13 Years Ago...

13 years ago today John and I started “going out.” I really feel old when I realize that I have been out of high school for nearly 13 years now :)

It’s amazing to think that the person your son or daughter brings home in high school could end up being their husband or wife down the road.

I’ll never forget March 3, 1997…John and I had been talking a little bit in school, and he knew that I liked him. That Monday I realized that John was not in school. This was very unusual for him, but I went about my day.

A few periods later, someone came up to me and asked me if I had heard about John’s house and seen the paper. I had not, and when they showed me I was stunned, yet I did laugh a little. There on the front page of the Athens News was John, picking up debris from his front yard. His house had flooded with the recent rain.

I know John went to basketball practice after school (that will play into more of the story later). The details of the night are a little fuzzy after 13 years, but I think I remember the important parts :) I think John called me after practice to see if I wanted to do something. I of course said “yes,” and he picked me up in his old red truck. There were a lot of towels on the seats because his truck had been flooded, so the seats were wet. He needed something at his house, so we went over there. Not only did I see his house and yard a crazy mess, I got to meet his parents for the first time (I’m sure they were super thrilled to be meeting what they though at the time was some girlfriend of John’s when they were in the middle of a family disaster). Then we had to go over to the OU basketball game because some guys from John’s basketball team were there and he had left his wallet at practice (pretty hard to take a girl out on a date when you don’t have your wallet to pay for it). We spent a long time walking through the convo trying to find these guys (because John’s a guy, and why would he find out where they were ahead of time?) and while John was cutting edge and had a cell phone, most other kids did not.

Now remember, John and I had only been talking at school for a week or so…all of this craziness should have been red flags for me to run! This was crazy…a dude whose bed was “floating down the creek” and who couldn’t keep track of his money! But he was adorable, and such a nice guy that I just smiled and stood by his side as we searched for the guys.

I can’t remember if they guys had his wallet or not. I’m guessing they did because we then went to Dairy Queen (for some reason I don’t remember paying, and knowing John’s personality, there’s no way we would have been able to go have fun knowing he had no idea where his wallet was). We got ice cream and headed to Stroud’s Run, which was the huge lake/picnic area in our town. I remember the moon was bright, and I thought I remembered it being warm, but considering it was March 3rd, and seeing snow on the ground outside my window right now, that memory might be a little fuzzy.

John took me home and once in the driveway he “asked me out.” For my kids reading this years in the future, that meant that we were officially boyfriend and girlfriend. He walked me to my door and while we were talking his truck rolled down the driveway. Neither of us will forget that moment, ever. He yelled that he would see me at school the next day as he ran to stop his truck (which thankfully didn’t hit anything!).

13 years, 3 kids, millions of smiles and tears and several family floods later, I’m still here, smiling and standing right beside him.