Happy Heart Day!

this day is very special to me. our story began on February 14, 1996. Well, it kind of started before that....I had met Brian back in 1994 during the Summer. He had come to ETBU to visit Brock Gill - this was before he started going there. anyway,when he started going there i new him to be one of those crazy guys that baptized people in the fountain in the quad. he and brock were not afraid to be "daring" and "make waves" with the faculty regarding their evanglelistic ways. i never thought of him as someone i'd be interested in b/c i thought he was way younger than me and way too crazy. and i honestly didn't feel "spiritual" enough to be a close friend - that was all in my head nothing he had done or said. well, my good friend shelly hill asked me what i thought about him one day and i was like, "he's really nice and friendly but too young". one night she and i were on our way to a basketball game (melissa knows why i was going:))and brian and i met each other as we were walking in the gym. he immediately gave me a hug. if you know brian you know he loves to hug and is very friendly and outgoing. later shelly again asked me what i thought about him, told me how old he was and i began looking at him in a different way. i told her i wouldn't mind getting to know him and maybe going on a date w/ him. she inturn told him. later she told me that when she told him i was interested in him he couldn't beleive it. funny! well, she got us to go to the movies - grumpy old men - with a group of us. we didn't even end up sitting by each other. there were like 10 people in between us. i'd look down the row and he'd be waving and smiling really big. he's crazy. anyway, later we went to Taco Bell and sat by each other there w/ other friends and just visited. i worked in the bookstore and he'd come by and visit often. bye me reeces peanut butter cups. i had had a very tough sr year and wasn't ready for anything. all this was happening during Februaary and Valentines Day came up. at this point i wasn't as interesed anymore but he continued to pursue. i was walking to the library from the cafeteria and saw his car outside of my dorm. then i saw him giving my roomate, libbey avery, something through the kitchen window. i went on to the library then eventually made it back to my dorm. he had a rose and a small gift in a box waiting for me in my room. the note on the rose said, "hope this makes your "Yuck Day" a little better". i had recently told him that i was calling valentines day "yuck day". i need to add there was another situation going on while all this was going on that's why i had kind of changed my mind about him. anyway, he had tried calling to make sure i got the gift and rose. but i was gone. later i left a message on his dorm phone - before cell phones were so accessible - thanking him for the valentine. i wasn't ready for this relationship so i kind of backed off and in turn he backed off. he later said that he didn't want to continue pursuing me b/c i wasn't acting like i was interested. well, that's all it took for me. playing hard to get. he has since told me that he doesn't "play games". ha ha. when he backed off i started getting interested in him again. and that other situation kind of took care of itself. i remember it like it was yesterday....it was friday at lunch, i had skipped my history class and was eating lunch in the cafeteria. i sat by him and some others while we were eating. he and i started talking and he said that if i wasn't busy i could go home to his parents house in natch., la for the weekend. i said ok. he was shocked. after lunch we went walking and talking about all kinds of stuff. he worked at kroger and didn't get off until 2 am. if you can beleive it....he left me his red two door firebird - that goes really really fast - so i could pick him up later and we'd drive to his parents house. how crazy is that. i didn't even tell my parents where i was going. well, i picked him up and drove us to natch. for the weekend. he held my hand while i was driving. funny. on saturday night we went to the movies w/ his brother and sister in law. the moving wasn't good so he kept asking me during it if he could kiss me. i was like no your brother is right next to us. hahahaha. well, i let him kiss me later that night:) the weekend was march 1, 1996. we would date for 4 years and get married on the same day that we started dating 4 years earlier. we broke up one time for 3 months in 1997. i literally thought i was going to die. i remember sitting in the hallway of my trailer - this is after i had graduated but he was still going to school - and crying and crying and crying thinking i'd never find anyone else. during that time, he and brock had started traveling doing their magic thing. i got them to come to my home church to do a kid show - obviously this was in the beginning of brock's ministry 'cause he don't do kid shows no mo - meredith came down for the weekend to help me get through it. i was soo nervous b/c we were broken up. it went ok. it just made it very hard for me to heal. well, the lord had a different plan and led us back together christmas of 1997. i drove to his parents house and when i got there he took me in his arms and hugged me for a long time. he had grown a beard and was waiting to show me before he shaved it off hahaha. later that day he told me, "i love you and want to marry you but not till i graduate". we were married march 4, 2000 and have been having a blast living life to the fullest since! can't wait to see what happens next! (picture: these are the flowers he brought to me this morning for valentines:))