Happy Valentine's Day!

So, I thought that I would write something about Thad and I and maybe post some silly old photos of us. :) I think that Valentine's Day is kind of silly, I would rather have random and everyday love than just one day year, but it is the thought that counts. :) Maybe later I can add a story (I was about to) but then Sammy decided it was time to get up :( at least I'm already up...I love you Thad! I can't believe that we met and started dating 12 years ago... Here's to many more years and valentine's days...

It was at a church dance sometime in 1996 when I spotted him, a silly, quirky, tall, skinny young man. I was attracted to his spontaneity and fun personality. I thought at the time that he and Jennifer Berry, a cute blonde girl ;), were a thing so I kind of hung low, until Jen told me that they weren’t dating. I was excited. I was friends with his sister Becky and so it was easy to start bringing them both to the dances and taking them home. He eventually asked me to prom and the rest is history! J/K. We went to prom and after that magical night and walking along the beach, and making cookies and watching movies, he kissed me, just once, and I floated all the way home down Shoemaker. I felt like I couldn’t wipe the smile off of my face!!! We continued dating through the summer and then made the difficult decision to continue the long distance dating while I was at school in Texas. Those two years apart were very challenging for us. We loved our time together, but phone calls, IMs, emails, etc were just not the same as being together in person. He flew out to visit often and I returned home from time to time. Eventually after two years we broke up. I finished up school, and Thad helped his dad get Echo Metal Works started. Then I went on my mission to Argentina in January 2001, Thad took a cross country road trip and then began his mission to Washington D. C. in December 2001. I beat him home (by a year and a half) and started teaching at Cerritos H.S. and starting going to the singles ward.

When it got closer to Thad coming home people started asking me if we’d date again. I always said no, because I didn’t think that we would. We had already dated and it hadn’t worked out. We had ended on good enough terms, but who would have thought that we’d get married?! When he arrived home our parents started in on us. His parents invited my parents over (and my parents invited me to go along—I figured what is the harm in going with my parents?!) on the day that he came home from his mission. It was a little awkward but it was nice to see him, I mean, we had been best friends while we were dating, and it was not too bad. Two days later, on Christmas Day, I was sitting with my family when the doorbell rang. I jumped up and ran to get the door and Thad was there. I thought to myself, “that’s weird, why is Thad here? Oh well!” (Later I found out that my MOM invited him over for Christmas Dinner! Can you believe it? My ex?) We invited him in, and he ate dinner with us and hung out with the family. When he left we had talked a bunch and figured out that we both wanted to go to the San Diego temple because LA was closed, and decided to go together.

We met and drove together and had a great time talking and reminiscing. We drove to the temple a few more times together. It was nice to have someone to go with. My memory (isn’t it awful, I’ll have to verify the story with Thad later) tells me that after a few weeks of me watching him at the singles ward, and pretty much ignoring him because I was too scared of tripping over my words and making a fool of myself I invited him over to eat again—hamburgers this time—and that day we talked on the sidewalk about trying the dating thing out again. We decided too that we didn’t want to “date for fun” but that we wanted to figure out if there was something more to it, if not, we wouldn’t date. Luckily for me he had had the feeling that he needed to find out whether or not things would work out with me before he dated anyone else, otherwise, with all of my ignoring him I might have sent him away!!

We started dating and things got serious pretty quickly. We had already dated for a long time the first time, and knew each other well, and knew what we didn’t like from before (luckily we had grown up a lot during the past 4 years). We realized that we wanted to be together forever…We were sitting in the front room at my mom’s when Thad casually asked me if I wanted to go ring shopping. I think I hit him and told him not to joke with me about stuff like that, because I liked him. He assured me that he wasn’t joking and we decided to hit the ring shop the next day. We arrived at the ring store, together, and sat in the car for a while. We decided to pray about it and make sure before we went in—it was kind of scary, but it felt good, and right, and we went inside and picked out my dream ring (a solitaire princess cut on a small simple white gold band set at a diagonal) and it didn’t even break our budget! Thad sealed the deal in the temple (that was our favorite Friday night date place) when he asked me if I wanted to spend eternity with him. Of course I said yes…I knew that I wanted the same thing. The next thing I knew he was sitting at my parent’s house watching football with my dad, a whole game, trying to ask him if he could marry me. I was upstairs trying to “stay busy” and kept checking in, but man, that was a long game. My dad said yes, and we were married in August of that same year.

Life is crazy how it seems like we’ve always been married…I can’t remember a time that we weren’t. But it also seems like we’ve always had Sammy, but I know that he’s only been making us laugh and smile for two years and Nathan seems quite at home too. We have gone through a lot together in these four years. I am glad that even though I have to work that I can be happy knowing that he is at home with the kids. He is a great daddy who has taught me a lot about parenting, being fun and spontaneous (not just keeping bottoms and noses clean, making sure they’re fed, dressed, bathed, etc), and loves me even though I worry too much! I do think that I take pretty good care of my three, I mean two ;) boys, and I hope that he knows that I love him.

Happy Valentine’s Day Thaddeus! I love you!