Our Love Story

February 2007, I was leaving my hometown of Austin, TX and making a move to Nashville, TN. No one in my family or my friends had ever done this and I didn’t know a soul where I was going. Something was calling me there and I was able to transfer with my job so I went. Within two weeks of making this decision, my house was sold by some miracle, I was packed and the movers had come and gone. I was scared out of my mind but excited.

He was living in FL after having just divorced 5 months before trying to rebuild but somehow still hopeful of his future. He spent the weekends playing piano at his parents’ church an hour away, working, making his music and just keeping his head above water putting some missing pieces together.

In May, 3 months after my move and having gotten settled a little in my new town, a guy I worked with said I had to meet his friend, Jody. I, of course, had sworn off men and especially in my new life for a while to get some roots planted and figure out what I wanted.

I decided to visit his MySpace and from there we emailed and chatted on Skype for almost 2 months. Jody was coming to Nashville for a convention with work and asked if he could take me on a date July 13th. It took me a while to answer because I wasn’t sure if I was quite ready. It was to be a surprise and I was to bring socks. I finally agreed and then paced the floors for 2 weeks until the day before our date.

During that two weeks, knowing how anxious I was about going on a date, he wrote me a song. No one had ever written me a song… are you kidding me?! It was beautiful and was called, “Talk It Over Tomorrow” where he told me not to worry and to just live in the moment. Anything we needed to talk about or worry about, we could “Talk It Over Tomorrow.” I instantly started crying Alligator tears at my desk at work where I sat near a lot of people. I was a mess but I was also instantly relieved and ready to do this. He understood me and where I was at with everything – That was a first.

We still hadn’t talked on the phone. I knew he was in town and just down the street and that made my anxiety that much worse. So I texted him the day before our date and said, “I have made an executive decision. You should come here so I can meet you before tomorrow.” He texted back and said, “I’m on my way.”

I freaked out – what had I done?!

To help, our friend that set us up, agreed to walk downstairs with me to meet him. I figured that would be a good way to make it less awkward and help break the ice. So, we walked down together and opened the doors and walked down the longest sidewalk in all of America towards Jody. He was amazing and I instantly saw him as my husband. I had no idea how that was possible considering my broken past and heart, not to mention his. Is this what love at first site is supposed to be like? He said upon seeing me for the first time, he knew he had no chance! Ha! Little did he know…

The friend pulled a fast one and walked with me, said hi, gave Jody a hug and left. That was it! We were left there alone. Now what?! Grinning from ear to ear we stood on either side of the sidewalk and had a little small talk and then instantly started playing a game as people would walk by. He wanted to see how many people would walk in between us and how many would walk around us. It was hilarious as he would back up just a smidge or scoot forward just a smidge to make the person’s space that much smaller to have to get around us – Terrible! It matched my personality and my humor and made me so happy to have finally met him.

The next day came, Friday, July 13th, our date. We went to lunch that day with a few friends that I worked with, including his friend. It was my way of having others around so it wasn’t so awkward (again). I was pretty smitten but would never show it. Its turns out, he wasn’t so sure about me after that lunch because there were so many people around and he was sitting next to me, there was no way for him to get to know me and apparently I didn’t say much.

He showed up at my apartment that night with a single rose and I offered hi m a Cherry Coke having remembered he liked that from a previous chat. He knew I was the one when he walked in and saw that I had The Simpsons on! Gee, that was easy.
After a little while of visiting and seeing what movies I had, we headed out. It was rush hour and we sat in traffic for the first 45 minutes. I am terrible on dates and hated being stuck in the car… for all of 5 minutes. I was so relaxed with him and we talked about everything from family to work to religion without any break in conversation.

We started getting close to where he was taking me (I still had no idea) and ended up in a small town. We got some coffee and got back on the road. (Coffee is still a huge part of our lives today – we love it and share a passion for it.) Then we saw police lights… we were being pulled over!!! We were just shaking our heads at what was happening. He was embarrassed being that it was a first date and that’s when you’re supposed to impress the girl… not get pulled over for speeding.

The cop came up and told him he was speeding and asked for his driver’s license and insurance. Jody smiled and said “Sure.” Then the cop bent down and looked over at me and I said, “It’s our first date. This will make for a good story.” And he looked at Jody and said, “Really?”. Jody held up his coffee and said that we were headed to our destination and that he was so sorry about speeding – He wasn’t familiar with the road since he was from out of town.

The cop let us go and sent us off with the best of wishes. That was just par for the course… there is never a dull a moment in our lives today.

We ended up at a drive-in movie where we had chicken fingers and fries. He brought everything we needed from chairs to a blanket to an extra pair of socks for me, just in case. The first movie was an animation and the second was a horror movie and by the second movie, we were holding hands and my stomach was a swarm of butterflies.
As we were leaving the park after an amazing night at the drive-in, his SUV (rental) started to sputter a little bit and he had to pull over. We are in the middle of nowhere… pitch black outside. It is midnight and the last of the movie-goers had gone home. He decided he better get out and take a look and the only thing that went through my mind was that I had to kiss him NOW, because what if something happened to him while he was out there and I would have never had the chance for him to know just how much I already cared about him?!

So I told him to hold on a second and rushed in and gave him a kiss. Stunned, he decided to go ahead and check to see what the problem was. He came back with a huge grin and said he realized that the parking brake was still on! Well, if there was any ice left to be broken, it was broken! I couldn’t believe I had been so forward but I was genuinely worried that I would never see him again. It was the strangest panicked feeling considering the situation.

So we got back to my apartment and he waited for me to invite him up and we watched movies until the wee-hours of the morning, went to breakfast at Waffle House, laid out at the pool all day and that date ended up lasting 9 days until he had to go back to FL. Work was the only break we took from each other.

We saw each other every single weekend flying back and forth Friday after work and flying back in Monday morning before work until he moved here and bought a house in September, 2 months later. By October, 3 months into dating, we had eloped (picture that is attached). Having both been married before, we didn’t want a big deal made and we wanted it to be just between us and special and that’s exactly what we did in the Smokey Mountains where we stayed in a sweet cabin tucked away just for us.
While I was getting ready at the chapel, he decorated the truck as a surprise for me when we drove off and I walked down the aisle in my dream dress that he helped me pick out with red sparkly shoes. He sang me a song he wrote me for his vows and today, we are happily married with our amazing 7-month-old daughter, Ryley Marie, hoping to get the school bills paid off to get a bigger house and expand our family in the next couple years.

Life is amazing and full of opportunity if you just let it happen and that’s what we learned and what we did.

Oh, and we sent the police officer that pulled us over on our first date a “thank-you” card with a wedding picture to show him the good deed he did that day.
Thank you for listening to our love story. I can only hope it made you smile as much as we still do to this day.

Life is good and coffee is on...

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