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While I generally love to share money saving ideas, parenting tips, or fun kids activities – I wanted to switch it up a bit today. Sometimes I think it’s nice to get to know the person behind the blog on a more personal level. That’s why I’m going to share our love story – the story of Andrew and Heather. I hope it’ll bring a smile to your face, and make you laugh. (No, it’s not all that mushy-gushy. It’s just us. 🙂 )
2007
We met in 2007 at a summer wedding. I was a bridesmaid in said wedding, and Andrew was dating one of the other bridesmaids. Yep, he was totally spoken for. For whatever reason, she brought him with for the photos and everything that took place all afternoon. So here sat this poor college kid watching the wedding party have their photos taken.
After an hour or so, I started to feel bad for him. No one there knew him (aside from his girlfriend), and she hadn’t spoken to him in an hour or more. So – I did what I normally do, walked right over and started talking to him!
I asked the typical questions. “What’s your name?” “Where do you go to school?” “What’s your major?” “How long have you and your girlfriend been together?” He was politely responding to each, when he was suddenly summoned.
“Get over here!”
It was his girlfriend. Apparently me talking to Andrew had not gone over well.
She called him out into the hallway and gave him a butt-chewing I could hear from inside the church.
He came back into the sanctuary, sat down, and hung his head. Not another word was spoken.
The wedding went on as usual, and I don’t know that we talked anymore. I do remember him coming out on the dance floor with his girlfriend to dance with all the bridesmaids, but she kept her hands on him to ensure the rest of us knew he was off the market.
August 2011
Fast forward a few years. I was at a new teacher in-service at a school in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Unfortunately I was running late, so I was sitting in the front. (NOT my favorite place to be!)
About a half hour into the training, this guy walked in late and sat at my table. I knew he looked awfully familiar, but I had no idea how. (I’m horrible like that! I remember faces super well, but I don’t always remember the name or why I know someone!) We started chatting in between sessions, and could not figure out how we knew each other.
The second day of training we finally got it figured out and realized it was from the 2007 wedding. I laughed about his then-girlfriend. He made the comment, “Yea, I’m glad that one ended.” Smile!
Since I knew he was single (or at least no longer with her), I upped the flirting game a bit. People, I do NOT flirt! I’m chatty as all get-out with almost anyone, but flirting just isn’t overly my cup of tea.
Yet I was pouring out all my horrible best flirting, and it was getting me no where.
Finally, during the last day of in-service, one of his coaching buddies invited me to go out for a drink with them. There ended up being a group of 8-10 of us at the Loud American Roadhouse. We talked, I continued to flirt, we had a good time, and I went home. Sigh.
December 7, 2011
Fast forward a few months and I was getting a pretty good routine down at my new school and my part-time job. I was a special education teacher who actually had some extra time on her hands. Due to this, I’d decided to start a teaching blog and work part-time teaching students from various Asian countries over Skype in the evenings.
One evening I found out my Skype classes were canceled, so I called a friend to help to the Loud American for a drink after work. When we got there, Andrew was sitting at a table all by himself.
I believe I sarcastically said something along the lines of, “Sitting with all your friends?” with a big smile on my face.
He smiled back, laughed, and said they’d be joining him shortly.
“Sure, sure…”
He laughed again and invited us to join him.
Turns out the group of friends was many of the same new teachers from our first outing. We talked for hours and had a great time with the group.
At some point I must have finally gotten brave because I told him we should get together again. He said that sounded great, and that was it.
“WHAT?!?” I thought in my head. You don’t just say it and not do anything about it!
With that, I wrote down my number and got his in return. I told him there was no excuse this time for not getting together.
The smile on his face got even bigger!
We ended up staying that night later than anyone else in the group. We moved over to a different table, had supper, and ended up talking for most of the evening. When we finally left, I was on cloud nine! This guy had some real potential!
The next ten days…
Those next ten days were a whirlwind. Andrew and I talked almost every single day. He came over to my apartment one night and stayed until almost midnight. He is not a night owl, plus he had to be up at 5am to head to a wrestling tournament – so that was a pretty big deal (even if I didn’t realize it at the time!).
One night I got a text…
“Are you attracted to me?”
What the….?!
I literally threw my phone across the room. Did he really just text me that?! Of course I’m attracted to him. Why else would I talk to him nearly every day in the last week, spend time with him, text him, and want to hang out? DUH!
I don’t know how long I waited to respond (probably not as long as I should have!), but I said that I was interested in him.
During this time, I still owned a house in my hometown that I was trying to sell. My renters had moved out the month prior, and I was trying to get it sold. A guy I knew was interested and wanted to see it. So on Saturday, December 17, I was going to to make the 11 hour round-trip drive to show the house. Figuring I had nothing to lose, I asked Andrew to go with me.
Surprisingly, he said he would!
In the back of my mind I was thinking, “If we can spend 11 hours in the car together without getting bored or wanting to kill one another, this will be the guy I marry.”
December 17, 2011
The day went off without a hitch. We left around 5am, showed the house around 1pm, and got home around 8pm.
I got super tired on the way home. So he started playing a game of 20 questions, except it turned into a game of 100 questions. It was great getting to know one another!
Then he found my stash of CDs from high school. We rocked out to Backstreet Boys, Brittney Spears, and N’Sync like no ones business. 🙂
About a half hour from home, he got a text from a buddy asking him to come over to a party. He asked if I’d go with him.
When we got back to my apartment he asked me to be his girlfriend. To this day, it’s still one of my favorite memories of the two of us.
The party was a lot of fun. I still laugh because one of the women there asked how long we had been married. LOL. It was almost as if it were a sign.
“Well, we’ve known one another for a few years, but we haven’t been dating long,” I responded, smiling.
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I’ll share more of our love story Monday in another post. Thanks for reading!
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I enjoyed this. You do a great job! I can’t wait to read more of your work!