one year ago today, i married my best friend

the age old question...."where did ya'll meet?" the worst answer..... "a bar." haha. but, it's true, our first introduction was at aj's in tallahassee on a tuesday night. i was there with 12 or so girlfriends celebrating my sister's birthday. a mutual friend (now) of ours, Dave, was there with his buddies running around. when i ran into them, he introduced me to the stranger that was with him....mike. we said "hey, nice to meet you" and we both went our separate ways. never crossed my mind again and i never crossed his again.....until church on wednesday, hahahahaha. cracks me up. the college group was meeting in the smaller sanctuary and mike was sitting up front. when it was over, he stood up and screams, "hey, aren't you the girl i met at aj's last night?". my eyes got really big..."yesssssssss". anyway- so, yep, that was it! he was on vacation A LOT that summer. we kept in touch thru facebook and texting mostly. his dad has a $400 cell phone bill to prove it. :/ when fall classes were in, we were pretty much inseparable.

we got engaged in may of 2007 after dating about a year. we were in lakeland for a long weekend and mike made plans for us to eat lunch with his mom on that thursday. so, we are getting ready to go. i did my make-up and threw my hair in a pony tail. he walks by the bathroom and asks, "are you gonna do your hair?". i answered, surprised that he asked, "it IS done". he stood there and looked at me. then he said, "i mean, are you going to straighten it?". at this point (not out loud) i'm thinking, is he serious? what is wrong with my hair? again, i said, "my hair IS done". we get to mike's mom's office and he tells her that he wants to take me to Hollis Gardens sometime. She said, well why don't we run over there before lunch? i was upset because i had not brought my camera. no worries. mrs. cathy whips her right out of her purse. haha. ok. so, we go moseying on over. she says, want me to take a picture of you? sure. it was in front of the most random weird shaped metal thing ever. i didn't say a word. she takes it, i look over and around and then to mike and he is on his knee. i had to take a second look because he did that ALL the time with his cell phone! the first thing out of my mouth was "are you serious?". haha, i tried to give him a way out, just kidding. so, the wedding planning began.

everyone told me that the first year was the hardest year of marriage and if you can make it thru that year, then you'll be fine. to be honest, it wasn't sooo hard. of course, now, they are changing their story. today, it's if you can make it thru the first 5 years, then you'll be fine. ah, who knows. i don't, but i do know that we are both as happy today as we were a year ago when we got married...we still laugh and grin ear to ear when we talk about our wedding day. we truly had a blast. it was sooo much fun!

I want to (again) thank our friends and family for being who you are. we couldn't have done it without you! The next big step in our lives....a house. we have been in the process of buying (in case you haven't heard) and it has been just that, a process. i realize that things could have been worse, but dang, buying a house is stressful! our scheduled close date is friday august 28th at 3 pm. we are sooooo excited! here is a sneak peek! :)