By Request: How I Met Mike
I know I've posted about this, but probably in bits and pieces.
It was 1999, several months after my escape from Evil Ex. A friend who had just been through a similarly dramatic breakup and I would find really awful personal ads online and send them to each other as jokes. The tackier, the better -- we were not even looking for dates, and pretty much hated all men, anyway.
Then one day, she sent one to me that seemed pretty normal. The ad mentioned that he was a teacher. I wrote back to her saying, "I don't get it. What's funny about this one?" She wrote back saying, "Not a thing. I think you should answer it." Of course, I told her, "No way, it's too soon, I don't want to meet anybody. I'm just starting to go back to school; I don't have time; I have two kids -- who would want to go out with me, anwyay." For days she kept at it. "Did you write to him? Oh, come on. You should."
So, I finally answered the ad a couple weeks later. I figured that if nothing else, I could pick his brain for teaching jobs in the area. We emailed back and forth for a month until I got up the nerve to meet him in person. I could tell he was a neat guy. He seemed to really care about his mother (a good sign) and he liked kids (another good sign) and wasn't freaked out that I had two of my own (a really good sign.) I was going to Huntington (where he lived and taught) to finalize some of my student teaching paperwork, so we agreed to meet at a restaurant near the college. By then, I felt like I really knew him -- his Mom went to high school with my Mom. His brother married a girl I knew through another friend (my Dad DJ'd their wedding!) I had actually lived a few blocks from Mike in college and remember walking past him on my way to classes as he washed his beloved Mustang.
I recognized him right away. I had never seen a picture of him, but his appearance matched his personality. He wore a crisp, white oxford shirt, a pair of neat blue jeans that were slightly faded; attractive but comfortable looking. He looked fashionable but low-key; definitely a country boy. He was waiting for a table, so I stood back and watched him to see if he was watching for me. He seemed a little nervous, but excited. He kept looking out into the parking lot, but didn't seem impatient. I stepped forward and introduced myself. He smiled a really big smile and asked me if I got all my paperwork done, and if I knew where I would be doing my student teaching. We talked for hours, and I felt really comfortable around him. He left the waitress a big tip because we were there for so long. He also walked me to my car and kissed me on the forehead, which I thought was kind of adorable.
The meeting went well, and we decided to go on a "real" date. :) Ironically, our first date was to dinner, an art exhibit, and to a movie ("Office Space.") Things went really well. We started meeting every weekend. He was his school's sponsor of the ski club, so we went skiing a few times over the winter with "his kids." He was always sure to get me home early enough to read bedtime stories to the boys, though. By spring, I felt comfortable letting him meet my sons. We packed a picnic and took them to a park near his house. He played with them, took them for piggyback rides, and wasn't freaked out when I had to go find a quiet place to nurse Joseph -- he was actually really supportive of it, and made sure I had a comfortable place to sit and plenty of water to drink. (I was impressed that he knew it made women thirsty. Duh, right? But only a really attentive guy would know that and act on it, and still respect my privacy and not hang around, you know?)
Late that spring, his Mom remarried, and he took us all to her wedding in South Carolina. We took a side-trip to Myrtle Beach -- all 4 of us -- and he popped the big question. Well, sort of... he knew that getting married was not just a decision between the two of us, so we sort of had two engagements. First we decided between the two of us that we wanted to, and after we were sure that the boys were OK with it, he gave me the engagement ring as a Christmas gift and asked me again with them present.
During the engagement period, he had a lot of things to deal with. I was doing my student teaching, which was extremely hard to do with two children, especially since Joseph was pretty much a non-sleeper. There were several times I just felt like I couldnt' do it anymore and thought really hard about maybe quitting school and trying again when Joseph was a little older. Mike encouraged me to stick with it, even when I was exhausted. I also had to put together a senior art exhibit, which meant doing a series of paintings when I was already pushed to the limit with my student teaching. He would come up to my parents house and play with the kids while I painted. He was kind of clueless about child care, but I was surprised when he wanted to change diapers and wasn't intimidated by crying babies. He did a great job. He even built a light for me to put in the garage so I could have a good, white light to paint by when the sun went down.
I graduated in 2000. The wedding was July 7, 2001. We had a long engagement because I wanted time to plan a wedding, and anybody who has ever planned one knows you just can't do it while you're doing something like student teaching that demands so much time -- especially with kids around. Which is probably why most people don't have kids until they've got jobs and lives established and all that. But you know I can't do anything the easy way. So the wedding wasn't until 2001 and it was a beautiful ceremony. 74bmw provided the ceremony music, and both boys were ring bearers. (Isaac thought he was going to be a "ring bear" and was really disappointed when he had to wear a tuxedo and not a bear suit.) When the priest asked "who gives this woman to be married to this man," my Dad pulled the boys to his side and said "I do, along with my wife, and my two grandsons." Everyone kind of chuckled but it was very sweet.
And the rest is history.
It was 1999, several months after my escape from Evil Ex. A friend who had just been through a similarly dramatic breakup and I would find really awful personal ads online and send them to each other as jokes. The tackier, the better -- we were not even looking for dates, and pretty much hated all men, anyway.
Then one day, she sent one to me that seemed pretty normal. The ad mentioned that he was a teacher. I wrote back to her saying, "I don't get it. What's funny about this one?" She wrote back saying, "Not a thing. I think you should answer it." Of course, I told her, "No way, it's too soon, I don't want to meet anybody. I'm just starting to go back to school; I don't have time; I have two kids -- who would want to go out with me, anwyay." For days she kept at it. "Did you write to him? Oh, come on. You should."
So, I finally answered the ad a couple weeks later. I figured that if nothing else, I could pick his brain for teaching jobs in the area. We emailed back and forth for a month until I got up the nerve to meet him in person. I could tell he was a neat guy. He seemed to really care about his mother (a good sign) and he liked kids (another good sign) and wasn't freaked out that I had two of my own (a really good sign.) I was going to Huntington (where he lived and taught) to finalize some of my student teaching paperwork, so we agreed to meet at a restaurant near the college. By then, I felt like I really knew him -- his Mom went to high school with my Mom. His brother married a girl I knew through another friend (my Dad DJ'd their wedding!) I had actually lived a few blocks from Mike in college and remember walking past him on my way to classes as he washed his beloved Mustang.
I recognized him right away. I had never seen a picture of him, but his appearance matched his personality. He wore a crisp, white oxford shirt, a pair of neat blue jeans that were slightly faded; attractive but comfortable looking. He looked fashionable but low-key; definitely a country boy. He was waiting for a table, so I stood back and watched him to see if he was watching for me. He seemed a little nervous, but excited. He kept looking out into the parking lot, but didn't seem impatient. I stepped forward and introduced myself. He smiled a really big smile and asked me if I got all my paperwork done, and if I knew where I would be doing my student teaching. We talked for hours, and I felt really comfortable around him. He left the waitress a big tip because we were there for so long. He also walked me to my car and kissed me on the forehead, which I thought was kind of adorable.
The meeting went well, and we decided to go on a "real" date. :) Ironically, our first date was to dinner, an art exhibit, and to a movie ("Office Space.") Things went really well. We started meeting every weekend. He was his school's sponsor of the ski club, so we went skiing a few times over the winter with "his kids." He was always sure to get me home early enough to read bedtime stories to the boys, though. By spring, I felt comfortable letting him meet my sons. We packed a picnic and took them to a park near his house. He played with them, took them for piggyback rides, and wasn't freaked out when I had to go find a quiet place to nurse Joseph -- he was actually really supportive of it, and made sure I had a comfortable place to sit and plenty of water to drink. (I was impressed that he knew it made women thirsty. Duh, right? But only a really attentive guy would know that and act on it, and still respect my privacy and not hang around, you know?)
Late that spring, his Mom remarried, and he took us all to her wedding in South Carolina. We took a side-trip to Myrtle Beach -- all 4 of us -- and he popped the big question. Well, sort of... he knew that getting married was not just a decision between the two of us, so we sort of had two engagements. First we decided between the two of us that we wanted to, and after we were sure that the boys were OK with it, he gave me the engagement ring as a Christmas gift and asked me again with them present.
During the engagement period, he had a lot of things to deal with. I was doing my student teaching, which was extremely hard to do with two children, especially since Joseph was pretty much a non-sleeper. There were several times I just felt like I couldnt' do it anymore and thought really hard about maybe quitting school and trying again when Joseph was a little older. Mike encouraged me to stick with it, even when I was exhausted. I also had to put together a senior art exhibit, which meant doing a series of paintings when I was already pushed to the limit with my student teaching. He would come up to my parents house and play with the kids while I painted. He was kind of clueless about child care, but I was surprised when he wanted to change diapers and wasn't intimidated by crying babies. He did a great job. He even built a light for me to put in the garage so I could have a good, white light to paint by when the sun went down.
I graduated in 2000. The wedding was July 7, 2001. We had a long engagement because I wanted time to plan a wedding, and anybody who has ever planned one knows you just can't do it while you're doing something like student teaching that demands so much time -- especially with kids around. Which is probably why most people don't have kids until they've got jobs and lives established and all that. But you know I can't do anything the easy way. So the wedding wasn't until 2001 and it was a beautiful ceremony. 74bmw provided the ceremony music, and both boys were ring bearers. (Isaac thought he was going to be a "ring bear" and was really disappointed when he had to wear a tuxedo and not a bear suit.) When the priest asked "who gives this woman to be married to this man," my Dad pulled the boys to his side and said "I do, along with my wife, and my two grandsons." Everyone kind of chuckled but it was very sweet.
And the rest is history.