Our history at Lake Chelan

As we mentioned, Lake Chelan is a special place for Chris and I. It was there on the beach as the sun set that we fell in love. And we went there on our honeymoon. So we thought it would be perfect to go back again for our 5th anniversary and take another picture in the same spot. The weather, however had different plans. There was no sunset…the clouds were too thick. And as the summer thunder storm started we understood why.

Here are our pictures:

So its not exactly the “sunset on the beach” picture we were hoping for, but a memory we’ll cherish just the same. We sat in the car together watching the wall of rain come towards us, pointing out the lightning strikes and listening to the thunder. We held hands, said “Happy Anniversary” to each other, and welcomed in the start of another great year together.

Happy Anniversary

Today is our 5 year wedding anniversary! We hope that you’ve enjoyed this special Anniversary Week here on the blog. It was a lot of fun writing and sharing our love story with you. To read the story from the beginning click HERE. Thanks for helping us celebrate!

We are so excited to share the images from our anniversary photo shoot that we had with Marta of VonGrey Photography. We had so much fun on the shoot and we know we’ll treasure these images for many years to come.

Chris took today off work to spend with me and tonight we’re going on a little drive together to Chelan and out for dinner. And we’ll be checking number 10 off of our Summer Manifesto list…taking a picture of the sunset on the beach in the same spot as we did the day we fell in love and on our honeymoon. We’ll probably say “Happy Anniversary” to each other way to many times, but that’s okay…its how we roll.

Today is a good day.

Our Love Story: Memories from these first 5 years

Being married for five years to Shaina has been nothing short of fantastic. We have done a whole lot in that short amount of time. We moved from Spokane, to Soap Lake due to my work, and from there we bought our first house here in Ephrata Washington and are in the process of turning it into a home. We are just starting to learn Russian so we can help out in the territory where we live and preach. We’ve learned ASL to also help in that regard. I love learning with Shaina, she is so fast and sharp, where as I’m more of an intuitive learner. Problem is my intuition can be way off sometimes. We balance each other out though. Where I am weak she is strong and where she is weak I am strong. We’ve also learned how to take turns in that regard. When all in the world seems wrong, and everything I put my hand to seems to fail, she is right there to pick me up, or let me sleep it off, whichever I seem to need. When she feels like the whole world has turned on her, and everything she’s trying to accomplish has gone awry, I get to be the strong one and lift her up.

Here are some specific memories that bring a smile to my face that we haven’t told yet. Here is the exact moment I fell in love with Shaina. We found ourselves at this party in Chelan that turned out just ridiculous. There were minors being given alcohol. People, who were supposed to be setting a good example as Christians, were doing the exact opposite. People who were vulnerable to overuse of alcohol were being negatively affected. Shaina and I looked at each other, and knew we both felt uncomfortable being there. We made our separate excuses and left in separate cars and went to the beach in downtown Chelan. There, sitting at a picnic table we watched the sun set, and talked a long time about what we just saw, how we felt about it, and many other things. From that point on I knew I was in love. I knew I had found the woman I would marry.

Another fun story is, if some of you don’t know, Shaina is deaf in her left ear. That’s not the funny part, of course. The funny thing is of the two of us, I say “WHAT”, way more often. Sometimes I will say back to her what I thought I heard her say, and she gets this look on her face, like: “How did you get that from what I just said?”  What’s remarkable about this is they test my hearing at work every year. Every year I score way above average. I have really good hearing; apparently what I hear at times gets scrambled around pretty well. I’ve had to develop the habit of waiting a half a second to unscramble and then respond to what I heard. It doesn’t always work though.  For example, once I heard “I would like to buy a stalactite.” What she really said was, “What would you like to eat tonight?” It keeps us laughing, that’s for sure.

In 2008 we bought our first new car. It’s Shaina’s car, and it’s a kiwi green Ford Focus, and her name is Chloe. The Idea of owning a new car was foreign to me. I had never owned a new car, the idea never occurred to me. I had repaired credit, which is almost as bad as no credit, or bad credit. My score was atrocious somewhere in the five hundreds, really bad! It was this however that got the ball rolling in the idea of buying a house. We improved my credit score to up into the mid to high six hundreds in under a year and then the search began, we got a great deal on a little three bedroom, two bath. Brand new stick built home. We love it and it beats the pants off renting. If I have the option, I will never have a landlord again. I love being a homeowner, and I have Shaina to thank for it. She is so good with money, and has taught me so much about controlling my impulsive spending habits, and really taking care of our money. We work as a team on this. We always let each other know if we are going to spend money, and we always save the receipts.
 
We have learned so much together, and every step has been a joy in retrospect. That’s not to say things haven’t been rough at times. But the one thing I think we have learned that is most useful is that we have each other, no matter what! We are never alone, no matter what distance may separate us, we will find a way to be there for each other. We have developed a mental hug for just such times. When Shaina is having a real rough day at work and I can’t be there physically, I give her a mental hug. I picture her in my mind, and then I picture gently wrapping my arms around her and squeezing. I throw all my mental energy, every ounce of positive energy I have into the mental act. It works. It makes her feel better to know I care enough to pretend to hug her in my mind. I like to imagine that that energy finds its way to her through the phone receiver. It makes me feel good to know that I can help a little. And it pushes me to get back to her as fast as I can, so I can give her the real thing. These are a few of my favorites and I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I have enjoyed writing it.
PS. I need the mental hug too from time to time and she gives them right back, and I always feel just a little better!

When I stop and think about how fast these last 5 years have gone by it makes me so glad that I’m a blogger and a scrapbooker and a photographer. I have documented so much of our life together in these 3 ways. But for today I just want to share a couple things that I love about our marriage.

We get to spend so much time together. I work in an office by myself most days so when he gets off of work he comes and hangs out with me for the afternoon. This worked when he was driving school bus and now that he drives garbage truck too. I love it. We are best friends and really close companions. We started our relationship long distance and so its foundation is communication. Back then everything we talked about was on the phone and that’s continued to be a way we like to communicate. Because Chris drives garbage truck for work he has a weird schedule and his days start at 3am.  That leaves me to wake up alone in bed a few hours later.  So we’ve formed a routine where we talk on the phone every morning when I wake up.  Sometimes just a few minutes to say good morning, but most days this is when we have our heart to heart conversations.  I look forward to our talks every morning and cherish starting my day being reminded of the love we share. 

We love to talk to each other, to share our feelings, discuss things and laugh. We laugh a lot. That is something I distinctly remember from every chapter of our lives together…laughing. It helps us to keep a healthy perspective on life and not to take things to seriously. And it always brings us together when we’re going through something hard. We talk together, we laugh together, we pray together and we just are together. 

I think that because of how much time we’ve spent together over the years and how well we know each other, its led to our ease in decision making. We are usually “of one mind” on things and can make decisions fast. I remember how surprised our real estate agent was when we were picking out the color to paint our new house. It was literally: “This one?”... “Hmm…What about this one?” … “Nope…this one!” “Yes, that’s the color of our house!” Probably under a minute. I like that about us. We don’t really argue about many things because we feel the same way about most things. And we’ve taken the bits from my way of doing things that work, and the bits from Chris’ way that work and melded them together.

And we both work to our strengths, even though they’re a little different from the norm. For example, Chris does our cooking. He loves to cook, always has. And he developed skill and knowledge from his mother and living on his own before we met. And that’s what works for us. It took me some time to get over feeling like I was less of a wife because I couldn’t really cook. But if he likes to do it and is good at it, then why push to make our lives match a social norm? I do help out a lot in the kitchen, even though I’m not doing the cooking really. Chris calls me his Sous Chef. I’m glad we have a big kitchen in our new house so we can be in there together. Its another time we get to share.

Singing has also been a big part of our life together. We both love to sing! We’ve actually found the best karaoke DJ around in a little dive in Soap Lake called the Del Red. They have karaoke every Thursday and Saturday night. And Chris and I love to go. Since I’ve been sick we haven’t been very often, but when we lived in Soap Lake you could find us there most weeks. I love to sing a little Jewel or KT Tunstel or Adele and Chris sings a mean version of “I believe in a thing called love” by The Darkness. And we do “Falling Slowly” from the movie Once together.

Our love of singing actually led us to get involved with the local community theater. They were putting on a production of “Once Upon A Mattress” which was one of my favorite plays from high school, and so I wanted to try out. Chris came with me and with the encouragement of everyone there, he tried out too. We both got cast, but I was unable to stay on for that show. Chris however, got bitten by the acting bug. He thoroughly enjoyed that first production and together we were able to do 2 other plays, “Razia’s Shadow” in 2010 and “The Doctor In Spite of Himself” last June. We love to support our local theater and go see the plays that are put on, even if we’re not in them. We go and usher for at least one performance and see our theater family again. We’ve made a lot of close friends through the theater, and we’re glad it’s something we did together.

I also fondly remember many road trips. We’ve made the trip up to Northern BC (where I’m from) two times since we’ve been married. That’s a 10 plus hour trip. And we go to see Chris’ family on Whidbey Island too, which is about 7 hours. We got to go to Portland in 2010 which was so much fun. And whenever there is an assembly we travel back and forth from home. I love to travel with Chris. This is getting a tad repetitive, but I like spending the time together. We listen to our favorite songs, or buy a new album and learn all the words. Or we take turns driving and read to each other. Or we just talk. And we take a lot of pictures. In June 2010 when we went up north I was in the middle of my 52weeks project. I had this idea for an image with the fields of small yellow flowers growing alongside the road. So we pulled off the road and Chris helped me make my idea come to life. We love to take pictures on Deception Pass Bridge that leads to Whidbey Island, too. One time we posed by some darling graffiti. I love that Chris gets my love of photography and likes stopping to take pictures on our trips.

These past 5 years have been so good. I love being married to this man and sharing my life with him. We make a great team. I am excited for where the future will take us and the many adventures we have yet to experience. I’m glad my best friend is at my side.

Our Love Story: The Wedding

The perfect day…that’s what it was. The day you never forget, no matter what happens. June 22, 2007 for me will always be the best day of my life. Shaina and I were wed that afternoon at in front of our family and close friends. There are so many memories from that day, where to begin? Let’s start a few days before the wedding.

I spent two consecutive days driving back and forth from Seattle, picking up my friends who were able to fly out from Massachusetts, My best friend Matthew Gagne and his wife Eunice, and my buddies Manny Gomes, and Micah Gentile. It was becoming a well-traveled route for me. My best friend Nate (from the story of the day we met) was also my best man. Rather than rent tuxedos we bought new suits. So we had taken a trip to Tacoma to K&G for new suits, I got a dark brown suit with golden tan double pinstripes and Nate got a lighter brown suit with stripes done in squares of muted, subtle teals, and reds. We made a handsome pair for sure. It was just going to be me and him, Shaina, and her best friend Kelly, plus her youngest sister was our flower girl. We intentionally kept it small.

All of us guys were at my buddy Nate’s house the night before the wedding.  We all got a late start on the day. When we were all up, we went to my parent’s house for breakfast, after which I drove my friends up the hill at Mission Ridge, the local ski hill that my parents lived at the bottom of. We took in the good views, relaxed and just enjoyed the moment. I wasn’t nervous, just excited, and happy beyond words. We all went back to Nate’s and got ready, after which we went to one of the local parks for pre-wedding pictures. It was there I was shown my beautiful bride. She was and remains truly breathtaking! Shaina will always stay that beautiful in my mind.

The time had arrived.  No one was late. We married on a Friday, so we would have the whole weekend to ourselves. My Dad gave our wedding talk, and did a great job. At one point my dad made a reference to how, as you grow older together, some couples start to look alike. I looked over at Shaina and said “Sorry!” That got everyone laughing! We had a small reception for family and friends and we kept it to sixty people. The reception was at a nice place, which normally was a bistro, but catered, did the cake, and hosted the reception. For some reason we couldn’t get my bands P.A. system to work till the very end, so just Shaina and I danced to one song before we were off for our honeymoon. We danced to George Benson’s version of “Beyond the Sea.” A good tune If I ever heard one, and great for a dance.

That closes the story of the perfect day. A day I will never forget: June 22, 2007.

We had initially planned on an October wedding. October is my favorite month, and it just seemed perfect. But in all our planning with me 3 hours away it became clear that for us to start our life together in Spokane, we needed to be together in Spokane. So we moved the date of our wedding to June. That meant we now had 2 and ½ months to plan our wedding.

And it was all I ever wanted. Moving the date up took a ton of the pressure off. We were able to keep things super small and simple and I never felt overwhelmed by the details. The day before the wedding was spent with my best friends Kelly-Anne and Katie and my littlest sister Katrina at my parent’s house in Omak. We spent the day swimming in the river and painting our nails and putting together the bouquets. The morning of the wedding we woke up early and my mum drove us down to Wenatchee. We got ready at a friend’s house and my cousin Hannah did everyone’s hair.

I vividly remember seeing myself ready in my dress for the very first time.  I remember imagining Chris’ face when he saw me in my dress as his bride. I felt beautiful because he thought I was beautiful. And then the actual moment when he first saw me was even better than I had imagined. My heart swelled with so much love for him. This was it: the day we would become husband and wife.

We went to the park for pictures before the wedding…special ones of Chris and I and our bridal party. My best friend Kelly-Anne was my Maid of Honor and Nate (from the story of how we met) was Chris’ Best Man. And my little sister Katrina got her wish to be a flower girl before she turned 10.

And then we headed to the Kingdom Hall for the ceremony. My friends and I went to wait in the women’s room while people came in and sat down. Hannah did touch-ups on my hair and I went over my vows. And we waited and waited. Finally we heard over the speaker system Chris’ dad say “Well, the Bride is in the bathroom waiting, would it be okay if we started a little early?” It was probably one of the only weddings in the history of ever that started ahead of schedule!

Chris’ dad was the one who gave our wedding talk. It was personal, funny, poignant and memorable. He made us laugh, and invited us to read the scriptures that applied to us ourselves. That was neat. He referenced Adam and Eve’s purpose to “fill the earth” and gave us a “Go Team” sign and a wink. And then he prayed to God for us as husband and wife.

After saying our vows and exchanging rings we shared our first kiss as a married couple.

And then we were headed to the reception. We invited our close friends and family to join us for dinner and dessert. We were able to find a small bistro run by a friend who catered the meal, made the cake and let us use her space as the venue. It was lovely and intimate and a fond memory sharing the evening with our loved ones. Chris’ parents had made wine especially for the wedding and even created wine labels with our pictures on them. And the cake was amazing! White chocolate with hazelnut cream filling (so good I licked the plate!).

And then we hugged everyone goodbye and drove off on our honeymoon.

The day was perfect…one that we still fondly talk about and remember. My one regret: not having it videotaped. I wish I had thought of it so we could listen to the talk again and watch back the day we became husband and wife.

That was five years ago already…and these five years have been the best of my life. I love being married to Chris and sharing my life with him. We’ve had some good times and made some wonderful memories. Even through the hard times we’ve always had each other, and I wouldn’t trade that for the world.

Our Love Story: The Proposal

The proposal, as every guy knows, requires some thought and care. I guess what it requires most is to just be yourself.  I knew I was a bit of a romantic, not smarmy, but definitely a romantic. I needed to ask her parents’ permission first, which I did. I took them out for dinner and before we got our meal they thankfully put me out of my misery. I was so nervous, that I was barely functional. It must have showed. Before dinner came to our table, they asked what the special occasion was. They knew I was going to ask, and were happy to say yes. I had a different problem now though.

Proposing! I was a little stumped here. I instantly started to overcomplicate it. I started thinking about the ring, which I had started paying for, but wasn’t yet made. An idea came to me. I would propose with the ingredients for the ring. So I went to the jeweler who was making the ring and since I had paid for over half already, he let me borrow the loose gold nuggets and pink sapphire that I had chosen. I had two boxes to give her. This was going to be fun! It was fitting metaphorically as well: we were building a relationship with one another, so we were designing the ring together as well. It all fit.

Shaina is notoriously hard to surprise. It’s not an easy task. So I took her out to a really nice restaurant for dinner. After which to throw her off the trail, we went to Hastings, where I bought an album. This did the trick…sort of. She knew something was up because I was acting weird. I don’t hide my emotions well at all. I’m a very open book in that sense. On our way back to my parent’s house we stopped at a playground, one of those big wooden ones designed to look like a castle. It was a little cold yet because it was early spring, so we took a blanket with us.

It was perfect. There was no one around. We went to the highest turret and we were sitting side by side. I said “I have something for you” and handed her the box with the loose gold first. She seemed a little confused, so I handed her the box with the sapphire in it, and asked her to marry me. And when she said yes, my heart exploded with love for her. She kissed me so hard and passionately I could feel her love, our love, through that connection. It was a feeling I can’t begin to explain but it was the best feeling I had ever had.

There are a lot of great engagement and proposal stories out there, but I think ours is the sweetest. Possibly because it’s ours, but that’s to be expected, right?

The month of March 2007 was a memorable month…I was seriously sick for the first time away from home. I ended up at Urgent Care with sever strep throat. It was a good thing I was learning sign language, and so were my friends, because it hurt too bad to talk. I signed a lot that month. Because of being so sick, Chris and I hadn’t seen each other in awhile. So when I was finally better I was eager to get to Wenatchee to see him and be together again. He’d spent the time apart cooking up a plan to ask me to marry him, and I was in for the best surprise of my life.

We went out for a fancy dinner just the two of us. I fondly remember all of John Mayer’s albums playing softly in the background and feeling pretty in my new green sweater. I got my favorite eat-out meal: fettuccini Alfredo with shrimp, and we sat there visiting and enjoying the atmosphere for a long time. I knew that Chris had been to see my parents, so I had an inkling that tonight might be the night, but dinner and desert came and went. And then we were back in our separate cars (we never were alone without a chaperone) headed back to his parents place, making a stop at Hastings on the way. So I took the dinner for what it was: a special evening together, and put the proposal thoughts out of my mind.

But Chris had another stop in mind…we went to “our park.” This was a spot we used to go to a bit while we were dating. It was a public place that we could meet and talk without driving our friends (aka chaperones) crazy.

It was cold and windy, but I was glad he wanted to stop and visit more instead of going straight home. I didn’t want the night to end yet. I got the blanket from my trunk and we sat down together in the tallest room of the wooden castle playground. I remember feeling so content and happy just to be there beside him…to be in love with him.

Then Chris turned to me and said “I want to ask you a question…” and pulled out a little box from his pocket. But the little box didn’t hold what I was expecting it to hold. It had what looked like little gold nuggets in it. Smiling expectantly I looked back up at him and he was holding another little box with my pink sapphire in it. I looked into the kindest eyes I’ve ever known as he took my hand and asked me to be his wife. My answer: a full and heartfelt kiss that said everything. Yes!

We would use the ingredients in the two little boxes to design a ring together for me, just like we would design the rest of our lives: together.

I am so thankful that he picked me…that he wanted to share his life with me. I was honored to say yes to his earnest and heartfelt request. And I’ve spent every day since trying to be the partner he deserves.

Our Love Story: While we were dating…

Its not a secret that I love pictures…and right from our first date, Chris became very aware of that. Thankfully the man doesn’t mind getting his picture taken, and so we have a few really sweet ones from the year we were dating to share. I love that he gets it…that pictures are just as important as the memories they help preserve.

 

So from July of 2006 until March of 2007 (when we got engaged…story coming tomorrow!) we dated long distance. That meant many hours on the phone and every break at work spent at the library emailing back and forth. And then I got a cell phone, so I saved every text he sent. I still have them all saved in a word doc actually.  We did a lot of driving on the weekends and saw each other when we could, but we always talked on the phone every morning…a tradition we still keep.

Things weren’t always easy…we dealt with a lot during that year. Loss of employment, big life decisions, money problems, real life. But we worked together, learned to rely on God as a couple and got through them, giving us lots of practice for marriage.

It was with Chris’ support that I made the leap out on my own for the first time and moved to Spokane to pursue my goal of learning American Sign Language. I learned a lot during that time, and we continued to grow as friends and as a couple. We both started dating with marriage in mind, and so a proposal was the plan. But this guy sure knows how to surprise a girl. You’re gonna want to hear this story! We can’t wait to share.

Our Love Story: Our First Date

A bit of time had passed since that talk with Shaina’s cousin, Hannah. Shaina worked for Wells Fargo when we first met, and she wound up coming down from Omak a few times for training at the local branch in Wenatchee. Every time she came to town we would hang out at her cousins and get to know each other a little better every time. She did not yet have a cell phone, and she gave me her home phone. Shaina at this point still lived at home with her parents. This complicated things a bit. Not because we were up to no good or anything, there was just a little snag! There is an age difference between Shaina and I. I am eleven and a half years older than her. When I was thirty-one, she was nineteen. Her parents did not like this, and when I called for the first time things were weird. I knew something was up, I just didn’t know what. It came to my attention later that the age difference was a problem for them. I was at a crossroads now. I knew that I liked Shaina, now I had to decide what to do: fight or flee.
 
There were so many things to weigh in the balance. I had a past. I’d made mistakes. I have a bit temper, would I scare her? I suffer from moderate to severe depression, is it fair for me to drag her into that too? The cons were building up. What I finally to start asking the right question. I no longer thought about, or asked myself, “Is she good enough for me?” I started to ask: “Am I good enough for her?”

Well the answer to that question was unequivocally NO! However, I also decided that it wasn’t fair for me to make that decision by myself. I needed to let her decide. I needed to expose all my faults to her, not that I was hiding them or anything. She needed to make her choice based on all the information.

How deal with a disapproving mom and dad? Hmmm…. I decided to take the head on approach. I wasn’t about to sneak around behind their backs with their daughter. I knew I had to approach this in an adult fashion, with respect, and reason. So one fine Sunday morning I made the hour and a half drive up to Omak to attend the meeting at their Kingdom Hall. After the meeting was over, I said a quick prayer and made a B-line for her dad. I introduced myself, shook his hand, and then the 4 of us spent the afternoon together.

After that, we had our first real date. Shaina picked up her friend Lindsey, and then we went out for Mexican food. After that she showed me around town, we went to the suicide hill where they race horses down a hill in a “ The Man From Snowy River” fashion. And then we went to the bottom of the hill where the park was and they hold the Omak stampede every August. We threw my football around for a while, and when it started to get dark we went our separate ways. No first kiss just yet. I felt like we had something more special than that. We had trust. I trusted her to make the right decisions. I had given her parents no reason to mistrust me. Dad took a while to come around, but Mom was on board after that first introduction. I’m so glad we did things the way we did. I love my in-laws, and we get along well.

I remember the day I called my mum to tell her about Chris for the first time.  I had been out of town with training for work and we hadn’t seen each other in awhile.  So I called her one day while on a break.  “So I met this guy…” I say and start describing Chris to her and sharing the story a bit of how we’d hung out a couple times and that he seemed really cool.  And then I hear dad’s voice in the background asking how old he is (I guess he’d been listening in on our conversation). So I answer: “He’s 30…” And I can hear dad again, “He’s THIRTY?! He’s thirty…? He’s thirty.” He walked away repeating it to himself.

And that became a sore spot.  You see, I was only 19 at the time…and to my dad, thirty = married before with kids, or something scary like that. And so when Chris called me at home for the first time (this was back before I had a cell phone…crazy, I know!) things were awkward, he could tell something was off and I couldn’t really explain to him why.  I barely knew Chris…I didn’t know enough about him to allay my dad’s fears. All I knew was that there was just something about him I was drawn to.  But I was living at home, under my parents’ roof and so I had to follow their rules. My dad told me to call Chris back that night and inform him that we weren’t allowed to talk while I was still living at home. I remember resenting my dad so much that night, and in the days that followed. We had a couple big blow ups and fights during that time. We’d never really fought about anything before, and so it was strange to me…to fight for something with someone I barely knew, but my heart told me Chris was worth fighting for.

Sunday morning came and we went to the meeting like normal. Half-way through my Dad got up and went to the back for a bit. When he came back he wrote a note to my mom who passed it to me that said: “Is Chris here?” I looked up at my Dad in disbelief and then slowly turned to look around. Sure enough, there he was sitting in the back corner. I nodded yes to my Dad, and then sat back and just couldn’t stop smiling. After the meeting was over, Chris went right up to my Dad and introduced himself. For the first time in my life, someone had done for me exactly what I needed, without me having to ask.  I just knew that this action would make all the difference. It was a pretty incredible feeling. Knowing that he felt I was worth the confrontation and whatever was to come.

The afternoon turned out good and the 4 of us spent some time together. My parents were able get to know Chris better and were introduced to his poop humor, and he became a real man interested in their daughter instead of some “scary 30-something guy.”

They let him stay for the afternoon and we were able to go on our first date. We went out for Mexican food. I “impressed” him with my healthy appetite and knowledge of the game of football. And he made me laugh. The conversation flowed freely and he felt like a best friend I’d had all my life. This was just the beginning, but I was falling fast.

We ended the evening on top of the suicide hill in Omak watching the fireworks. It might sound silly, but they mimicked the sparks I was feeling in my heart for this man. This man who’d put himself out there for the chance to get to know me. I’ll never forget that night, and the feeling of hope that hung in the air as we said goodnight. It was a first-date-day to remember.

Our Love Story: The day we met

Today begins our week-long 5 year anniversary celebration.  My husband Chris has graciously agreed to share his side of the story too…its as much his as it is mine. I hope you enjoy a peek into the day we met and what started it all. 

I guess some background is in order. I had only lived in Washington for about a year when I met Shaina. I had spent the 18 years previously in Massachusetts. All my friends that were my own age were married. All their younger siblings were married or engaged. I found myself lost, kind of chasing my own tail in a way. My parents moved out to Washington a full two years before I followed suite. They came out to be near their grand daughter. They had planted the bug in me to move out and I finally woke up to the fact I was going nowhere, not on any level. I was secularly, emotionally and spiritually stuck in neutral. The engine was revving hard, but the only result was smoke! When it came to love I had only ever been in one relationship. I had ended that before I hurt her. I realized I was far too immature at the time to handle her specific needs. Other than that, I had been pretty well emotionally mutilated. I won’t go into detail because this post is not about that. Suffice it to say I was jaded; was the kind of guy who hated going to weddings, because I thought it would never happen to me. Any hope I had of finding love was long gone.

I moved out to Wenatchee Washington and started making friends, playing music, having fun again. And slowly during that first year, I started to open my mind to the possibility of finding love. My heart was still very guarded though. I found myself attracted to a gal who really was a great person, but like all great women, wasn’t really interested in me. On the upside, she wasn’t interested in anyone. At least, not romantically. So I was licking my wounds yet again. I was very fragile in that respect…I had been hurt too often, and too deep to deal with rejection very well. Ah, the things we don’t see in the moment.

It was Memorial Day weekend, and a friend invited me up to a gathering in Brewster Washington. A whole slew of people I knew were there and a whole lot more I didn’t know. We were up there the entire weekend. One evening a big group of us went to the movies to see X-Men 3. It was there that a met Shaina. Being that it was a science-fiction movie, we spent the better part of an hour and a half tearing the movie apart outside the theater. The jokes were flying freely, and I distinctly remember Shaina, because of her laugh! It was pure, boisterous, but free and pure! My next thought was this: she looked young. I wasn’t wrong, but she wasn’t that young. As it turns out I pinged pretty big on her radar too.

If we fast forward to the next weekend, it also turns out that Shaina was really interested, because she started asking about me from her other cousin, who is married to my friend Caleb, who is the one who invited me up for the weekend in the first place. The interest was mutual for sure, but I thought she was jailbait. I hadn’t learned that she was of age. I’ll never forget the afternoon her cousin asked me to come across the street and visit for a bit. Her words to me were: “If you don’t screw it up, you’ve got it made.” She sure was right.

A lot of stories start off the same:  “It was just a normal day and…” But this story doesn’t start that way.  The day I met Chris wasn’t a normal day.  It was a big day for my family.  My parents had just bought a new house and it was move-in day.  We’d worked hard painting and pulling carpet tacks and unloading boxes all day.  And then my cousin Jennifer called.  She’d had a major crush on this guy named Nate for awhile now, and he was coming to town with a group of friends and they were going to see X-Men 3 at the theater that night.  She wanted to go so bad, and wanted me to come and see what I thought of Nate; see if there was any chemistry between them.  I needed a break from the day and didn’t want to disappoint her.  So I went too.  With just barely enough time to change and paint still in my hair we headed to the theater.  We got there late and didn’t find our group of friends till after the movie.  But that was okay…we ended up all standing around outside the theater for a couple hours once the movie let out just talking, and laughing (and okay, bashing the movie a bit).  The group included Nate, obviously, my other cousin Hannah and her husband, some friends from out of town and a couple other people I’d never met before; one guy named Chris.  After chatting for awhile, I knew I had to get back home and sleep to get ready for another long day working on the house, so we headed out.  We got in the car and eagerly Jennifer turned to me and asked: “So what did you think?”  And I replied: “That Chris guy was pretty cool.” 

And that’s how it started.  Jen and I of course talked about Nate too (they are both married to other people now, coincidently) but I just couldn’t get that guy named Chris out of my mind.  He’d made me laugh and I remembered his warm hug when we were saying goodbye.  So a few days later I called Hannah (my cousin that lived in the same town as him and was his neighbor) to ask a little bit about him.  She said he’d been asking about me too, which made me smile like crazy.  That night I wrote my very first, of many, poems about him:

“He said he liked your laugh”
She said.
I smile
(all I remember about that night is laughing)
“He said he thought you looked cute”
She said.
I smile
(must have been clean jeans and diamond earrings)
“He said he thought you seemed nice”
She said.
I smile.
“I thought he seemed nice too”
I said.
And we both smile.

A couple weeks later after hanging out with him another time at Hannah’s house, I knew there was something special about this guy.  I wanted to tell my mum all about him…and that had never happened before.

5 Year Anniversary Celebration

Our 5 year anniversary is this coming Friday, and so all this week is a celebration here on the blog! Together Chris and I have written our love story, starting with the day we met, and we’ll be sharing it chapter by chapter starting tomorrow. Its been an enjoyable trip down memory lane together in preparing these posts. We hope you enjoy them.