Its Been Ten Years... ***Long, Rambling Sentimental Post Ahead***

...since our first date. Well, ten years and 2 days, to be precise. Jeff says that the first-date-date no longer counts because now we have an anniversary to remember. Grandma kindly pointed out that we would never have had a wedding had it not been for the first date. Prior to the actual occurrence of the first date, our mutual friends had been trying to set us up on a blind date. I was not interested. I am actually sort of shy, especially when it comes to going on dates with boys I've never seen. Our friends persisted, and finally gave Jeff my phone number without asking me. He called me up and explained that my friend had given him my number, but that it was raining and the number was in his truck, and he didn't feel like going out to get it, so he just called my friend to get my number again. Way to make an impression. In hindsight, it was just part of Jeff's tendency to add way too many details to a story. After this explanation, he asked me if I wanted to go out to a movie sometime. (***by this time I had met him once, only once***) I was racking my brain for an excuse as to why I couldn't go, but I was stumped. I figured if I went out with him once, I would satisfy my friend and she would leave me alone. We made arrangements to go out to the show after church. Somehow, we decided to go see Night at the Roxbury. Dummest movie EVER. Jeff and I met at the theater and he paid for our tickets and we sat down. I was impressed when he excused himself and came back with two cokes and a big bucket of popcorn. I hated popcorn, but ate it anyway since I didn't want to hurt his feelings. It wasn't till after we were married that I told him about that. We watched the movie, again, the dummest movie EVER. Afterward, the plan was to go back to the farm and hang out with our friends. We talked on the way home and decided that we both wanted to see more of each other. Jeff reached over and held my hand as I was driving my lovely gold station wagon past the feed yard. Oh, it was a sweet moment. Little did we know that our first date was soon to turn into the date from H-E-double hockey sticks, if you get my drift. Not because of Jeff, mind you. Or me. No. It involved a lot of things not blog-appropriate revolving around the people who set us up and happened to double date with us. Lets just say it ended in an underage relationship expose, and some jail time. It was one of the hardest experiences I had ever gone through at the tender age of 18, and it all came to light the evening of our first date. Talk about trama. Looking back, I am amazed that we made it through all that and managed to stay together. Jeff was not a Christian at the time and here was his Christian friend messing up big time. Instead of letting it deter him, he saw past it and ended up being drawn to the Lord anyway. It was all a crazy time of so much hurt and change and growing up. Did I mention we were 18 and 17 years old at the time? Anyway, here I am rambling on and on about our first date. All that to say, its been ten whole years. Sometimes it seems like just yesterday, and other times it seems like a loooong time. We've been through a lot in the last ten years, and I can't believe how far we've come. Who knew we'd be here today, married with two purdy little babies!

And speaking of babies, as if this post isn't long enough, Katie stood up today for a few seconds and she climbed over the side of the bath tub and slid in head first. Luckily there was no water in it. She's making such progress every day. I am amazed!