a thing, but I did have a major crush on him. I thought he knew that, but then again, maybe he didn't. About 3 months went by and I hardly heard from him. Since we were Facebook friends though, I had seen that he found himself another girlfriend (Knife to the chest) and seemed to be very happy with her.
In the meantime, I just kept on keepin' on. School, work, and church. One Sunday, I came into the Sunday School room I was working in. One of the ladies in there saw me come in, and lit up. She said she had something to tell me. She told me that she had a dream about me. She said that she had a dream that it was my wedding day. She said I looked beautiful (ego boost, right?!). My immediate thought was "WHO DID I MARRY!? I asked her, and she said " Oh, I don't know. I didn't recognize him. All I know was that he was tall, dark and Handsome. And he had a good stable job to provide for you". My immediate thought was to John. I knew he was tall, had dark hair and was handsome. I also knew he was in the military and that is a stable job. I had to be kidding myself though. He had a girlfriend. Ugh. All the thoughts. I put the dream to the back of my mind and had to move on. I had too much going on, with finals coming up.
about 2 months later, my birthday was right around the corner. Sunday was the day before my birthday and all my friends had already told me they wanted to take me out after church for my birthday. During church, I noticed someone who looked like John in the back of the church. "That couldn't be him", I thought. "He hasn't been to church in a long time. I thought he was long gone by now." Turns out it WAS him. I planned on talking to him after church. Maybe invite him to go out with all my friends for my birthday. After church, I casually went over to him and welcomed him back to church.
John accepted our invitation and went out with us to Buffalo Wild Wings. He ended up sitting next to me (SSQEEE!!....Teenage girl squeal) and he ended up insisting on paying for my dinner. During our conversations I casually added, "Oh and How is your Girlfriend?" I hoped he would say he hated her and he was breaking up with her. Unfortunately, he said she was good. They were good. (in my mind: Dang it!...But at least he didn't sound smitten saying those words. I wasn't convinced he was happy). When dinner was over, He said he owed me for taking him so many places, being so nice to him and he said no one should have to pay for their meal on their birthday. Mixed signals, right? GRR.
About two minutes before midnight, John calls me to tell me happy birthday. He said he wanted to be the first one to wish me a happy birthday. Then two minutes later he sends me a text. The sweetest happy birthday text. (Geez, this guy is killin' me!)
The next week he asks me to hang out. Here's what happened. We end up driving an hour to find somewhere to play pool that wasn't in a nasty bar. We then gave up, got Sonic and went back to my house. He insists on paying for the food (Hmmm, this isn't a date, right? I couldn't be on a date with someone else's boyfriend?). Any who, we go back to my house and we watch this movie about the coast guard. It wasn't my thing, but he seemed to enjoy it. We sat on opposite ends of the couch, like good kids. HA! He ended up telling me that he hadn't talked to his GF in about two weeks and that he was going to break up with her. "Oh, I'm sorry. I hate it didn't work out for you two", I said ("YAY! Oh, heck yes. Its about time he broke up with that dang girl. I knew he wasn't happy.").
The next few weeks we hung out almost every night. He would comer over after he got off work (which was usually very late) and we would sit on the couch and watch various movies. Our conversation would usually go like this:
Me: What do you want to watch tonight, John?
John: Oh I don't care. Its up to you (He was such a gentleman).
Me: Okay!! How about Rent or Sound of Music, or Phantom of the Opera, or The Notebook? ( Yes, I made him watch all of these. I knew this "we can watch whatever you want to, baby" phase was not going to last long, so I had to get all the good ones in! Ha!
John: sure, whatever you want to watch, baby.
Eventually I stopped torturing him and asked if he liked That 70's Show. He said he did so that's what we watched for the next few months. Each night when he came over, we watched 3 or 4 episodes of that show. There were 8 seasons worth so it took a long time to get through them all! But that's what we tell people now. We fell in love watching That 70's Show.
By March, I was convinced we would get married, but I just didn't know when. I never pictured myself being one of those people that had a wonderful, long, drawn-out engagement. Late march, we had planned a trip to Jacksonville together. We were going to visit my sister there. Sophia (her daughter) was turning 2 at the time and we were going there for her party. We went down on Thursday evening, had Friday to explore Jacksonville, and Saturday morning was the party. Poor John kind of acted funny all day and I didn't know why. I wasn't worried or anything, just didn't seem normal. After the party, John wanted to check out to the beach so off we went. He took a different way than I told him to (typical guy) and it ended up taking us longer than it should have to get there. We went through some fancy hotel to get to the water ( I had some fascination with fancy hotels). I kept wanting to go outside to see the water, but he insisted on staying inside for just a few more minutes. Right then, he took my hand.
John: I'm going to need you to take off this ring for a minute ( I was wearing a birthstone ring on my left ring finger)
Me: (FREAKING OUT) um sure. Why?
Then John proceeded to say some mushy stuff that is just embarrassing and asked me to marry him. OF COURSE, I said yes!
He put a beautiful ring on my finger that belonged to his mother. It's been there ever since. Its such a beautiful ring =)
Turns out, the reason why he wanted to stay in the hotel, was because Michelle, my sister, was hiding and was taking pictures of the whole thing! Such a sneak. That's also why we took a longer way. It gave Michelle and everyone else, time to load up and get to the beach before us. We went a few blocks up and met everyone (my parents, sister, brother-in-law and niece) for some celebratory pizza.
We spent the rest of spring and summer engaged and got married on September 10, 2011. It was a beautiful day =)
My sweet sister made this for me about a year after we got married. I have a small print of it in the house, but I think I am going to get a large one done, too =)
One of my favorite pictures from our Wedding Day =)
A favorite from our first trip to DC together!
This was the day before John deployed. I was 12 weeks prego and had no idea when he would be home.
This is the first picture we had together as a family of three! Taken about 12 hours after Eleanor was born. Makes me get emotional every time I see it.
And because we are still all kids at heart, this is us riding Go Karts on our 4 year anniversary.
I hope everyone has a wonderful Valentines Day! And I just want to say, you don't NEED your significant other around to have a good Valentines Day. I have spent three of the six Valentines Day's alone because of Johns work schedule. It used to really bother me, but all in all, its just a day. A day that has been over commercialized (like all the other ones), to get people to buy cards, candy and presents. Valentines Day should be spent with people you love. Your friends. Your family. Your kids. Your Fur-babies. Love them all!
