It’s Valentine’s Day!
I’ve been up at the school counting money for a fundraiser, and was asked to come back up at noon to help with my fifth grader’s class party.
I don’t think they have Valentine’s parties in sixth grade . . . so you’d better believe I’m all over that.
I might even make him hug me in front of his friends.
Anyway, I have exactly 40 minutes to write a post or it’s just not going to happen today.
(FYI, it generally takes me WAY more than 40 minutes to write a post.)
So I thought I’d share part of my love story. It’s not a Valentine’s Day story, but it might have been a clue for Hubby about what kind of woman he was getting.
Hubby and I were friends for about five years before we started dating. Actually, we were part of a group of friends who hung out during the summers and holidays when I was in college. (He is 7 years older and was already working.)
The short version of the story is that by the time I graduated from college, most of the people in the group (except for he and I) had gotten married or were dating their future spouses.
So, when he called me to ask me to go to a movie (after I had graduated from college and was living with my parents), I had no clue whether this was a date or if we were just going out as the last two single people of a now disbanded group of friends.
This went on for a while. I had no clue if we were dating or not, but I was already in love. I knew he was the one because we had/have the same sense of humor. And for someone who finds humor to be the #1 deciding factor in any relationship of any kind, this was big.
Fast forward a few months. I was the short-term youth director at my church and took the kids to camp in Canada. (From Texas, that’s a really long drive.)
Before I left, I was getting the distinct feeling that we were actually dating. I couldn’t say for sure, but he had just gotten a new job and seemed to be really excited to tell me about it. He had also made a point that we “get together” right before I left on my ten day trip.
On the way to camp, we always stopped for the night in Minneapolis, but on the way home we drove the 30 hours straight through. In Wichita, we pulled out the only cell phone in the group and started calling parents to let them know when we’d arrive in Dallas. I called my own parents.
And that was when my mother gave me the message that changed my life.
He had called.
That cute, hairy-legged guy whom I knew I was going to marry (even though I didn’t know if we were dating) had called.
He didn’t know exactly when I was going to be getting back in town, but wondered if I would want to go watch a pay-per-view boxing match at someone’s home.
Ummmm, yeah!
I could not care less about boxing, but he could have asked me to go clean toilets at a rest stop and I would have gone.
I can’t remember every detail, but I’m guessing I had my mom call him to let him know I’d be home at XX time and he could pick me up at XX time. Basically, after more than 30 hours with no sleep whatsoever, all I needed was enough time to take a shower and I’d be ready to go.
When he picked me up, my hair was sopping wet, so I did what any totally-in-love-though-not-officially-dating-so-she-takes-every-chance-she-gets girl would do.
I opened the window in his truck and stuck my head out to dry my hair in the wind while we drove to his friend’s house.
I need to go now, so that’s the end of this story.
I’m not sure exactly what he should have known, but I definitely think he should have known something from that.
Random fact: It was the fight where that Tyson guy bit off someone’s ear.
Random (and more history-making) fact: Whenever something exciting happened during the fight . . . that cute, hairy-legged guy grabbed my knee. After that, I was pretty sure we were dating . . .
tascha says
<3 Sweet story!
JP says
What a sweet, cute story of your young love! You definitely have a knack for spinning a good tale.
Kate says
Only have a few min, I should be doing dishes so they’re done and my hubs is happy on V-day (nice timing for me that it’s working out that I can say it’s for V-day, lol!), but have to share my crazy no sleep story. So my hubs moved to Minneapolis Memorial Day weekend, ahead of me, back before we were married so he could start his new job, I would be joining him when I got a job or after our wedding on Aug 2. I hadn’t been apart from him for more than a week in the past, and was supposed to be away for 2 weeks that time. Saturday night, I DJed a wedding in Milwaukee with my brother (he’s a pro, I’m just the assistant) and was missing my hubs horribly. I started thinking about it Saturday, but wanted to see if I had gotten enough sleep to make the 5+ hour drive safely…I got to sleep about 3 am after it was all done, woke up on my own at 8:30, decided to get in the car and go, told him I had a surprise for him (ended up telling him when I was about an hour out because he hates surprises and was bugging me). Got there about 2pm, we had a great dinner, saw a play, I slept for about 4 hours, got up and was on the road by 3 am so I could make it back to Madison for work by 8 am! Ah, young love. 🙂 It was totally worth it!
Kristin says
It is amazing how little sleep we can go on when we are young and in love. Seems like that trend continues when we have kids 🙂
Pat says
wow!
I can’t believe y’all drove straight through…with only ONE CELL PHONE!!!
No really, I meant wow!…that is so sweet. I just had to kid you.
I love hearing a good romance story. And look how long y’all have lasted…
Cell phones are still common place
Pay per view fights are still BIG MONEY MAKERS! (even bigger)
Most people sadly have married divorced, married again….and are getting counselling during that time!
have a great weekend.
Kristin says
Love your story!! I knew my husband was the one when I first laid eyes on him, even though I was 16. He handed me his hat and asked me to hang onto it. I was in a friend’s car and he was following us to a party on his motorcycle. After the party we went and played mini golf. We were at the last hole and it was a difficult one. He told me to whack it as hard as I could. So I did. The golf ball flew into the parking lot. I was freaked out and he told me that those things cost $100 (the golf ball). I believed him. He was joking. He later told me he knew I was the one when I swacked the ball into the parking lot. But neither of us admitted it for a long time and we got married 6 years later. I still love that guy and still laugh at his sense of humor after 26 years!
Tasmanian says
Hooray for random romance stories! So glad you shared it.
My are-we-dating-or-are-we-friends story also ended in marriage. One cold day when I complained I was freezing (we were chatting on the phone) he rode his pushbike 45 minutes to my place, gave me his small heater, then rode his pushbike all the way home again.
15 years of marriage this V-Day 🙂
Lauren says
What a sweet story! 😉
Sara says
I definitely laughed out loud at that story! Hubby looked up from his game to see what was so funny, so I read him bits and told him that at one time, I would have happily cleaned toilets at a rest stop to be with him, too. He says, “Darn, I missed my chance.” I replied, “I clean YOUR toilet. Isn’t that all that matters?” He agreed.
Penelope says
I was totally watching that fight! My sister was pregnant with her son (now a great big 14 year old) and I went out the Port Aransas where they were staying for a visit and we went to a sports bar to watch that fight.
Too funny! I can count the number of fights I’ve ever watched on one hand, and the number I remember on one finger.
Cassie Lee says
Aw! Too sweet.
RedheadedCyclone says
I LOVED this… My Hubby knew what he was getting into early… so did I…
Two stories about my (now) Hubby and I:
It was almost 2 years into our relationship before I could use the word ‘boyfriend’ without him physically jumping on hearing it… He was my ‘Gentleman’… He had gone through a the kind of divorce you read about and wonder how that happens and was… gun shy… and oblivious…
I knew he was oblivious from the very beginning. When we met, my roommate, John, worked with J and kept (clumsily) trying to get us together. Finally John got J and I to get ice cream (and offered to pay… who are you and what have you done with my roommate?) Anyway, J and I talked for a couple of hours… funny, sweet, smart, great conversationalist, spoke well about his mom…. reeaalllyyyy…. and so, on the way home, I said that he and I should go and get coffee some time….
Nope.
Um…. ok …
So a couple of months after that, J and I ended up on the phone at their work and he asked what I was doing and I told him that I was getting to go out on a date. He mentioned that he didn’t go out on dates because he doesn’t get asked out. What? WHAT? No… that’s totally not true… He was informed in no uncertain terms that he had been asked out… by me… not that long ago…. and if he was interested in going out for coffee or something, he just needed to set the time…
and in a little 3 year old voice he said: “But I don’t like coffee…”
Oblivious… completely. oblivious. I think I even used his middle name when telling him that we were going out on Thursday and would 8pm work for him? 🙂 We’ve been dating since. It did take him 7 years to propose, but I’m ok with that.
sorry this is so long. Just wanted to share…
Dana White says
I think the oblivious ones are the best ones!
Andrea says
Love this so much. Awaiting part 2