10 Years Ago...

Ten years ago today, my life was forever changed.

See, there was this really cute guy that was my brother's friend and I never thought he even noticed me and totally thought he was out of my league but I was definitely crushing and then one day we started talking online and we realized we were both into art and so we made a date to hang out and he put his arm around me and I had so many butterflies and then he asked me out and then we kissed and then he said he loved me and then I went off to college but he still said he loved me and then he asked me to marry him and I said yes and we got married and we had a baby and I LOVE THAT CUTE GUY SO MUCH I CAN'T EVEN STAND IT!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's the short version. If you want the long version, click here to read through the posts when I wrote about our love story.

Ten years ago, Adam and I had our very first date. I was 16. He'd just turned 18. Now look at us. I can't believe it's been ten years, but on the other hand, I can't remember life without him. I mean, I've spent more than a third of my life with him!

Happy 10 years to the love of my life, father of my son, and most amazing best friend I've ever had! I love you so much Adam. I sure hope you stick around. :)

Adam's school's Winter Banquet, February 2002 

My junior prom, spring 2002 

Summer 2002 

Our first (dating) anniversary, November 23, 2002 

My high school graduation, May 2003 

Summer 2003 

Getting ready to head off to college, fall 2003

Engagement photo, summer 2005

Our wedding day, June 3, 2006 

Christmas card photo, fall 2009 (we knew we were pregnant, but nobody else did!)

Maternity photos, spring 2010

Our baby is finally here! June 2010

Our 5th wedding anniversary, June 2011 

Sutton's first birthday, June 24, 2011

Our little family now, fall 2011 

 Us.

Love Story: Part 9 {The Proposal}

Typically, it was a chore to decide where to eat when Adam and I went out on dates.

Not this night.

This night, Adam was on a mission.

He took me to Johnny Carino's, a new-ish Italian restaurant that I'd been telling him for weeks I wanted to try. Adam's not a huge fan of Italian, so I should've known something was up at that point. I figured I wouldn't push my luck and I'd enjoy the food.

After we were finished eating, Adam seemed to want to linger in the restaurant. He just wanted to relax and talk for awhile. Strange, but whatever.

We finally paid and left, and then began driving around Wichita. We drove and drove, and we were trying to come up with something to do with the rest of our night. Adam even called his mom at one point to ask if she had any ideas of stuff for us to do. She didn't.

Adam asked if I'd heard about the skate park thing our friend Tim was building near our church.

I hadn't.

Well, he'd show me then.

We drove over to our church (we'd already been attending NewSpring - which was then Messiah Baptist) for several months and loved it.

There was no skate park.

The outside lights and a couple inside lights were on at the church. Adam pulled up next to the front door (limo driver style) and shut the car off. He turned to me.

"I know that things have been hard for us lately. It sucks having to live so far from each other. But I know that it will be worth it. I just wanted to do something special for you to show how much I love you and to try to make things better."

Okay...what could this possibly be?

We exit the car and go into the unlocked church, through the foyer, into the giant sanctuary.

It's all dark.

Except...there's a photo of us projected on each of the giant IMAX screens on stage.

We walk up to the front row and sit down. There's a Kleenex box beside me.

Suddenly, a slideshow starts playing. It's photos of us clear back from the beginning of "us" up until now. Believe me, we had a lot of photos. Here and there, Adam had inserted funny captions to make the slideshow undoubtedly "Adam." Dave Barnes songs (our favorite) were playing in the background. It was quite the show...I think we went through about two whole songs worth of photos.

The photos stopped.

A new, slower song - On A Night Like This - began playing. (You should definitely go listen to it. It makes me cry almost every time. Maybe because I later walked down the aisle to this song. But back to our story...)

Adam had written a bunch of really sweet stuff up on the screen. It's all a blur now, but I think I was finally realizing what was happening.

I do remember the most important part.

The part where the screen said "Will you marry me?"

I looked over at him and he wasn't sitting beside me anymore.

He was down on one knee. Holding a little box.

I practically tackled him in a hug and wouldn't let go. We kissed, I cried, I freaked out. I forgot the two most important things: to look at the ring, and to say YES!

As soon as I realized this, I quickly said "Yes!! YES!" And he slipped the ring on my finger. It was the most beautiful ring.

The sanctuary lights came on.

We weren't alone.

Our parents, siblings, and a few friends were up in the balcony, and they all got to their feet and cheered.

Then they raced downstairs to celebrate with us.

We all headed over to Jimmy's Diner to celebrate. The rest of that evening...who knows what happened...I only remember thinking that I was an engaged woman, that I was getting married. To ADAM DREHER. Holy cow. I must be dreaming.

To be continued...

Love Story: Part 8

It sounds exhausting now, but somehow, Adam and I found a way to see each other every weekend while I was at K-State.

I became so comfortable with that two-hour drive, stopping in Abilene for gas and a Dr. Pepper, singing my heart out to Incubus (strangely, my favorite band). I started to know the landmarks, if I didn't make it to the bright red barn by such-and-such a time, I was driving too slow.

There was one time that I remember so vividly. I'd been having a bad week. It was Wednesday or Thursday, and I wasn't going to be able to see Adam til the weekend. Talking to him on the phone just wasn't enough. I was walking back from class one day, and as I rounded the corner to my dorm, I looked up, and Adam was sitting on the porch of my dorm, waiting for me. He'd brought supper. He needed to get back, so he didn't stay more than 10 minutes.

He spent 4 hours in a car for 10 minutes of time with me, just because I was having a bad week.

Ohhhhhh....I just had to marry this man.

November of my freshman year was our 2 year anniversary. I still couldn't believe I'd made it two whole years in a relationship. Whoa.

I came back to Wichita for the event, and we got all dressed up and went out to eat at a super fancy restaurant. Adam gave me a little silver necklace with a cross, and once again, he must have good taste in jewelry because I still wear it every day. I even wrapped it around my bouquet stems at our wedding because I wanted it close (but couldn't wear it since it didn't go with my dress...).

I'm sitting here, wracking my brain as to what else we did on that anniversary, and I can't remember. So I got online to ask Adam if he remembered, and his response? "I think that was the anniversary that I took you on a surprise trip to Russia."

I can always count on him. :)

After the holidays, Adam's family invited me on a vacation to Florida. I was SO excited. I still remember the dates. January 4-11, 2004. So much uninterrupted time with my man! It was going to be awesome.

Our flight got in to Florida late that evening, and Adam and I planned a short detour trip down to the Everglades to go camping with his brother and his wife. We drove all through the night. We finally got to our spot, set up the tent, and it was miserable. Muggy, hot, mosquitoey. Ugh. Adam tried to take a nap in the tent, but there was no way I could sleep in that miserable-ness. He was unsuccessful too, so he got up and we decided to take a little boat tour on the river. That was awesome. We saw all kinds of crocodiles (or alligators...I don't know the difference) and took lots of pictures. By the time we were done with our tour and got back to camp, the decision was made to forget the Everglades and head back to Orlando, where the rest of the family was staying (in comfortable, air-conditioned rooms).

We spend the next several days having an AMAZING time. We stayed in a condo that was all decked out and had a jacuzzi tub. We went to Universal Studios and Disney World. We visited the beach and attempted getting in the cold cold water. We even went to some dinner show about pirates and I got to compete in the show and have my picture taken with a pirate!

(I had to throw this picture in...look how skinny I was! I just can't believe it. This will be my motivation photo after the baby's born, I think.)

After heading back home from our trip, we had a blissful, event-free year. I came home for the summer and got a job doing lawn care/maintenance for a nursing home, while taking college classes in the evenings. Adam worked for the City of Wichita and saved every penny so he could graduate debt-free, so that when we got married, we wouldn't have that burden.

Oh yes, we were talking marriage by this point. You know how you just know? We just knew. There was no one else. Everyone said we were too young.

What did they know.

In the fall of 2004, I moved back to Manhattan. It was really hard, once again. And once again, we began our weekly trips back and forth. I lived in an apartment with 4 other girls. My best friend Rachael (you should remember her by now!) lived with me, and her boyfriend lived 2 hours away in Kansas City. So we bonded over our long distance love and nightly phone calls. She ended up marrying him too. :)

Many of you know that I'm a wedding photographer, and the story of how that all came about plays into our love story a little bit. At the end of my freshman year, before I came back home for the summer, I was trying to think of a cool summer job. I was an art major and wanted to do something that I could put on my resume.

I had a random thought: wedding photographers would need extra help during the summer since that's their busy time, right?

So when I got home that summer, I went through the Wichita yellow pages and called just about every photographer, asking if they needed help for the summer.

No one did.

But a few of them kept my info, just in case things changed.

I ended up with the lawn care gig that summer. Not so much art-related, but we all pay our dues.

Fast forward. It's January, 2005. I get a call from a Wichita photographer, asking if I'm still interested in a job. I said YES! I was already driving back to Wichita every weekend to see Adam, so I could just work while I was there and then keep that job for the summer. She wanted to meet me, see a portfolio.

I happened to be taking a darkroom photography class at K-State that semester, and I'd been getting all A's. My teacher loved me. His name was Adam. So I asked this teacher-Adam to help me put together a portfolio of my best work. I was so nervous...this was a job in the creative industry! I just HAD to get it.

That week before my weekend trip home for the interview was a tough one for Adam and I. I don't remember the exact issue, but we were fighting. I think the distance was just wearing on us and I was being a stupid girl and saying stupid girl things. The phone call the night before I was to come home didn't go well. I told him that I was so mad at him, I didn't even want to come home at all that weekend.

"But you have that interview this weekend, you have to come home, right?" Adam says.

"I guess. I'll just talk to you later." Hmph.

The next day, after I finished classes, I began my drive back to Wichita. I was still in a bad mood, still being a stupid girl. I called Rachael.

"Adam's making me so mad, and now I have to spend the weekend with him, and act like nothing's wrong, and I just don't even want to drive these whole two hours..." and I'm just an annoying, oblivious, dumb girl.

"But you have that interview this weekend, you have to go home, right?" Rachael says.

"I guess. I'll talk to you when I get back." Hmph.

I spent Friday evening with Adam and was reminded why I loved him. It really was the distance that was getting to us. Once again, I was the stupid girl who insisted on living so far away from the most amazing man ever. It's always my fault somehow. (Don't tell Adam I said that.)

Saturday morning, February 5, was my big interview. I got dressed up, arrived early and drove around the neighborhood so I wouldn't be TOO early. The interview went well...the photographer's only concern: me living in Manhattan and coming back every weekend to Wichita. I assured her that I came back nearly every weekend anyway, since my boyfriend lived here. "Well, what if you two break up?" she asks. "Not going to happen," I say.

She didn't get it. He wasn't just my boyfriend. No one got it. Boyfriend wasn't the right word for what we had. That had annoyed me for awhile. People who'd been dating a week and barely knew each other were called boyfriend/girlfriends. We had so much more than that. Dumb. Whatever.

Adam and I spent Saturday afternoon and evening together. As I walked out the door of my parents house that afternoon to head over to Adam's, my dad was sitting on the couch, and he asked what our plans for the evening were. He had a peculiar grin on his face. I told him I didn't know, probably just the usual dinner and renting a movie or something. I left.

At Adam's, we did plan to go out to dinner, and I was getting hungry early. I kept bugging Adam.

"Where are we going to eat? Can we go now?"

"Not yet Gina. Just hang on."

"But I'm huuuuuungry. Let's just go. Why can't we go?"

Fine. We finally went. Little did I know that that particular evening would change the rest of my life. Change the course of history. :) Adam would no longer just be my "boyfriend."

To be continued...

Love Story: Part 7

The next months passed in a big huge hurry.

Adam and I attended my senior prom. This time, we wore normal outfits. I went for a little bit of a goth theme (though, how goth can you really be with blonde hair?). I wore a black dress, black jewelry and had a black mani/pedi. I did NOT wear black lipstick. I actually think I looked like the singer at the prom on the movie 10 Things I Hate About You. Kinda Gwen Stefani-ish. Adam wore a normal black-and-white tux. My dad made us take photos by his '65 Impala and his Harley. We were pretty cool.



Next was my high school graduation. Adam gave me the best gift ever...a ring.

It wasn't a "promise" ring. We didn't want to do the promise ring thing. It was an I-love-you ring. Three little diamonds set in white gold. He was so sweet.

I still wear it on my right hand every day.

The evening of my graduation, we had a senior all-night party for my class. Adam couldn't come, which I was bummed about, but I still had a great time staying up with all my friends.

The next morning however, I was slated to meet all of Adam's extended family in Hays for a Dreher Family Reunion. Adam's dad had even made us t-shirts. It was a big day.

I was a little less than at my best from the crazy night of partying (school sponsored of course, so how bad could it have been), so Adam insisted on driving separate from his family, just the two of us, so I could sleep on the 3 hour drive. Thanks, buddy.

I met three of Adam's siblings who I hadn't met before, (he has three half-siblings who are a little older and live in different states), and several of his nieces and nephews. It's strange to look back at these photos because so much has changed. Adam's sister Jessica had just had her first baby, who is going to be 7 this year. My nieces Bailey and Madeline were like 5 and 8, respectively, and they're now teenagers (or almost...)! Weird. This photo is just his immediate family, like parents, brothers and sisters and their kids. HUGE. I come from a small family, so this was just crazy to me.

For my birthday that year in May, we took the 4-wheeler down to Waynoka, Oklahoma, which was a place Adam went a lot with his friends to ride the dunes and hang out. I got an exhaust burn on my leg. But it was still fun. :)


See how cool we are?

Adam got a cat. He named him Reuben. Thinking back on this now...it's just hilarious. Adam lived on this farm with all these farm cats, and then one day when the promiscuous female got knocked up yet again, Adam decided to try and domesticate one of the babies. We're such dog people now, that it's weird to think of having a cat. Our favorite game with Reuben was to put him on Adam's desk chair, spin it around til he was thoroughly dizzy, and then put him on the ground and watch him try to walk. Poor Reuben. Adam ended up having to give him away when his family moved into town, and last we heard he was the leader of a gang in Valley Center.

After that summer, filled with me teaching tennis lessons and hostessing at Applebee's, and Adam mowing for the City of Wichita, came one of the hardest nights in my life.

You see, I'd decided that I wanted to get away from home for awhile, live on my own. So I'd made the tough decision to leave Adam and move to Manhattan (2 hours away) to attend K-State. Adam was staying here at WSU.

The night before I left, we had a date. We went out to Timberline and had been given a giftcard, so we went all out: appetizers, steaks, dessert. Then we saw a movie. Afterwards, we drove around and talked. And talked some more.

We were driving around the WSU campus (for no particular reason), and we decided to take a walk. We were on some sort of field where the track team practices shotput, I think. We sat down on the grass.

I broke down.

I couldn't believe that I was leaving. That he wouldn't just be a short drive away anymore. That I was going to be living away from him for four years. He was my best friend...in that moment, I couldn't understand how or why I'd made the decision to go to K-State.

Adam was supportive in his own way. :) While he never resented my decision to move away, he definitely made it clear that he thought I could've decided differently. But he wasn't mad about it. He just knew it would be hard.

And it was.

I'm one stubborn lady, and even though the thought of being away from Adam hurt so badly, I just knew this was something I needed to do. So in the August of 2003, Adam and my parents packed me up and moved me off to my Manhattan dorm room.

We went out for dinner before everyone headed back home. My big brother lived in Manhattan, which helped, and he came along to dinner too.

I was nervous for everyone to leave.

I'd never lived away from home for more than a week before this. I had a few friends who'd come to K-State, but no one I was really close to. I was terrified of getting through that first night after they all left. My parents left first. Adam and I finished setting up my dorm room, making the bed, putting things away. We talked. I cried.

And then he left.

And I cried.

I even checked the hallway a couple times after he left, but he was really gone.

And then I found a note. In my underwear drawer.

"I love you."

It was the first of many notes I'd find in my underwear drawer after a visit from Adam.

To be continued...

Love Story: Photos

I finally remembered to bring some of my old photos with me to the studio today to scan so I could show you the proof of our love story. :) I think all of these were taken with cheap disposable cameras, so pardon the ugliness of that.

These first two are from the banquet at Adam's school his senior year. The periwinkle blue dress and the sea-green suit that you can read about here.


Next was my junior prom a couple months later. I love how he's checking me out in this one, lol. And look how skinny I was!! You can read more about this prom by clicking here. We had such a good fashion sense. I was wearing orange flip-flops, though you can't see them.


And here's us after we went muddin'. You can also see the log cabin home on the left that Adam grew up in, and (though it's really hard to see) the house that Adam moved into for college is right behind the blue truck on the right.

And on our one-year anniversary in front of the plane we flew in. The next one is from that same night, in the plane with our awesome headphones/microphones.


And the drums from later that night. This was inside Adam's little house.

Love Story: Part 6

Over the next months, Adam and I became very close. He never judged me, always listened, wasn't ever turned off or annoyed with anything I talked to him about.

He became my best friend.

As those months progressed, I'll be honest. It got harder and harder for me to want to spend time with my girlfriends. I still loved them, sure, but Adam was everything I needed. In one super-handsome package. He listened to my problems, held me when I cried, was genuinely happy when I succeeded, and was a really good kisser. I just hope I was those same things for him.

Soon, it was time for my junior prom. Nothing too remarkable about this prom other than our (once again) fantastic outfits. My dress was magenta and orange, in a good way :) ...his suit was bright blue. He also wore a zipper tie. And tennis shoes. But (once again), he pulled it off and looked amazing. We posed for all the obligatory pictures for my parents, ate dinner at Piccadilly's in Wichita, and were witnessed walking into the prom by hundreds (that's how my high school did it, they set up bleachers outside the prom so people could come watch everyone walk in). It was an awesome night, and Adam kept his arm tightly around me the whole time, which was even awesomer.

Adam graduated from high school.

We spent that summer together, as much as possible. Unfortunately we still lived in separate towns, so seeing each other wasn't as convenient as running down the block, and I always had that pesky curfew to abide by.

My parents were awesomely cool and invited him to come with us to Colorado on summer vacation that year. That was a big deal for us...we got to spend 16 hours in the car together, he saw me with a towel on my head after a shower (he should've ran away then), and we slept in the same hotel room! Separate beds, of course...and my parents were also in the same room too. :) We even got to kiss on the top of Pike's Peak. Sweet.

I'll let you in on a little secret. I'm writing our love story with the help of the photo albums I kept throughout our dating years. Three and a half albums filled with photos of us. We were good about taking photos back then. Now...not so much.

The next "big" event I came across in the photo albums was the day Adam and I went muddin'. You think I'm being sarcastic, but this was the funnest thing ever. I wouldn't consider myself a "city girl," because let's face it, my hometown wasn't even a city really. But Adam was definitely a country boy. As mentioned in an earlier installment, he had a four-wheeler. I'd never been muddin' before, so I wasn't aware of how this worked. Adam patiently explained that I'd probably want to borrow some of his old clothes for the adventure.

It had just rained, so the dirt roads around Adam's house were a mess. We took off from his house, and he drove directly through a field. Didn't bother with a road. Adam, the professional ATV driver, and me, holding on tight to him for dear life. We found some big mud puddles (which I soon discovered was the goal of the whole thing), and Adam headed straight for them.

You can guess what happened next.

Mud went flying everywhere. In my eyes, my hair, my ears, my mouth. But it was so much fun! We kept going and found more mud, almost getting stuck a million times. After half an hour, we headed back to his house, both completely covered in mud. This was when we took the photos I'm now looking at. Adam's arms and legs were completely black, and he has this mischevious look on his face. He knew what came next.

I didn't.

Out came the hose.

Hose water is always FREEZING.

We hosed each other off as best we could, and then headed inside for real showers. I think I was still finding mud on myself a week later.

A few awesome things happened then. Adam moved out of his parents house, across their driveway, and into a little rental house they owned. He was "on his own." He started pursuing his education degree at WSU, and he finished that mural at his old high school that began our story. We also celebrated our first anniversary.

Let's back up. I must first mention just how cool it was to have a college boyfriend. I was a senior in high school and had this older man to talk to all my friends about. He did the sweetest things. He would drive all the way to my school while I was in class, find my car in the massive parking lot, and leave me cards, notes, flowers. He even brought me lunch, clear from Chili's in Wichita (where he was now employed as the cutest waiter ever) a couple times. On those occasions, I could basically only run out to his car, give him a kiss and a thanks, and take the food before I had to get back. He did all that, just to see me for a few minutes.

Since he lived in his own house now, we got to watch movies in his living room, cook dinner together, and just be alone. Adam's specialty dinner became the now-infamous "bowl of meat," which was basically ground beef cooked in sauces like A-1, and a side of instant mashed potatoes. We ate a lot of that in those days.

As our anniversary came around, I didn't know what to expect. Before Adam, I'd never been in a relationship longer than a month and so I didn't know the protocol for "big" anniversaries. Plus, even though I knew how sweet Adam was, I didn't know just how big of a deal he made out of special occasions yet.

He picked me up late in the afternoon on November 23rd, 2002. We drove out to the country near Newton...I had no idea where we were going, and I was wearing nice clothes. Hopefully this wasn't another muddin' adventure.

We stopped at the tiny little Newton Airport.

There was a plane.

It was a small plane, a 6-seater, I believe. Adam's dad had a friend who was a pilot and owned this plane. Adam had arranged for him to take us on a flight to celebrate our first year together. I was a senior in high school...this doesn't happen to people like me. But it was really happening. Wow.

Adam and I got in the seats behind the pilot and his wife, and we put our headphones on so we could talk to each other. We held hands. It was surreal.

Adam asked the pilot to fly over his house. So he did. We got to see all their land, their house, Adam's little house, the infamous silo. So cool.

We flew in to the Hutchinson Airport. There's a steakhouse there, and we had an awesome dinner with the pilot and his wife. I think Adam paid him for his plane with the steak dinner. A fair trade, I'd say. :)

After dinner, we flew back to Newton and Adam drove me out to his house. We walked into his house, and one of his friends was there, setting up a drum set in his living room.

To preface this, I used to be obsessed with the drums. I had drumsticks from the Hard Rock Cafe that I tapped randomly all the time. But I didn't have any drums, I'd never had any drums, and I most definitely didn't have any rhythm. It was just a pipe dream. But it was a dream I'd definitely shared with Adam.

So we got to his house, and there was this drum set in his living room. He'd asked his friend Isaac to set it up while we were away. Isaac stuck around long enough to show me how to play one measure of whatever (see? I don't even know the terminology), and then he left us be. I spent the next hour on the drums. Poor Adam. He had a turn too though.

And that...was our first year. There's nothing I would change. Adam was the best boyfriend I'd ever had, the best boyfriend I'd ever heard of anyone having. I was so in love. I know he was too.

But I still didn't get why he loved me.

He was the amazing one, I was just ordinary.

To be continued...

Love Story: Part 5

After Adam and I had been together for a couple of blissful months, we had two important events come up: Valentine's Day and his high school's Winter Banquet.

First was the banquet. Adam went to a small Christian high school, and they didn't have proms, they had banquets. I knew a few people from his high school, but wasn't aware if any of them knew that Adam and I were an item, so I was nervous about that.

But the biggest issue? Finding a dress.

The dress had to have sleeves or at least two-inch wide straps. This was a huge pain in my butt. I look good in strapless dresses. That's what straight-figured girls wear. That's what I wore. Hmph.

We ended up finding the perfect dress...in my mom's closet. She had a long periwinkle blue dress with a tiny ruffle along the neckline and two-inch wide straps. It came with a sheer cardigan that tied in front and was very 70's (which was when she bought it), so I forwent the cover-up. Instead we found a baby blue shimmery shawl with sequins on the ends that I wrapped around my shoulders, since it was February.

I spent that day shaving, plucking, lotioning, and scrubbing myself to be perfect. I painstakingly curled my long hair and pulled the sides back so it'd look at least a little different than my everyday hairstyle. I wore hose (yes, hose), and finally put on the dress. I was so skinny. It makes me sad to look back at those photos. :)

I had a couple friends over at my house helping me get ready. I felt so special. I was dating a boy from a different school and I was going to his banquet! My friends were all helping me with my hair and makeup, it was so fun being pampered.

Finally, it was time for Adam to pick me up.

When he arrived, he looked so (so) good.

If you know Adam, you know that his defining quality is his sense of humor. Even then...

He was wearing a sea-green three piece suit. He'd gotten it at Goodwill. It looked so good on him. He'd accessorized with a pocket watch on a chain, a cane, and a fedora-style hat. Yum. And again...I felt so special.

We drove in his green Jimmy to Wichita to the Petroleum Club, where the banquet was held. That night is a blur in my mind. We ate good food, were treated to some entertainment, and afterwards, we changed and went bowling with some of his friends and their dates. What I remember most about that evening was the surreal feeling of spending such a grown-up evening with Adam. Sigh. He's so cute.

Valentine's Day was a few days later. Adam wouldn't tell me what he was planning. And to this day, I still tell this story all the time. It's just unbelievable how romantic he was at such a young age.

At my high school, Valentine's Day was a big deal...and kind of a popularity contest. At the end of the day, they would post a list in the hallway of who received Valentines (flowers, candy, cards, etc.). In past years, sometimes my dad would send me something sweet, and sometimes, my name wasn't on the list.

2002: my name was on the list.

After school, I went over to the mezzanine where we were supposed to pick up our Valentine's, and there they were: the most beautiful roses and a sweet card from Adam. I couldn't stop smiling. And I couldn't wait for our date that night.

Adam picked me up that evening. I wore a black dress with spaghetti straps and very uncomfortable shoes. He looked amazing in a white button-down (rolled up to the elbows, of course) and khakis.

We drove to Wichita, and he took me to Cafe Bel Ami. It was like a restaurant from a movie. Little round tables for two covered in white tablecloths, candle-lit, more than one fork at your place-setting...you get the idea. He made reservations. That was cute. I don't know if I'd ever had reservations at a restaurant before.

I don't remember what we ate, but my one memory from the restaurant is an embarrassing one. This was a fancy restaurant. It was quiet...people talked in hushed tones...fancy. The tabletops were covered in glass. Do you see where this is going? In the middle of our meal, I laid my knife on my plate and it promptly fell off my plate onto the glass and made the most horrible, loud clattering noise. So embarrassing. Luckily, Adam laughed.

After dinner, we went out to Adam's farm. My shoes were killing me, so I changed into tennis shoes (which looked really cute with my dress...not). We got to his house and his mom took a couple photos of us. I felt special again.

It was dark out by this point and had been for a few hours. Adam took my hand and led me out into the yard, across the driveway, between some trees, to their silo. I'd never been to their silo before, but I'd heard rumors that this was where Adam's older sister and her hubby spent "alone time" when they were dating. :) Don't hate me, Jess.

Adam had me go inside the silo. I expected it to be empty, just a tall hollow silo. Wrong.

Adam's dad had built levels inside the silo, with a winding staircase in between each level to create floors. It was the coolest thing. Adam said we had to climb to the top. So up we went.

When we got to the top, it took my breath away. Adam and his dad had worked to fix up the top "floor" of the silo to be a cozy little get-away for our special Valentine's Day. They'd installed glass in the windows so it was all enclosed, and they'd put carpet on the floor and on the walls up to the windows. There were white Christmas lights everywhere, and that was our only light. The view from the top was awesome too.

Was this really happening to me?

Adam and I had our first slow dance there, alone, at the top of the silo on Valentine's Day.

After our dance and some "talking," he showed me that they'd hooked up a TV so that we could watch a movie up there. There were lots of pillows and blankets on the floor, it was perfectly cozy. In some previous conversation, I'd told him my favorite movie was Breakfast at Tiffany's.

He remembered.

We watched the Breakfast at Tiffany's, and cuddled, and kissed, and danced.

In the top of a silo.

On our very first Valentine's Day.

To be continued...

Love Story: Part 4

Over the next few weeks, Adam and I became "official." I don't know that there was ever really a talk (I've recently become familiar with the term DTR - Defining The Relationship), though if there was, it wasn't too important because we just knew. As I told you before, things were different with Adam from the beginning.

I kept having this nagging voice in the back of my head telling me that this was too good to be true, Adam was too good for me. It wouldn't work.

The first time I went to his house, I was in awe. His family lived on a farm in this amazing log cabin home that his dad built, complete with a skywalk across the living room. Adam's basement bedroom was actually two connected rooms, so he basically had his own private living room (and he had an interesting way of decorating it). He had a pool table, two pet doves, a rock-climbing wall in a barn, a silo that you could repel off of, a four-wheeler, two boats, a hot tub, a dog named Leia, and a really sweet green Jimmy with two white racing stripes. He taught me about Star Wars and Froto from Lord of the Rings, he made me watch the movie Tombstone...things I could've cared less about. But when Adam was interested in something, so was I.

Aside from the materialistic, Adam was the most generous, caring, romantic, sweetest, cutest, handsomest, good-looking, God-loving 18-year old I knew.

This was too much for the 16-year-old me. I'd never known anyone like Adam before. I'd never felt like this about anyone before.

That nagging voice kept getting stronger. I just knew that Adam was too good for me, and I started trying to figure out what exactly would be the demise of our relationship. Because I knew there would be one. This was too good to last. Plus, every other relationship I'd had ended in a break-up, so I was sure this one would too. Who finds the love of their life at 16? But I was determined to enjoy it while it lasted. For some reason, he seemed to like me. A lot.

On one of our first dates, we went furniture shopping. I don't really remember what we were thinking. We weren't looking to buy anything (we were teenagers...), but we went to multiple furniture stores in Wichita and walked around, tried out couches, and laughed the whole time. Driving around, I was so impressed by how well Adam knew Wichita. We were both from small towns, and the most exposure I'd had to the big city was when my mom drove me to Towne East mall. We only ever came to Rock Road. That was it. But Adam knew where everything was. I found that extremely attractive. :)

It was at one of these furniture stores, where it finally happened. We'd collapsed on a sofa, one of hundreds that we'd sat on that day, and Adam grabbed my hand. My heart stopped. I hadn't been expecting it like I had the first date night at my house. I was all fluttery. After that, we couldn't stop holding hands. We'd hold hands as we were sitting, standing, talking, not talking, walking, even if one of us was in front of the other and it was super inconvenient, we just couldn't let go. It was wonderful.

Adam took three (long) weeks to kiss me.

I'm glad we took it slow, but man, was I tired of waiting. Apparently, I intimidated him. :)

We'd spent the evening at my house, most likely watching movies or hanging out and talking. I walked him outside to say goodbye. My parents were the loving kind (I can see that now, it just seemed plain inconvenient back then) who enforced curfews on their teenage kids. My curfew on week nights was 10pm. This was a week night. So it was right around 10pm that I walked Adam out. We stood by his car, talking. We hugged. And hugged.

And hugged.

I was standing on his feet facing him because I didn't have any shoes on, and it was early December. My arms were around his neck. Our faces were inches away from each other. And we just talked.

And hugged.

Finally. After 45 minutes. 45 minutes where neither of us were thinking of anything else.

He kissed me.

My heart jumped out of my chest. It just felt right. He could've asked me to marry him right there, and I would've said yes. Holy moly. I finally kissed Adam! Wowowowowow.

Remember how I told you that I wasn't a huge fan of kissing boys? Well, that all went out the window.

I went inside after lots of smiles and more hugging, and my parents were a little peeved that I'd come in 45 minutes after curfew. I didn't care...I was floating. They were both in bed, and I remember talking to them for a couple of minutes before I went to my own room. I thought it was so funny that they had no idea what just happened to me. Because really, what had just happened...had changed my life.

The next kissing story is quite hilarious. Adam probably thinks I'm crazy for telling you all this, but it's good to laugh at yourself, right?

As New Year's Eve came closer, my thoughts of getting to kiss Adam at the stroke of the New Year became more frequent. We still hadn't kissed much more passionately than a goodbye peck, and I was ready for a little more (we'll keep it PG, my mom reads this...so does his).

Here's the kink: I had to have my wisdom teeth taken out on December 27.

You know the swelling that accompanies that surgery? And the not-being-able-to-open-your-mouth? Yeah, so, that wasn't a good thing.

A quick side story: I'd heard a rumor that if you eat pineapple the day before you get your wisdom teeth taken out, you won't have as much swelling. So the night before the surgery, Adam was at my house and we were in the basement, and I was eating pineapple, which I hate. Adam, in one of his sweetest moments, told me (in complete seriousness) that he wished he could eat it for me so I wouldn't have to do something that made me so uncomfortable. It was the most thoughtful thing. AND, when I got home from my surgery the next morning, Adam had come and gone to my house, leaving a teddy bear, a rose, and a card on the pillow of my bed. I just want to hug him right now because of how sweet he was, but he's not home. :)

Back to the story.

I spent the first half of that New Year's Eve with my friends in Newton. I was on edge, waiting for the time I could leave and drive the 20 minutes to Adam's house. I convinced my friend Chelsea to come with me, even though she didn't know Adam very well and hadn't met any of his friends. When we got to Adam's farm, they had a big bonfire going. We stood around it, watching some of the guys with pyromaniac tendencies jump over the fire. Real impressive stuff. Note the sarcasm.

Finally it was nearing midnight.

I didn't want an audience for our sure-to-be-awkward New Year's Eve kiss, so with giggles from the crowd, I drug Adam off behind one of the houses on their farm. We were among the evergreen trees in the moonlight. Distant voices in the background, most likely calling out to us, making fun of us. Gotta love your friends... There was a lot of staring into each other's eyes and nervousness going on. Then we just went for it.

I don't know what he thought, but to me, it was magical.

Mom, stop reading here. :)

I could only open my mouth like half an inch, if that! Stupid wisdom teeth. To this day, I still don't know how that kiss ever worked. But it did. And it was good. Real good.

To be continued...

Love Story: Part 3

As a teenager, I was OBSESSED with AOL Instant Messenger. Ask my mom. I think they ended up giving me a time limit of how much I could be on the computer. I couldn't help it...all my friends were always on and we would get in chat rooms and play stupid games, and most importantly, I could flirt with boys without having to do it face to face. :)

Well somehow (most likely I took the reins on this one), Adam and I became Buddies on IM. I'm a fairly outgoing person (Adam would laugh at this...he thinks I talk way too much, especially to people I don't know very well), and so I probably just went for it. Adam's screen name was DdQd. Not sure what that means. I was dutch8984...I used to think I would name my first child Dutch (which is no longer the plan, by the way).

I can't remember if it happened the first time we talked on IM, or if it took a few conversations, but we must credit technology with finally getting us to go on a date.

Adam was typing to me that he was in the process of painting a mural in the cafeteria at his high school. He knew I was an artist, and thought I might be interested in seeing it. So we made plans for me to cook/bring him dinner one evening while he was at the school working on it.

You have to know, we weren't really counting this as a date. It was a friend going to see another friend's art on a fateful Monday evening.

Something I didn't tell Adam til later...I'd had two dates the weekend right before.

They didn't really count. The first was an employee party for Alco, where I worked at the time, and I took a guy who'd used to work there with me and was just a friend. The other date was a play at my high school, and I took another guy who was just a friend, at least on my side.

So Monday night rolled around. I was recovering from my crazy weekend full of dates (just kidding). If you know me at all, you may have not skipped lightly over the previous mention of me cooking him dinner. I don't cook. I made some casserole thing with hamburger in it, I believe. I think I made it up as I went. Poor Adam.

I made the drive out to Adam's school, and it was quite the drive. Probably a good half hour or more from my house. NERVOUS the whole time.

He met me outside and we went into the deserted cafeteria where he showed me what he'd finished so far of the mural. I don't think I was really paying attention. I was alone with ADAM. Wow. He's cute.

We talked and ate and had a good time. We didn't make plans for a date again because after all, this hadn't been a date. We both went home.

It may have been later that same evening, or it may have been a night or two later. We started talking on IM again.

I knew I liked this guy. A lot. I knew I wanted to spend more time with him. I knew he made me feel all fluttery and excited.

So I was bold.

At some point in the conversation, I typed, "So how does a movie, popcorn, and Gina sound for this Friday night?"

I was so dumb.

He said it sounded good.

I worked at Alco from 11am-5pm that Friday, so it musst've been Thanksgiving break from school or something. My whole shift, all I could think about was that I was having a real date with Adam that night. Work went soooo sloooooow.

Adam came over to my house for the movie night. My brother and his girlfriend were there to ease the tension a bit, but I think they made it worse. No offense.

We watched Shrek (my choice) and Planet of the Apes (Adam's choice). And had lots of popcorn.

We sat close on one end of the couch while Michael and his girlfriend were on a different chair. But not crazy close. I couldn't pay much attention to the movies because he was right there.

From that very first date, it was already different than it had been with other guys. I wanted him to hold my hand SO badly. I kept it in the perfect grabbing position all night, and just kept waiting. With other guys, I'd been really afraid of physical affection. Two of my previous boyfriends, I'd broken up with after the first kiss! With Adam though, it was completely different.

He never took my hand.

But the best part of the evening eventually came. At one point, I leaned forward to grab some popcorn and a drink. When I leaned back, his arm was behind me, around me. No mistaking it. I almost died. This meant that he liked me back!

AHHHH!!!!!!!

The movies were over too quickly and it was time for him to go home. We said an awkward goodbye and Michael walked him out.

They were outside awhile. A little too long.

Then they both came back in. Adam's car wouldn't start.

I wonder if he was embarrassed. I didn't care, I thought it was great. My parents offered for Adam to sleepover and get the car going in the morning. He did.

While I was upstairs in my bedroom going over every little detail of the nights events and reading way too much into all our conversations, Adam was just a floor below, dreaming of me too. Hopefully, at least.

That was our first date, November 23, 2001. We've been together ever since and haven't looked back. But the story isn't over. Not by far. :)

To be continued...

Love Story: Part 2

There's a new feature on my blog to the right. ------------------------>
I'll be labeling my posts from now on so, for example, if you want to read all about our love story, just click on the love story category. :)

I saw a lot of Adam over the next couple years. He was at our house fairly often, hanging out with Michael. They spent most of their time outside or in the basement, and my bedroom happened to be on the main floor, so sadly, I didn't have many excuses to interrupt.

There was one unfortunate dinner at our house that Adam was invited to. I honestly don't know what I was thinking. In my defense, I was young. The reason this dinner was so unfortunate was because of what I decided to wear.

Picture this:

blue mesh gym shorts (ehh...okay so far...),

a "wife-beater" tanktop (umm, Gina?), adorned with puff paint (you're kidding right?) over a sports bra (red, I believe),

and to top it all off...a stocking hat.

Are we still friends? :/

Adam and I have since discussed this outfit. He thought I was weird, but maybe interesting, so I guess it wasn't a complete failure, though I'm a little mortified just thinking about it.

Fast forward. It's July 2001 and I'm 16. My crush on Adam hasn't diminished and, by some crazy stroke of luck, my brother invited me to go to Wichita with him and Adam to see a movie. An uncharacteristically cool move on Michael's part (in his defense, he's now much cooler than he was back then). :)

I don't remember what the movie was, but afterwards, we went to eat at Jimmy's Diner. Jimmy's would later be the restaurant we celebrated our engagement at with friends, just minutes after I said "Yes!"

I think Michael was aware of my crush. He must've been. He made Adam and I sit on the same side of the booth.

Oh mylanta.

I could've melted.

You know when your face is all hot and your neck is tingly and you don't know what to do with your hands? I was a big heaping mess of that business.

This was it! I just knew it. After sitting in the same side of the booth at Jimmy's Diner, Adam was sure to fall in love with me and we'd live happily ever after.

Or not. Nothing remotely romantic or flirtatious happened and I rode in the backseat of the car by myself on the way home.

To be continued...

Love Story: The Beginning

I think I was 14 the first time I met Adam. It was so long ago and I was so young that it's a dim memory.

My brother Michael is two and a half years older than I am. So basically, that equated to me having crushes on ALL his friends. He would bring home friends from school or church, and more often than not, I, being a boy crazy teenager, would melt at their cuteness. I was probably that annoying little sister that always was trying to get in on whatever my brother and his friends were doing.

Michael became friends with this guy named Adam. They met at church through mutual friends. We heard a lot about Adam before we ever met him. I was finally to the point in my life where I realized that my millions of crushes were juvenile and I needed to stop falling in lust with every new boy I met. So I decided, after hearing all about Adam from Michael, that when Adam came to our house, I would NOT start liking him. I was 14, after all, and with my new-found maturity, I was sure I'd be able to control the inevitable crushing.

Michael played in a summer soccer league, and Adam was on his team. So I went with my parents to watch Michael play at one of his games. That's where we finally met the infamous Adam.

I got to the field, and across the way, Michael was stretching with his new teammates. Their team wore gray. There was this REALLY cute boy among the team that I was trying to avoid staring at.

"Hey, guys," said Michael.

Gesturing to the cute guy I'd just noticed, he says, "This is Adam!"

CRAP!!!!!!!!!

To be continued...

Inspiration: Love Story

Today, I was inspired by Pioneer Woman. I just started reading her blog yesterday, and I've spent a couple hours today reading about her love story with her husband.

I thought...wouldn't it be fun to recount my and Adam's love story?

YES!

And I like her installment style, so I'm just going to write part of it in each entry to keep you coming back for more.

Let's get started. :)