first comes love…

2/13/2013 Tommy and I are celebrating our 4 year wedding anniversary and I wanted to take an opportunity to look back and share how our love blossomed (at least my side of the story).

An entry from my journal…11/16/2004 Well I am in college…I have a great guy in my life, but I don’t want to say anything about him yet…whenever I do it doesn’t end up working out.

Thank goodness I didn’t write about him! Now we are married and have a wonderful little girl, but I am getting ahead of my self! Rewind…

I was sitting on the curb on a cool summer night when two boys came skateboarding down my street. I love the sound of the wheels as they clickity clack over the side-walk. One of the boys I knew from school and we had recently started “dating”. He was bringing his friend over for me to meet him and he had a gift for me from their adventure at Disneyland. This was the first time I met Tommy, he was the friend. We spent the summer hanging out all three of us. We walked everywhere! We went to movies, out to eat, talking on the phone and general high school shenanigans.

Needless to say my relationship with that boy ended and I didn’t see Tommy for a year and a half. I went on to complete my junior and senior year focusing on school and applying to colleges.

Fast forward to the summer of 2004 right after I graduated…Tommy called me out of the blue. He wanted to see if my SISTER was interested in “hanging out”. I went off on my senior trip (boy is that a long story, we will skip right over that!) and when I came back he called me again, but this time we ended up talking for 2 hours or more, it was a very long conversation, we had a lot of catching up to do! The next day we decided we would hangout with his brother and the girls I babysit for. This was our first “date”. We went miniature golfing and had pizza. We had a lot of fun! We decided that we didn’t want the date to end so he took his brother home and came BACK! We went to see a movie after I was done babysitting.

Fast forward a little…I went on vacation with my family to Hawaii for a week. We talked almost everyday. I think there was a day that Ashley forbid me from talking to him since we were sharing a room (actually I think it was her turn to call her boy). It became pretty apparent that we liked each other…only one problem, I was starting college in San Diego at the beginning of August which meant we had to decide if we wanted to continue our relationship despite a few miles (95.2 miles, 93 minute drive to be exact). Now I know that doesn’t seem like a lot of distance, but that meant more phone conversations than face to face time. So not only did we have to decide if we wanted to make our relationship official, but we also had to tell his friend. I don’t really know how the conversation went. So in August we had a DTR (define the relationship) in the Rite Aide parking lot. I will never forget laying it all on the line, telling Tommy that I only want to date someone if I am going to marry him and that I felt like he was the person I could potentially marry. I don’t think he said anything for a good few minutes and I think his first words were, “Oh wow”! Once we finished our ice cream he said he still wanted to date me, but he couldn’t predict the future. So I went off to college not really knowing how it would all end, but I knew I REALLY liked him so I was willing to find out. I was at New Student Orientation and Tommy called me. I had to go outside because when your dorm is on the cliffs of the ocean you don’t get really good reception. I was walking back and forth trying to keep the signal. We were about to say goodbye and he says it!! He told me, “I love you”! My heart skipped a beat and I knew I had fallen for him long before he said that so I replied back with an “I love you too”. It was one of the sweetest moments in our relationship. We spent the next few years driving back and forth, up and down the 15 freeway. We tried to spend as much time together as we possibly could. We spent endless hours on the phone and video chatting. We watched countless movies, went to Universal Studios, Knott’s Berry Farm, Disneyland, Getty, Sea World, Six Flag’s to name a few places. We ate out A LOT. We went on family vacations to Hawaii, Las Vegas (for his brother’s wedding), New York, and Connecticut.

On our trip to Disney World in April of 2007 we came back as an engaged couple! I finished my B.A. from Point Loma and Tommy graduated with his B.S. from the Art Institute-Orange County. Plans were well under way and we were eager to get married!! Then life threw us a curve ball! After my mom passed away things were kind of put on hold for awhile. I had got my first job teaching at Murrieta Valley High School and Tommy landed a job at Behr. Life was going on and we were trying to get through it. Emotionally I was drowning and I know I was not the same person after my mom died. Tommy continued to choose me and supported me everyday, even when I was a wreck. I know Tommy and my mom had a special bond too and I didn’t want to take that away from him. It was sort of comforting that to a degree he understood the pain I was feeling. We finally got our stuff together and with A LOT of help we planned our wedding. It was a rainy day that Friday on February 13th. I know, I know, some of you are saying Friday the 13th and RAIN. Contrary to popular belief we thought it to be good luck. Our ceremony and reception were held at Harveston Lake house in Temecula. I don’t remember all the little details, but that’s why we have pictures. One of my favorite pictures is Tommy’s reaction to seeing me walk down the isle. It’s priceless! Enjoy never before seen pictures of our wedding!

Oh and his friend I dated, I am happy to report that Tommy and him are still “brothers”, and we all remained good friends. He was even in our wedding!