Tuesday, October 06, 2009

Dear Diary...

I have been on a cleaning rampage the last few days and decided to clean out the closet of our schoolroom...

As I have mentioned, this adventure turned into relinquishing the school room back to Jaiden, who gave it up when she was 3 years old.

We have been reserving a private room at the library and doing most of our work there. It somehow seems easier to not be constantly distracted by the phone and the laundry (for me) and toys (for the kids.)

We have to be there at a specific time, which is really good for me, because those of you who know me, know that I am not a morning person and definitely have a warped sense of time.

We also have to be done at a specific time, which is good for the kids. They have their watches set!

We have to be on our best behavior... which is good for all of us.

So back to my colossal cleaning story...

This was not your ordinary clean. This was me putting puzzles together to make sure all the pieces were there; me ditching any and everything that I hadn't used or seen in the last year. This was 9 big bags of trash.

This was a stroll down memory lane as I found Jack's kindergarten papers, back when he would only refer to himself as Wolf. I spent a few minutes to cry over Jaiden's kindergarten memory book and admire Justine's first attempts at writing her name.

Oh, and I also found my diary from 1997... Thank God I was the one to find it, and don't ask me why it was in the closet of our schoolroom.... But I digress.

You're gonna love this entry...

28 April 1997

"Well it happened. I met the man I'm going to marry. He may not know it yet, but I am. We met on a blind date on Wednesday. I went home for Susan and Joe's wedding. We all went out that night and we ended up talking and talking most of the night. We spent most of the weekend together after the wedding. I have never felt so comfortable with someone that I could talk and tell so much about myself. And he makes me laugh. God, he makes me laugh. He likes kids. He likes family. As I boarded the plane to fly home yesterday, I thought this was probably just a really fun weekend and nothing would come of it. When I got home from the airport last night, there was a message on my answering machine with his hotel and flight information for next weekend because he said he's never been to Lubbock before. I'm so gonna marry that man."

And the rest, as they say, is history. We were married 10 months later on 28 Feb 1998... and that was... 4,238 days ago... or 11 years, 7 months and 8 days... or almost 12 years.

It happened really fast. I guess you could say he swept me off my feet? I think part of the reason it worked was because we were 700 miles apart for many, many months. It gave us a long time to get to know each other via the phone and letters and let our friendship morph into something else.

We definitely learned how to talk and share with each other from the beginning.

And now, even with the stress of our lives, he still makes me laugh and I still would rather spend time with him than anyone else (Jaclyn and Grace ... you're right up there too), and I still feel lost if I can't find time to talk to him about any and everything.

We recently saw someone we knew before we were married, and they exclaimed, "you mean you're still married?" They couldn't believe it. I guess no one thought a long distance, whirlwind romance would work, but luckily it has.

Right... honey?

Photobucket

3 comments:

Rebecca said...

What an awesome post! How incredible that you wrote in your diary that he was the man you were going to marry. I'd save that forever!

nunya said...

I remember when you met him. In fact, I think we ended up at the same spot on the road when he was in town that weekend. I remember him in the passenger seat of your red Saturn and I waved a brief hello to him from my car. You were all smiles, and I knew he was the one for you. I'm thrilled that you have him and that the whirlwind romance never ended. Congrats on almost 12 years together with your best friend.

SisterMom said...

What a sweet sweet story! Put that diary away somewhere very very safe(not in the basement) and I will make sure we read that entry at your 50th Wedding Anniversary!