The Story of Us

Title is a little cliche, but oh how I am excited to write about this one. I am so glad that Rachelle had this idea, because this is something that I have been really wanting to write about. The story of how Shane and I met is a good, one at least I think. It goes like this. Please bare with me, because I think that all love stories should be told as a fairytale.

Once upon a time many years ago (ok six to be exact) there lived a beautiful princess who lived in a cold dark smelly cave. Now I know what you are thinking 'Princesses don't live in dark, smelly, caves' but this one did. To be totally honest I admit at one point it had been an actual apartment, but years of being ignored by the greedy landlord had turned it into little more than a cave, where the poorest of poor college students were forced to live (even when they are princesses). I mean it, this apartment really was bad, you can ask Shane if you don't belive me. The princess wasn't the only person who lived in the cave, in the cave there also lived one of her best friends Jeri who had been on many adventure with the princess(someday I will have to chronicle the adventures of Jeri and Nicole, I tell those are some really good stories), another roomate who was engaged and therefore spent as little time as possible in the cave (since she had somewhere better to hang out) and a ferocious dragon (read roomate with serious passive aggressive, and overall grouchiness issues). The princess was generally really happy in the cave, if she was able to avoid the dragon that is. Now one day a friend came to visit me (yep you guessed it the princess is me) and told me all about some boy that she liked, well actually she swore that she didn't like him, just wanted to get to know him, but we all knew she liked him. So the next day at church I (I mean the princess) checked him out, yeah he seemed like a nice guy, so I gave her the go ahead on this boy. Well my friend asked him out and to make it more fun we threw together a group date. Well on the night of the date we met at my apartment and made dinner. I have to admit that if memory serves it wasn't even a very good dinner, and then after dinner we couldn't even think of anything to do except watch a movie. Someone had this great idea to build a fort to watch the movie in so Jeri and I dragged our mattresses out of our room and put them on the floor and then tried to use our sheets to build the walls of the fort, this didn't work very well until I had the great idea of stapling the sheets to the ceiling. So we built a fabulous fort and all watched a movie. After the movie ended we all went home, and I thought at the time that was the end of the story. What I didn't know was that as I was pulling down the fort and putting my bed back together (so as to avoid the wrath of the dragon), my friend on the date with Shane was at the doorstep to her apartment trying to put the moves on Shane*. Shane however wasn't reciprocating he was thinking about the fun girl that had stapled her sheets to the ceiling. A few weekends later Shane showed up at my doorsteps saying something lame like, "you and your roomates, should hang out with me and my roomates tonight." I was thoroughly confused wondering to myself "is he tyring to ask me out?" Well as luck would have it all of my roomates were out of town that weekend and I told Shane so thinking that he wouldn't want to hang out with just me. Truth be told I thought that he was after the Dragon (she was mean, but had some strange power over men, and attracted them constantly). Shane invited me to dinner and said he would be back in awhile to pick me up. What I didn't know was that Shane had to go home and tell his roomates that they couldn't come, because he wanted to be alone with this girl. So we went to dinner and then started driving home, we were both really digging each other and didn't want to go home so I mentioned oh so casually that I had never seen the wind caves. Shane quickly volunteered to show them to me, and so we went on a hike. On the hike I remembered that I talked, and talked, and talked, and I also remember that Shane didn't seem to mind. He really seemed interested in listening to me and that made me feel so good. I also noticed that he seemed really respectful of me. So Shane and I started dating, sort of slowly at first, in fact the first time that Shane kissed me I told him that I wasn't ready for that, and he said ok. I remember the next night he didn't come over, and I thought that for sure I had ruined it and that he had moved on to other girls, he was in fact at the time in one of the upstairs apartments snuggling with some other girl. Also in that upstairs apartment was Jeri's current love interest so she talked me into going up there with her. When we walked in sure enough there was Shane lounging on the couch with Julie. I felt so stupid and wanted to kick myself, because I really did like Shane, I just also had alot of other issues adding strain to my abilities to handle a relationship. I really liked Shane alot, I just felt a lot of pressure to do exactly the right thing, and so I was trying to proceed cautiously. So as soon as I saw Shane on the couch with Julie I thought it was over, but as soon as Shane saw me walk in the room he sat up and moved away from her so quickly that you would have thought that poor Julie had just burst into flames. Now Julie of course had not burst into flames, but she had noticed my arrival and Shane's sudden departure from her side, and she did quickly flee the room. Thinking back I can't really blame her for feeling hurt, but at the time she was the other woman and I hated her with a fury that lies within all women and only comes out when another female get in the way of her potential mate (come on you all know what I am talking about). So Julie went upstairs to her room and Shane (dramatic pause) followed her. Well then I knew that it was really over and I felt extra stupid, knowing that I was sitting downstairs, while the man I was in love with was upstairs probably smooching it up with Julie**. Well I was just about to leave when Shane came back and sat down next to me. He started chatting about some graduation celebration thing that he planned to go to, and then looked at me and said, "You're going with me right?" I was thoroughly confused, but of course said yes. Shane and I soon after left the party and went on a walk, things were just like they had been before, we talked and talked. I told Shane that when I didn't want to kiss him the night before I thought that I had ruined everything. Shane assured me that I had not and we left it at that. There were several days that followed where Shane and I were "friends." I thought that he was so great. We hung out almost everyday and loved to talk to each other. We went on about a million hikes and walks. Shane even went to the art museum with me. We loved being together, and one night we did kiss again and then I was ready, and it was wonderful, and after that we kissed all the time and loved it. Dating Shane was so much fun we loved spending time together. Shane made me feel so important and special when I was with him.

Shane and I dated for four months and were engaged for two...and have been married for five and half years. I am so glad that Shane found me. He is such a special guy, and I can truly say that we lived "Happily Ever After."

*I must admit that later as our courtship really got going that I did feel the need to ask my friend if she was ok with it all. Now of course she said that it was, I mean what was she supposed to say really...In my selfish girly heart though I distincly remember thinking if she says its not ok, I sure am going to miss being friends with her.

**What I only learned much later on was that Shane realized that he had hurt Julie's feelings and although he knew that he would leaving the party with me, he went first to Julie's room to apologize for snuggling with her in the first place when he really liked another girl, and then secondly for treating her like she was on fire when that other girl walked in the room.

Just a Quick Note

Finished this layout today and I wanted to post it on the blog.
My friend Tim made us this inscribed rock when Mason was born. I put it in the picture to show how far he has come.

Journaling reads: "On this day I wanted to show how far you have come. You started so small and so helpless. Even when you were only a few weeks old your dad and I were so proud of how you had worked to grow your own little self. Now that I see this picture I know that the truly special thing about it is not showing how far you’ve come, but realizing that your adventure is...Just getting started."

Myrtle and the Whoopee Cushion

SO the other day I Blog surfing and I stumbled onto Rachelle's blog and she had this great idea to idea to write an enrty about your life every Monday. Well I thought that this was a great idea, but I was way too busy Monday. So today finally the Masonator is on hour two of his nap and I finally have time to blog (of course he could wake at anytime, so lets just cross our fingers and hope that our luck holds).

I have been wanting to write about one of my best childhood memories which isn't really one memory, but sort of a conglomerate of memories surroinding one person...My grandma Myrtle. Now I know what you are thinking 'Oh great another weepy story about somebody's grandma' but just listen, because my grandma really was pretty amazing. When I was about 7 or 8 my grandparents came to live with me my five brothers and sisters, my two parents, our two cats, one enormous dog, and one little parakeet. Needless to say we were a full house. My grandma had multiple sclerousis and could not walk, or even get out of bed. She lived with us for four years before she died and in that time I never heard her complain once, I mean it not ONCE. I did however hear her tell many jokes. She and I hung out all the time...um, maybe that was becuase she was literally a captive audience to my jabber. I really did talk alot as a child, and I think everyone else eventually got tired of it, but grandma was pretty darn patient with me and listened to my stories. My cousins would come to visit all the time in those days (its a wonder our house didn't burst at the seams) and we would put on elaborate shows for our grandma. We just knew that she really loved them and felt so proud of ourselves for doing her such a service, we didn't know then that it was really she who was doing us the service, by making us feel valued and talented when she clapped at the end of the show. My gradma was amazing, but there is one that stick out to me today that I want to write about. It was on her birthday...Like always all of the aunts and uncles and cousins came to visit and brought with them cards and presents and cake and such, but when my cousin Sara gave my grandma her gift the party really got rolling. From Sara my grandma unwrapped a brand new fully functional Whoopee Cushion. Yes you read that right to my grandmother was given a Whoopee Cushion. If I remember right we had to show her how it worked, at its first successful deflation my grandma laughed heartily, and then asked that it be reinflated and carefully directed us where in the room to place it. I remember that it was placed under the cushion in the orange chair and that the next person to walk in the room was my uncle Reid. We were all very excited when we saw that he was going to sit in the very chair where the joke was planted, we all waited expectantly, but nothing happened...we waited and waited and finally Reid shifted his weighted and the ongoing conversation was brought to a screeching hault by the loud expulsion of air from the whoopee cushion. The only way to describe what happened next is to paint you a picture of what I remember about that next few moments. Just imagine my grandma unable to even lift herself out of bed, laughing so hard that she had tears coming out of her eyes. Laughing so hard that we all worried that she might truly hurt herself. Needless to say the whoopee cushoin was a hit. And my grandma was a truly amazing woman. I am so gald that got so much time to know her.

He Thinks I'm Funny

Once upon a time when I was younger and could stay awake past ten o'clock I was talking to a college roomate about some boy she was dating. The conversation inevitably turned to the real question which was, 'do you like him or not?' After the questioned was posed there was a great deal of rationalizing, and such and finally she said to me as if it was truly the answer to it all "He doesn't think I'm funny." And in that conversation it was the answer and unfortunately for the unexpectant fellow the end of the short lived relationship.

So this weekend I am driving down the road with Shane and we had a close encounter with a mini van. Well to show how clever I am I quipped out what I thought was a rather funny joke about the mini van (please do not direct any hate mail to me I know there are many happy mini van drivers out there, I just am not one of them), and my dear one he laughed quite heartily, and then rattled off his own brand of joke, and we had a good laugh. And in that moment I thought to myself how great it is to have someone who thinks that I am funny. I think if you have someone to laugh at your jokes and in return tell you some I think there is something truly fabulous about that. It seems like a little thing, but in the end isn't it the little things that really matter?

Back Again

Ok I know all you faithful readers (oh wait...) ok I know I really missed my blogging, but luckily I am back again. Newly resolved to start writing about my daily adventures in my blog. You see I haven't written as of late because I have been on a quest. Let me chronicle it for you...You might want to pull up a chair for this one.

Ok so about ten months ago I am having major mommy guilt because my little baby doesn't have a scrapbook, with cute little cute cut out pictures and such. I have about a million pictures of him, but honestly, and try not to judge me, I hate scrapbooking. I am not good at it and it takes FOR-EV-ER to do, and for those of you that know me you will lovingly nod your heads when I say that patience is not one of my virtues. So I am looking on the web for another option when I stumble upon digital scrapbooking. Oh I love this! No paper scraps, no glue, just me and my computer, how fabulous is this! So I read about a million tutorials, and I actually over the course of a few months become somewhat proficient at Photoshop, this is a major accomplishment for me and I feel very proud of myself. It is then that I notice that every digi scrapper whose anybody has a blog, so I build one of those too. Ok I'm really on a role now, I even learn a little html so that I can put links on my blog, and then it happens...my friend brings to me a picture of her little boy and says, "do you think that you could make this into an invitation for his birthday party?" No problem! I think, but then that invitation turns out to be really, really cute, and I start thinking wouldn't it be great if you could send someone your adorable kids pictures and they could make you a cute baby announcement, or birthday card, or Christmas card? And then I keep thinking and I think wouldn't it be great if people sent me their adorable kids pictures and I made then into cute announcements and cards. "Oh if only I knew how to build myself a website," I lament to my husband (who has two degrees in Computer Science), and much to my surprise he says,"html isn't that hard you can do it." WHAT!?! I think as I was actually expecting him to say "Sure love, I'll get right on that." So I pout for a few days lamenting over my lack of website for my fabulous business idea, and then I google 'html tutorials' and what do you know, its not that hard...Ok I take that back. Its a little tricky and it takes several weeks of very hard work, and I have learned a ton, but I built myself a website. I am so proud of it. I am still waiting patiently for that first order, but I know it will come, one of these days, it will come.

So that is where I've been the last few months, working away on my fabulous new business venture. I know you all have missed me, but I am back now, and ready to blog faithfully, ok semi-faithfully.