Our Story - Her Version

Freshman year of high school I signed up for Animal Science I. Finally I was going to get the chance to be a FFA member and wear the blue corduroy jackets! They wound up offering Animal Science I in 2 different sessions. Prince Charming and I wound up in the same session, 1st Hour. I sat on the back row and he slept on the 1st row (there were only 2 rows and only 6 of us). Well the girl that sat next to him wouldn't shut up and so the teacher swapped us places so then I sat next to P.C. Well that year the teacher would upset me so much because she'd tell me I was wrong when in fact she was wrong and would try to dock me points because of it and so I started acting out. Now I was actually the quiet kid who only really spoke when spoken to or necessary but that teacher hit some nerves and one day I started singing Garth Brooks "Two Pina Colada's" song at the top of my lungs and P.C. joined in with me. Anytime that year the teacher upset me I would sing at the top of my lungs and P.C. would join in. The funniest part is I did some of his work in that class because I was tired of seeing him get bad grades.

So summer hit and we went our separate ways. When Sophomore year hit we had 3 classes together again, Band, Animal Science 2, and English. Because Band was first hour and then A.S. 2 was second hour, P.C., my friend T and I would ride the bus from the band field to the VoTech center together for classes and P.C. and I became very good friends. In band he would always guilt trip me into carrying his Sousaphone to and from the parade starts/finishes to the bus or from the buses to the marching field because I "Only had to carry that little clarinet and look at what he had to carry". LOL. Yeah I was a sucker. That and he couldn't bend over to tie his shoes so could I possibly do it?? haha! Me being the ornery person I was would put my knee down on his toes and tighten as tight as I could. He'd lose feeling for a while but it would eventually loosen up. Me I thought I wouldn't be asked again but he (and everyone else I did that to) loved that they didn't have to worry about them coming untied so I got the pleasure of tying lots of shoes.

Every 3 years out school goes on a huge Band trip and Sophomore year was actually our year to go. We went to Walt Disney World that year. While down there sparks just kind of happened. It was very obvious that he liked me and I liked him but I tried to play dumb because I truthfully never could see him liking me. That and T really liked him too or so she told me a couple times. Well she got upset with me that he liked me but I couldn't help it. That's when I fell in love with the song by Tonic, "If You Could Only See". He sang that one of the nights sitting outside at the hotel and I went home and bought the cd but never fessed up to him about that until many years later.

After we got back from Florida like I said we had English together and he and I would talk (we sat at the same table) and there was a note started between me and him (that oddly enough I found all these years later) where he asked me out on a date. I was only 15 at the time and I had to go home and ask my parents. This was all late in the week so by the time I made it home to ask and get back to him with an answer, he came back the next Monday with a girlfriend. That was a slap in the face but I got over it. Figured it wasn't meant to be.

Through the rest of the years in high school I'm sure we both dated many other people (well me I had 2 boyfriends and that's it but still that's other people right) but our paths really never crossed. We had open campus lunch and I would see him in the parking lot but that's about it. After graduation I went on to college and got caught up in a whole nother world.

So jump forward 10 years from my sophomore year in high school, I was dating a guy and had been dating him for 5 1/2 years. We constantly fought but a lot of times it was over the fact he hadn't made any more of a commitment. I was sick of feeling that I was waiting on nothing. In June of last year my whole world came crashing down on me. A rumor got started by someone who has a tendency to talk and this rumor went to his sister on Father's Day Sunday. We were at my house when she called and said he needed to call her the minute he left my house. He left between 7 and 8:30 probably and I'm really going to assume he called her. Next thing he did was call me and ask who my new boyfriend was. That was the beginning to the end. He decided I had cheated on him, when I hadn't but because his sister said it was so then so it was. Told me he was trying to get to the bottom of things but in the end, it just shows it wasn't meant to be. We spent the next week arguing either through text or the phone and I lost A LOT of sleep and for anyone who knows me, I love to sleep.

Thursday of that week after Father's Day (I had been doing research for months) I ran across a laptop that was good quality, that I could afford. My mom and I headed to Arkansas 1 1/2 hrs from my house to purchase a laptop. The following Sunday I went over to my friends the J's house to steal their wi-fi... much better than dial up! I was rooting around on facebook in the section where you can locate old high school classmates and I stumbled across his name. I was thinking surely it couldn't be the same guy even though his name isn't all that common. I also figured he'd probably never made much of himself (I know bad thoughts on my part and he knows this... we laugh now!) I went ahead and hit the request friend button and then waited. I got back on my internet on my phone the next night and he not only had accepted the message, but he also sent me a message through the inbox section. (now keep in mind I can't sleep through all this, I didn't sleep for like a month) So we started talking through fb inbox. The Tuesday after I got my laptop, I got my iPhone 3GS (yes I was apparently in the mood to spend money). Well go figure my iPhone won't allow me to see his messages on fb so I got annoyed, jumped on the dial up and read his messages. He made a comment that led me to believe he had AT&T and I thought if he does, let's just text if he has unlimited texts. Well instead, he called me and so it began... :)

He told me that he didn't sleep until late (and got up early) and me I couldn't sleep so we spent a few nights talking or texting. Then 4th of July weekend I went to my aunt's house in southern Oklahoma and every night got on the phone with him. One night while we were talking he asked me if I'd like to go to Lazy P for riding horses/rodeo, but it was the same weekend I had dinner club with a group of my friends that I really wanted to ask him to but didn't have the guts. Finally I said something about it and he was like absolutely. I was like you don't have to but we wound up going do dinner club.

I volunteered to drive since I knew the town we were going to better than he did so I drove over and picked him up. There were about 4 times on the way over I just about stopped the car and turned around or picked up my phone and called to cancel. I was so nervous! This was a guy I had a crush on 10 years ago and I was finally going on a date with him. Now he lived in Kentucky at the time down at Ft. Campbell and worked on the military base down there and I was just out of a relationship so I didn't want anything serious, At ALL!

So we went to dinner at a restaurant called Touche and then after some of us headed to the mall. Actually, Evelyn and I headed to the mall and the J's, Kalem & P.C. followed right behind. After we were done dress shopping P.C. and I headed to another one of my friends houses so she, her husband and their daughter could meet him also. We left their house around 1 or so and headed back to his mom's house so I could drop him off. We stood in her driveway talking for about 1 1/2 hrs until there was dew on my car and I was cold and then I headed home. He asked me to call him and possibly come over the next day until he had to leave to go home to Kentucky. I woke up on Sunday, called him and wound up going over and meeting his mom before she left for work. And in true Nicole tradition, fell asleep on the couch with him watching tv. I finally left so he could go back to KY and when I got home I looked at my dad and said I'm going to cry and the tears flowed. After a few minutes I stopped and I was better. I went and took a shower and for the first time, I felt better. I slept very well that night and every night after that.

The next week we spent a lot of time talking on the phone and he told me he was coming home to see his daughter and asked if I'd come over. They were having a get together at his sisters house and he'd like for me to come. I was so apprehensive about going I almost said no but something caused me to say yes. In fact he called me Friday night when he got in and I went over to his sisters house about 9pm to see him and meet his daughter.

At this point I wasn't ready for a relationship, I didn't want to get tied back down, NOTHING. So when I walked through his sisters house to retrieve my phone from charging one of the kids swung a light saber at me and his daughter yells out, Don't hit her, she might be my daddy's new girlfriend. I was speechless and just walked outside. He asked what was wrong and I laughed so hard as I was telling him this, I thought he in turn wanted to crawl in a hole and die or something. He was like I'm so sorry because he knew how gun shy I was.

The next few weeks and months were just a whirl wind of phone calls and texts and him driving home to see his daughter and me. He finally decided he was tired of being away from family so he quit and moved home for good in October.

Really the rest is boring for the most part up until he proposed to me. The week before Valentine's Day we talked about it and I told him no flowers. He didn't need to spend the money on that! Then we found an old time refrigerator that we both wanted so we went and bought it and said it was our Valentine's Day present to each other. We picked it up on Thursday night. Driving home with it we were talking and he made the comment he really wanted to marry me but was still gun shy to ask my dad. Heck I believed him, I'd be scared to ask my dad too... LOL. So on Friday when he proposed I was completely shocked. You can read about it here, I won't bore you with those details again. What really surprised both of us though, is how word traveled so fast around the company. People all around me knew it was coming and I didn't have a clue but that's what I wanted!