Our story

Today is our 15th anniversary!

 Just for fun, here is our story:

It began over 16 years ago while attending Western Washington University.

I had just finished lunch and was walking across campus with a guy friend, passing the time until my next class which was in three hours...  As we walked past the library, two people were sitting on the steps talking.  My friend Dan wanted to stop and talk to Christine (I knew her previously from Young Life, he ended up dating her for a short time...)  I really didn't feel like stopping to talk, I just wanted to keep walking, but we stopped anyway.  The four of us chatted for a few minutes, then Dan and Christine went off to class, leaving this guy and I sitting there on the steps.

He was a hick from Ferndale.  He was wearing a flannel shirt/jacket and jeans.  (I had moved to the big city from Sumas some years before, and was just sure that when I went to college I'd meet some city boy!)  I was wearing my thick, green corduroy 'attitude' pants, brown favorite shoes with a button up shirt that was a defining part of me.  I thought he was an opinionated jerk...he thought I was annoying.

But somehow in spite of our first impressions of each other, we talked for the next three hours (he was done with class for the day, so it was quite a sacrifice to sit there and help me waste time until my final class of the day...)  I am not sure what we talked about for that long at our first meeting, but in our talking we found out we were both going to the same concert that night at the Mt. Baker Theater.

The cool thing about that, is that I had not planned on going to this concert.  A gal at work had tickets to see Phil Keaggy, Twila Paris and someone else...and wasn't able to go, so she asked me if I wanted her two tickets.  I accepted the offer and made plans with my friend Tracy.  Mark was going to the concert with a Christian campus group including a guy named 'Derick' (now our good friend and neighbor, Derick Krutsinger--who would've thought?...)  I briefly saw "Mark" from Ferndale, said a giddy hello and went on to enjoy the concert.  On Monday when I went up to the library to study between classes, there was a note on the corkboard.  (Side note.  Go here to read an old post about the corkboard that will fill in this spot of the story...)

Continuing on...this observant guy took note of the annoying girl's crazy fascination with the corkboard in the entry to the library and left a note.  It started something like this, "Perhaps you'll remember me..." and went on to say he would be in the Reading Room studying until such and such time and he was interested in hearing what I thought of the concert.  So, I went to the room that said "READING ROOM" above the door and waited.  And waited.  ...and waited.  'Did this guy stand me up?'  I thought to myself.  And then it occurred to me, 'I wonder if he said Reading Room thinking about a room on the second floor that could be considered a reading room--a big, open room, walls lined with books (I guess, since this was the library after all...)  Two hours passed by since I first saw the note on the corkboard and realized he may have meant a different room.  So me, being a brave 21 year old, went up to see if perhaps that is what he was thinking.  To my surprise, there he was, STILL waiting to hear about the concert.  We took a walk, he got my phone number...called me the next day and asked me out on a lunch date.  That was March 3rd.

Fifteen months later, on June 22nd, 1996, we got married!!

 (Us being goofy, trying to look angry or something...)

Fifteen years later, here we are with four wonderful children, living in the country (dang it...city boy was not in the plans...) in a quaint farmhouse that we have remodeled three times.  We have tredged through dark valleys and shouted from mountaintops.  We've made memories to cherish.  We've seen God's faithfulness over and over in the good times and the bad.  As a friend stated, 'we complement each other perfectly'...  I have to agree!!  I am amazed often as I look at our personalities, our strengths and our weaknesses, and how they fit together like a puzzle.  Oh, we have our good days and our bad days, but in the big picture, I am so thankful that God directed our paths that day, and that our paths crossed.  That He allowed me to see through the 'opinionated jerk' and Mark to see through the 'annoying girl' with the attitude corduroy pants, and saw fit to give us these last 15 years together!  In these years we have learned compassion and love, we've sharpened each other, yet smoothed some of the rough edges...we are ever growing and learning from/because of each other.

Thank you, Mark, for leaving that note for me on the corkboard, for asking me out on a lunch date, for loving me all these years, for providing for us, taking care of us, and for being the most amazing dad to our kids!  You are my favorite!