Stories to Tell My Children

In honor of Valentine's Day I thought I might sicken you with cute stories of togetherness and love. Okay, not really. It's actually just a coincidence that I blog this now and it's Valentine's Day. I spent my day working in the yard and then visiting with a girlfriend this evening for a few hours. It was a lovely day. Tonight we were telling stories of how we met our husbands and I got to thinking about when I actually "knew" that he was "the one". Well, this was the first inkling at least.
Erik and I went to Ecola together and through a series of adventures and mishaps arrived at the conclusion that we liked each other but it being Bible School and all we entered the awkward stage of "praying about it" but not actually dating. We realized that if we termed it "dating" it would become really serious and we weren't too sure we were ready for that. Well it did get a little too serious and we decided to back off even the praying about it stage and try to remain friends.
We hung out together the rest of the year, I completely oblivious to the fact that he was still pining away for me. The day of our graduation was also the day we had to move out of our dorm rooms and as I was packing up I remembered that I still needed to pay him back for my yearbook (he had kindly offered to pay for mine because I didn't have the money at the time). I went in search of him and found him climbing the stairs to the Old Ecola dorm. I met him at the top of the stairs and handed him his money as these thoughts raced through my head; now keep in mind that I refuse to live in drama (the climate is so unpredictable), I really don't even like passing through the region of drama, even more so as I mature (read ma-tour, it sounds better) but for this fleeting second in my history I was firmly planted there and these are the thoughts, thought with much passion, that passed through my mind as I gazed into his blue eyes, "I'm not ready to say goodbye, if I don't see him ever again I might die." Or something very close to that; his eyes are so very blue...
A few weeks later I caught the bouquet at Josh and April's wedding and there were raised eyebrows and loaded questions about prospects (seeing as Erik and I kind of attended the wedding together but with a group of friends). With a few blushes and furtive sidelong glances in his general direction I attempted to pass these off with a smile but no definite answer. (I don't think I've ever perfected that skill). But needless to say I've never needed to catch another bouquet and we will celebrate our 7th wedding anniversary in June and his eyes are still very blue.