Our Story
Today is my and my husband's 11 year anniversary.Eleven Years, y'all.Time really does fly when you're having this much fun!Anyway, in case anyone's interested, I thought I'd share the story of how we met:
We met on September 6, 2002 at Taylor University in Upland, IN. I was a junior. Our college does this thing called "Brother/Sister Wings" in which each wing of each dorm is paired up with another wing in another dorm in an effort to help people be a bit more social and get to know more people on campus. My wing (Third East Olson) had been paired up with Second Center Wengatz as our brother wing my Fr and Soph years, but we switched brother/sister wings for my Jr. year and were paired up with First East Wengatz. My roomie and I were a bit bummed, to be honest. Most of our guy friends had graduated the previous spring, or were headed to study overseas, and the rest of our guy friends were still on 2CW. But, that first weekend (Labor Day Weekend), we decided to be extraverts and invite our new brother wing to go to Steak and Shake with us. A bunch of us piled into Steve Fry's pickup truck, and in the back of the truck were a bunch of the freshman guys. One of these was wearing a short-sleeved button down shirt and a cordouroy newsies hat. It just so happens, that one of our good guy friends (Matt) who wasn't around that semester, also dressed like that. So we struck up a conversation with him. I remember it was kind of cold that night, and Steak and Shake was a good 30 minute drive away, so we asked if he was going to be cold. To which he said, "Nah, I'm from Minnesota."
Well. Matt was also from Minnesota. So it was that Derek became our stand-in for Matt. (He wasn't too thrilled about that, actually, because he spent the first couple of weeks at college being told he reminded various people of other various people... poor guy). But, it did mean that we soon became pretty good friends.
I apologize for the photo quality - these are all pictures of pictures... digital photography was pretty new and expensive back then!
Not very long after we met, Derek asked me what my "top ten list" was... I guess there had been a conversation about that amongst some of our friends. I threw out the normal ones: Christian, nice to his parents, a gentleman, someone my family liked/got along with, taller than me (yes, shallow, I know), things like that. I said he'd have to be willing to watch the Princess Bride with me and let me quote along with it without getting annoyed. And then (because I did have a tiny clue as to WHY he was asking) I slyly told him, "And, he'd have to be willing to at least listen to country music without acting like his ears were bleeding." (or something like that. Because, you see, every time Leann and I played country music around Derek, he complained terribly).
I never heard him complain about country again.
*grin*
We started dating/courting (neither of us liked the term "dating") in November (he told me he liked me as "more than a friend" on November 3 and I told him I needed a week to think about it). Yeah... I was a keeper. (I knew I was going home the following weekend and wanted to talk to my parents before I started "dating" anyone).
Eventually I took him on a pick-a-date (as Taylorites refer to large group dates - where your roomie is supposed to set you up with someone to go with)
One year to the day after we met, Derek proposed. In one of our favorite places on campus, on a dock on a little pond in the arboretum.
And 10 months after that... we got married :)
Surrounded by family and friends. All three of my siblings agreed to be in the wedding party. (My brothers only agreed after demanding to be allowed to wear top hats and canes... which I agreed to immediately, because I thought it was a cool idea)
The cake had a fountain under it! So cool. To be honest, I have no idea how the cake tasted. The only bite I got was the one where we "fed" each other a bite of cake... so my advice to all couples on their wedding day forevermore has been and shall be: "Make sure you get to eat your own cake!"
11 years, 3 apartments, 1 house, 2 different states, 5 pregnancies and 3 beautiful children later, Derek is still my hero, my best friend, my tv and movie-watching partner, the person I can laugh with, cry with, and talk to about anything. I can't imagine life without him. Love you, Derek! Happy Anniversary.