My First Love

Ten years ago I met a boy in a church. I didn't know then that we'd fall in love. I didn't even really know what real love was yet. I was guarded, but curious; he was like no one I had ever met. I was fifteen.
That summer after we met seemed to crawl by. My friends and I talked about him constantly, anticipating the next time we'd all see him (so they could help me figure out if he was into me or not). He was.
He lived in a different town, but we wrote letters... yes real letters, the kind you have to lick with your tongue and put in a metal box with a red flag. They're my favorite; there's just something about holding someone's letter in your hands, the same piece of paper that was recently in theirs. There's something romantic about it. The whole thing made me feel a little like we lived in a different time- you know watching the mail every day, hoping he had sent something. And when he did, I would read them over and over, memorizing every word, making a crease in the paper from folding it up, putting it in my pocket, and then taking it out again to do it all over.
He didn't write things like other boys had written to me. He was sweet, honest, and goofy in his own endearing way. We started a game in our letters that was sort of silly, but fun. We simply called it "the question game." I would ask something like, "If you were a dessert, what would you be and why?" Then I would have to answer my own question and wait for his response. It was a great way to get to know each other.

The months passed on. We saw each other very little. But that only made me think about him more. Sometimes we'd talk on the phone, but my dad didn't like the extra three hour long distance charges on the phone bill. I got a job so I could pay for them.
Almost a year after we had met, we became "an official couple." I like to say we were courting, I guess that's my old-fashioned nature coming out. We kept our long distance status for the next two years. We even went to separate colleges. But at last I realized I could live without him no longer, so I followed him across the country (for the first time in my life I found myself without a plan). I only knew that I loved him and that the long distance thing was horrible!
One month later, he proposed. I said yes!
We got married the next June. Saturday will be our sixth wedding anniversary!

I love you, my darling... you are my first love and forever, and we are incredibly blessed! I thank God every day that we found each other!!! Happy Anniversary!!!http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1868353027124&set=a.1569336791905.76651.1190019556&type=1

This n' That Conratulations!

I am sitting at a small children's table at the library... the closest place to get Internet access. I love being in the atmosphere where books line the walls and children eagerly grab for them. My love for reading and books has grown enormously over the past year and is growing greater still, though I believe it has always been a core part of my being. I knew how to read before I even went to preschool, but that's besides the point.
I wish I had more time... this is always my wish. More time to write, to think, to read to be.

Elijah is playing some kind of Barney game on the computer next to me. I don't think he knows how to play it, but it is keeping him entertained.

Martin is taking his turn with Owen around the Children's section. He's getting rather difficult now, Owen I mean. He wants so badly to be able to walk and play like all the other babies a head shorter and five pounds smaller than him, but still her crawls. I'm just as eager. It is such a frustration for us both to go to the park and he constantly says, "play, play," but I can't just let him crawl through the bark chips on his hands and knees! Soon enough, soon enough.

This friday is our fifth Anniversary and my brother's graduation from the Master's program at Eastern University... what a smarty pants! And his little baby will be two weeks old tomorrow! Wow how has life slipped so easily? Are we really all so grown up now?
I'm hoping for an evening of reconnection friday night... no schedule to keep, just me and my honey talking and catching up with this life that has gone on so quickly without my permission. A few months ago I bought a box of 50 tealight candles and I plan to use all of them, dropping them in baby jars and placing them throughout the house. Doesn't that sound beautiful? I've been daydreaming of it constantly.

Happy Anniversary US! And Congrats to my big brother who never fails to make me proud!