A Love Story Like No Other

People love to use my story as an example.  It amazes them I guess.  It's funny.  Is it really that hard to believe you don't necessarily have to date someone to know they're right for you?  Okay, I'll admit it's a little odd.  Kinda Cinderella-ish!  She didn't date her prince before she married him!  Just danced with him at the ball!  But, here we are nearly seven years later still going strong with four beautiful little girls.  Wanna read the story?  Okay, here it goes...

Bryan and I have known each other since 1998, but we never dated.  Never...not ever.  He was attached to a friend of mine and I was attached to way too many guys for me to remember...or even want to remember for that matter.  Anyway...it wasn't until after I had spent my first college semester at my dad's house in Mississippi and moved back to Maryland that we ran into each other again.  I found out while I was in MS tutoring mom over the phone with her algebra wasn't working (insert me beating my head against the desk) so she found someone else to help her...care to guess who?  Yep...Bryan was her tutor.  So let me lay out that night for you...

My sister and I were sitting at the table in the kitchen just goofing off.  That's pretty much all we ever did...and still do, lol.  I love my sister!  She brings so much energy and fun to my day.  Bryan walked in the back door (because knocking is seriously overrated at my mother's...we always had people coming and going) and asked if mom was home because he wanted to say bye to her before he left for basic training (it was the first time I had heard he was joining the military).  I told him she was at work, but we were going bowling that night and invited him to come too.  Bryan agreed to go after we told him what a hoot it was going to be.  If you've never been bowling with my family...we have to be the most hilarious group you'd ever see.  You have my mom...the self proclaimed professional bowler (or so she thinks, lol...love you mom!), my sister Jessica...well let's just put it this way...my five year old, Natalie, bowls better than she does.  It's okay though!  You can't be skilled at everything, right?!  There's David, my step dad...I suppose he was about average, my 2 younger (but now MUCH bigger) step brothers that liked to show off, my then 8 year old velcro step sister...she attached herself to everyone, and myself.  I wasn't the best bowler, but I could hold my own.  

So...Bryan came back later that night before we left and I rode with him to the bowling alley.  We just talked, joked around, and flipped through the radio stations.  Apparently at the time, I was extremely dense...because he was flirting with me the entire night and it went straight over my head.  Not that it was hard, I'm only 5' 3 (3/4)"...everything goes over my head, HA!  But seriously...how could I have missed it?!  He did everything short of kissing me!  We bowled for a while and then shot pool for a while and then went back to the house to chill for a few hours.  The ol' fuddy duddy parents went to bed early, so the kids were all left in the kitchen playing UNO attack.  Bryan decided to stay for a while and hang out with us.  We were all up laughing and cutting up until about 3am when he finally decided it was a good idea to go home.  Did I mention he was supposed to be getting on a plane at 6am to leave for basic training??  Yeah...he was literally at my house until it was time for him to leave.  Seeings I missed all the other hints, you would have thought I'd catch that one...but alas...it went over my head like everything else.  My mom informed me later that morning about what I was too blind to see for myself...and I felt like an idiot!  A giggly one... 

I didn't hear from Bryan again until he came home from basic.  When I came home from work his car was in the driveway.  At first I had no idea who's car it was, but when I walked in the front door I figured it out fast!  He was sitting on the couch talking with my grandma.  This was pretty significant to me.  My grandma was amazing.  She was THE BEST judge of character and if she didn't like someone she wasn't afraid to let them know.  Believe me!  She didn't like a couple of my boyfriends, way back when, and literally ran them out of the house with either a baseball bat or her broom, lol.  No joke!  It was a site to see.  At the time he was there, she was talking his ears off.  About what...I have no idea, but that didn't matter.  She liked him and that was a big deal to me.  

It was like that everyday for the whole week.  Bryan would be at the house when I got home from work talking with my grandma and waiting for me to get there.  We never went anywhere or did anything.  Just sat around talking with her and my cousin Tiffany.  He'd let me lay there with my feet in his lap and fall asleep.  At the end of the week he had to leave for his first duty station (his first base).  I gave him my address so he could write me and my number so he could call and he gave me a kiss on my forehead.  I didn't find out until right before we were married that he wrote me letters in basic/tech school.  He was too chicken to send them.  Imagine that...Bryan chicken...HA!  Who would have thought!  Anyway...we stayed in touch while he was gone.  First we'd talk once or twice a week.  Then it became an every night ritual.  I'd go over to my mother's at a certain time to talk to him on the computer or he'd call her cell.  We'd talk about anything and everything or sometimes nothing at all.  Then one day...out of the blue while we were talking on the computer he asked me to marry him.  At first I wasn't sure if he was being serious...or if I was reading the message right for that matter.  I had my little brother read it back to me, lol.  Sure enough!  It was the same the second time!  I didn't need time to think about it.  I knew in my heart that I was head over heals in love and wanted to marry him.  I was even willing to move away from home...to the frozen tundra that is North Dakota with him.  But asking once wasn't enough for him.  He asked me again on the phone a few nights after that.  I guess he wanted to give me some time to think about it even after I had already said yes.  

He realized I was as serious as he was, so we started talking about a wedding.  Then after looking over a lot of magazines and such...we decided not to have a wedding.  We decided to get married at the courthouse and save the little bit of money we had to furnish a house.  So he set a date to take leave and fly back home.  Of course, he could have picked a better time of year...the roads were awful with slush and such the night we went to the airport to pick him up.  We being Bryan's dad, his sister (very pregnant at the time) and myself.  

My stomach was in knots the entire ride there.  When we parked the car I had to jump out because I felt a little queezy.  Not from the driving, but because I was excited and nervous about seeing him again.  The cold air helped to calm me down.  Then we rode the bus over to the terminal and the butterflies started all over again.  When we got down to the baggage area I was half dying.  His sister spotted him first.  I promise you have never seen a pregnant girl run so fast, lol.  She was excited to see him too.  Me, I still remember to this day what he came home in and exactly what he looked like that night!  I let his family get their hugs out of the way first...figured I was going to be glued to him for the ride home anyway.  And I was, lol.  Snuggled as close as I could get!  

Bryan was home for probably 3-4 days when he broke out the ring and officially asked me to marry him.  And I do mean official...down on his knees and choking on his words.  It was the sweetest thing ever.  I cried.  I said yes of course, but I cried.  We went that afternoon to the courthouse to get our license and a few days later we got married.  

So there you have it!  I think it's a sweet little story.  Of course...it is MY story, lol.