Call Me Sentimental…

Okay, okay, I confess, I am sentimental… I’m sitting up waiting for the clock to read 1:00 am so that I can call my hubby who is 7 hours ahead of me. I’m not sure what time they have to be up but I figured 8 am was safe. He preached tonight/last night whatever you want to say and I’m curious to hear how it went. Also, I’m anxious to hear if the two lost bags were delivered to them. (Out of 16 bags two didn’t make it: one containing 40 backpacks and the other a portable sound system, STINK!!! Last I heard they were tracked and headed for Keiv, hopefully they arrived and made it to L’viv.)

Anyways,  to start at the beginning of our story, start here.

So basically it was Beauty & the Geek – I was the geek!!!  I have various memories from early on before we started dating… silly things really like:  He bought me a kiwi Strawberry Snapple and wouldn’t let me pay him back.   We hung out at the mall when a regional youth rally was canceled and he bought a Cleveland Cavs shirt… 

It wasn’t until I was 15 1/2 that my world changed and I began to realize that I might not be able to deny that I had a HUGE crush on Stephen Charles… 

In the spring of 1996 (that sounds like the beginning of any good story) and we were heading to a Dayton Christian’s Spring Musical:  The Music Man.  It was phenominal by the way…  Anyways, did I mention he had a girlfriend at this time?!?  She was a friend of mine…   She was doing the make-up for the cast and wanted us to come so he picked me up and we went together.  At this point I just was smitten.

Then the strangest thing happened…  Our mother’s claim responsibility for us getting together, they say they were the matchmakers… I don’t know about that.  As I mentioned in the last post, we, my family, was previously stationed in St. Louis.  While there we went to church with Stephen’s great-aunt, Arenabelle.  That spring, Jack, Arenabelle’s husband, passed away and Linda, Stephen’s mom called my mom to see if we would want to ride with them to St. Louis for the funeral.

Let me tell you… that ride changed my life, literally.  We left on a Wednesday night after church, drove until somewhere in Illinois.  Stayed at a Peartree Inn, finished the drive to St. Louis.  Went to the funeral, grave site, grabbed a bite to eat and then drove home on Thursday.  That ride was one of the best of my life.  We talked, and talked, and talked, joked, and simply hung out.  (What else could we do on a 7 hr van ride, both ways within a day and a half?!?)  When we got back to Ohio I kinda felt like he might like me and he was acting a little weird with his girlfriend but it kinda passed so I tried to deny that I was head over heels…

Slowly, but surely, we both began to realize, on our own, that we were meant to be.  My absolute my favorite memory of our pre-dating days was at a Kings Island Retreat…  (This is going to sound SOOOOO Jr. High, so sue me…  I was barely out of Jr. High :O)  We were playing capture the flag the night before we went to the park and Stephen & I were on the same team…  He ended up running by me (f.y.i.  He is SUPER competitive…), came back to give me instructions (I think we were losing) and then, and THEN…  get ready… He rubbed/squeezed my shoulders!!!  The next day at PKI we walked around with our group of friends and the last roller coaster of the day was The Beast…  I rode with him, in the front seat, OF COURSE (it’s not worth riding anywhere else, so he thinks…) and I was on CLOUD NINE!!!

I think I dreamt about that day forever.  That trip, I think, was in August.  The next several months got a little hairy since he broke up with my friend and we remained only friends for a long time.  That Christmas we did exchange Christmas presents.  I honestly can’t remember what I bought him, it probably wasn’t much because I babysat for money…  But I do remember that he got me a calendar (I still have it in the attic) and the Max Lucado book, “The Applause of Heaven.” 

January of 1997 we began to go places together with our sisters as ‘chaperones’.  They were younger than us, but always ready to go somewhere…  We went ice skating, to Beauty & the BEast on ice, etc.  It was a lot of fun.  But then came the day of all days…  You’ll have to wait and read about that in the next post because this one is simply getting too long!!! 

For those of you that started this and actually finished it, thank you for allowing me to be sentimental.  I’m going to continue as soon as I click ‘Post’ simply because I’m awake and I’d really like to get some of these things down as a journal of sorts.  So thank you for allowing my ramblings.