Two Years Later: First Date Story

January 8^th 2012 was the second anniversary of our first date.  On one hand it’s hard to believe that so much time has passed but on the other hand it feels like we’ve just always been together.  To celebrate the occasion, I thought I’d take a minute to share the story of our first date because it’s one of my favorite stories of all time!

Our first date was an Army Ball and was the first time that we had seen each other in person in 15 years. So how does THAT happen? Well… 

My Honey and I met in 1995 (seventeen years ago!!) in a high school art class where we shared the same table. I was a senior on the school dance team while my future Honey was a junior on the football team. It might not surprise you that I am not shy and love to talk, so during the whole period I talked to the other three guys at my art table, my future Honey being one of them.  Now he was quite shy back then so I didn’t know this at the time, but he soon developed a crush on me. Later he would tell me that he always looked forward to that class and the 50 minutes he was going to spend with me (awwwww!!!). Outside of that class, we didn’t see much of each other and soon his family moved clear across the country so our story paused there.

Mrs. S in High School

Honey in High School

Our lives continued down separate paths… he went to West Point and then on two tours of duty overseas, lived two years in Germany, and was stationed at various places stateside. I stayed close to home, finished college and started my career in Information Technology (yes, seriously), saving those vacation days for road trips and traveling around the globe every chance I had.

Honey Deployed in Afghanistan 2009

Mrs. S on safari in South Africa 2009

In 2008, 13 years after our art class days, my Honey looked me up on Facebook expecting to find me married, but to his surprise there I was – unmarried! We became friends on Facebook and this time it was my turn to have a crush. We exchanged friendly emails for a couple of years and during that time I wondered, where was that quiet, shy boy from art class? The guy emailing me on Facebook was confident, smart, funny and not to mention quite handsome!! I developed a “Facebook crush” on him almost immediately!! During this time we were both in other relationships and each of those quietly ended around the same time without either of us having a clue the other was about to be suddenly single.  Almost immediately my Honey asked me on a date!

One of the first pictures Honey saw of me on Facebook

One of the first pictures I saw of Honey on Facebook (on the left)

He invited me to be his date for an Army Formal. Now he lived four hours away so the invitation including flying me to meet him and staying for the weekend. At first it sounded a bit crazy – fly to another state to go on a date with someone I haven’t seen in fifteen years and stay overnight in his home?? – but as crazy as it sounded, it felt so right.  It just seemed natural even… So off I went, on January 8, 2010 I flew to meet him… and getting off the plane I saw a man so handsome I couldn’t believe he was going to be MY DATE for the weekend.  

We went to his home and true to his word, Honey had arranged for me to stay in his guest room, on a separate floor from his master bedroom. He was such a gentleman! Even though we were under one roof, we were still able to treat the weekend like a “date”.  I put on my fancy dress and I’ll never, ever forget that moment coming down the stairs and spotting him waiting at the bottom in his Army “Dress Blues”. My heart melted! The rest of the night was so much fun – we talked, laughed and danced the night away having so much fun together!

Our First Date Night, Jan 8, 2010

I stayed the entire weekend and could not believe that there was someone out there who was so wonderful and fun to be with! I practically flew home on a cloud. From our first date forward, Honey and I talked on the phone every single day and saw each other every other weekend … six months later he proposed and ten months after that we were married.  If only we had realized that our best friend was sitting right there – right there – across the table in art class in 1995.

So there you have it, the story of our first date and how “we” suddenly came to be. Can’t you see why I love this story?! On our engagement anniversary in July I’ll post our proposal story. I must give Honey credit for what he pulled off – it was quite romantic and in fact it’s my second favorite story of all time!!

On our second date weekend, January 2010

Ski Trip to Colorado February 2010

Valentine's weekend, February 2010