Today, we are celebrating 11 years of marriage! I can't believe how fast time has gone, it feels like just yesterday we were saying our vows and heading out to upstate New York where Jason was stationed with the US Army.
The first time I "met" Jason was just before my freshman year of high school. We were both in the marching band and it was the last year of camp that we actually went to camp (the next three we just had practices everyday for like 6 or 7 hours at the school because they cut funding :( ). He was a sophomore and played the saxaphone. When us freshman walked out to the practice field for our very first marching practice, he was standing there, waiting in his line. The first thing I saw him do was freak out over a bumblebee flying straight at him. He screamed like a girl and ran around, LOL. The funniest thing I have ever seen! Especially cause he wasn't this tiny little guy, he was a bit pudgy and kind of cute, a skater kid. I didn't really like him then but thought he was funny and seemed pretty nice. We didn't hang out or anything but I hung out with a different crowd of skaters/headbangers, so our groups intermingled some. Everyday in band at school he would make me crack up laughing, because he was definitely a class clown. The funny thing is I actually dated his brother for a week our freshman year! Knowing his brother now, I can't believe it! I just can't think of him in any way other than a brother.
Jason would make silly faces or through paper balls at us flute players 2 rows in front of them. By my junior year (his senior) I realized I did like him but I was too shy to tell him. We had talked more by then and maybe even hung out a few times, I can't remember exactly. My best friend at the time, Amanda, actually told him the last week of school that I had a huge crush on him!!! I was mortified! But thankful at the same time, LOL. Over summer break, after he graduated, he called me a few times. He even surprised me by showing up at my house with his brother and wanted to hang out. The crappy thing was I was sicker than a dog that day with a fever and hadn't even showered! He saw me at my worst but didn't seem to care, just told me he hoped I'd feel better and we'd hang out soon. A few days later, we went on our first "date" (his brother was with us, LOL) to Wendy's!!! I remember that I ordered the spicy chicken sandwich. We hung out a lot more after that, usually alone. Around Halloween, we went to a haunted house and that's the first time we held hands and that night was the first time we kissed I think! We didn't officially start "dating" boyfriend/girlfriend till a couple of months later. He told me he was leaving for basic training in the Army. We hung out on New Year's Eve and he asked me to be his girlfriend the day before that. I wrote him a long love letter telling him how much I already cared about him and that I couldn't believe how fast I was falling for him, blah, blah, blah. He wasn't allowed to read it till after he left ;) He left a few days after the New Year started and I got a letter from him a couple weeks letter, telling me he couldn't believe I felt that way, and he felt the same and he wished he would have known before because he wouldn't have joined the Army, etc.
We dated for almost exactly 2 years, long-distance. That was the hardest thing ever. Especially at 17/18/19 years old. I went to Germany for a month after I graduated. I did go out to NY to see him twice for a few days. He was hardly ever in Toledo and when he did make it in, sometimes we didn't even see each other because I was working or his friends' guilt-tripped him into hanging out with them (bros before hos as one of his not so eloquent friends used to say, still can't stand that guy, glad they aren't friends anymore!). I started college in January 2000 and in the summer of 2000 we almost broke up. I hadn't heard from him in weeks (he was in the field doing training) and I thought he was dumping me or was mad at me about something. I was p'd off immensely and hurt. I made some really bad choices and almost lost the best thing I've ever had in my life. Regardless, Jason, being the amazing person he is, forgave me and actually took some of the blame, which still makes me sad. We spent as much time together after that as possible, every month he'd come home for the weekend.
We started talking about marriage and his dad gave him his birth mother's wedding set. We didn't have a big wedding, we were 2 poor kids, one in college, the other in the military, so we just decided on a civil ceremony at the courthouse. We picked a date, 12/28, since he'd be home on leave. We made it "official" on Christmas Eve 2000, when Jason got down on one knee at his parents house and formally asked me to marry him, with the ring in hand. I started crying and of course said yes, since the date was already set, LOL.
4 days later, we met downtown at the courthouse. The JP was someone my dad had known when he was in the Eagle Scouts, a former leader I guess? The guy reminded me of someone in the mafia! In a funny kind of way. As we said our vows, I saw tears in my husband's eyes, and nothing but love. I've been so lucky to have him in my life.
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