MM&M: The encounter with a celebrity...

It's here! Welcome to the very first installment of Meetings, Marriages, & Memories!

If you are new here, this carnival is simple: I want to know your story! How you and your hubby met. How you fell in love. How you winded the trials. How he proposed. All the butterflies and electric currents!

We spend so much time blogging about our children and our home life. I wanted to do something special to honor the wonderful men in our lives that we pledged our vows to.

I will keep this going as long as people want to participate, even if I've finished my story. I want to hear them all, because I do love a good love story!

So please link up! I have the MckLinky attached at the bottom. Please use the permalink (the actual URL for the individual blog post) when you link up. That way if others come back to catch the first part of your story, they'll go straight to part 1. I can't wait to get reading!

One issue that comes with writing my story means revealing some ugly areas of my emotional past, some issues I still deal with today. I'm not proud of the things that drove me, that motivated me. I'm not proud of the anxiety I lived with, of the freedom in Christ I rejected for so long because I didn't want to relinquish control. In revealing these, however, I seek to give glory to Him, because that deliverance did come, and I can look back now and see how far He's brought me, and if He can do it for me, He can do it for others - to Him be all the glory...

***

Every story has to begin with a meeting. I consider ours special because ours almost wasn't.

Our story begins way before we even knew the other one existed. It actually began one hot day in August of 1998 when my husband made a last minute decision not to go to LSU and instead came to the college where we would eventually meet. He made that decision with only 30 minutes left before fall registration closed. But instead of starting with his side, which I can only tell secondhand since I wasn't there, I'm going to begin with my side, where I was fighting my own battle of where to go to college...


April 1999

The letter shook in my hands. Everything I’d ever wanted for myself academically was literally in my fingertips.

I traced the dark green logo and felt the familiar butterflies of anxiety in my stomach. Baylor.

Stacks of college catalogs, some solicited and some unsolicited, stood in a neat pile on the corner of my desk, their applications blank and bare and never filled out. LSU, Auburn, UGA, and TCU topped the stack.

There really had only been one school for me since my junior year when college began to consume my thoughts. Baylor. And yet I had filled out just one other application as well, to my hometown university.

I looked over at the other letter, cast aside on my desk, the blue and red of the logo glaring against the bright white paper.

Both said the same thing: Congratulations and welcome! Both letters had come with generous scholarship offers.

“I can’t do this,” I whispered, setting down the Baylor letter and picking up the other, feeling the tears fill my eyes. “I can’t leave home.”

I let the Baylor letter fall into the wastebasket beside my desk. My decision was made.

I walked out into the living room. The only light was from the glow of the television. My father had already gone to bed. My mother sat on the couch in her nightgown and robe, watching the late night news. “Mom?” I ventured. “I’ve made my decision. I’ve decided to stay home and go to U.”

She smiled but didn’t move her eyes from the television. “I knew you wouldn’t leave home.”

And thus I set in motion a pattern for my life for the next several years – the inability to leave the familiar and comfortable, the inability to venture out in to the unknown. The need to never be by myself.

***

The first six months of my college career were interesting to say the least. Despite going to college in the same town in which I went to high school, I had entered into a new world, a world where your worth wasn’t based on which neighborhood you lived in and where your father was employed.

I reconnected with an old friend from elementary school who was a year older than me and already knew the ropes of college life at U. I was desperate to find my place, but terrified to find it alone. With her I went to several parties, met some interesting people, but I knew deep down that life wasn’t for me. For one thing I didn’t drink and didn’t particularly enjoy hanging around those who did, especially when they had been hitting the sauce pretty hard.

During the day I was in classes with people older than me, being that I started college as a sophomore by hours. I met some nice guys in my Business Math 125 class. One in particular started pressuring me to come to the daily worship service at the nearby collegiate ministry. I declined several times, citing both class and work commitments (both true things) but never really expressing my true fear of going somewhere alone and having to make friends with strangers. Alone. Even if it was a church service.


November 1999

Finally one Wednesday he cornered me as we were leaving class. “If you’re not going to come to chapel, at least come to TNT tomorrow night.”

“TNT?” I said blankly.

“It stands for Thursday Nights Together. It’s our weekly college worship service.” He told me the time and the name of the church where it was held.

I could feel myself blushing. “That’s my church,” I admitted lousily. And I faintly remembered hearing something about it in Sunday school, but not knowing what it was, I tuned it out.

He grinned. “Good. Now you have no excuse.” He turned and walked down the hall and around the corner.

My pulse picked up, throbbing in my veins. What have I just gotten myself into?

***

The following evening found me, sweaty palmed, driving my red Mustang up to my church at 6:45 PM. A building that for the last four years had been a haven of familiarity and comfort now seemed strange and imposing and foreign. All around me college students poured into the sanctuary. Some looked a good bit older than me. Oh gosh, are they in graduate school?

My palms slipped a little on the steering wheel. I could turn around and go home right now. No one would ever know I had been here.

A smaller voice spoke, a voice I’d strained to listen to over the years but often had difficulty hearing. You are here to worship and receive a teaching, not to make friends.

I shifted the car into park and stepped out, taking several deep breaths. I walked purposefully into the sanctuary and a new wave of panic washed over me.

Hundreds of students milled around, laughing and chatting. On the stage the worship team, all of them people I knew from high school, tuned up. Oh God, I thought. Why is it the only people I know in the entire sanctuary are on the stage?

“Hey, you made it!”

I spun around to see the boy from my math class. I gave him a weak smile, trying to not betray how relieved I was to see him. “Yep, I’m here.”

“Let me introduce you around.” He took my arm and steered me towards a crowd of people.

Names flew at me while I smiled brightly, gave my name and major, and admitted it was my first year of college, all the while trying not to give away how ridiculously nervous I was.

My escort continued to propel me around the room to different people. I found myself wondering how I would ever remember all these names and faces… if I ever decided to come back, of course.

“And this is B.” Another introduction broke me away from my thoughts.

I blinked as someone turned to shake my hand. He was shorter than most of the guys in the room, with close-cropped dark brown hair. His smile was brilliant, spreading light to his whole face, set in a firm jaw. But it was his eyes that struck me the most. Icy blue and piercing, yet radiating kindness at the same time.

“Oh my gosh, you look just like Matt Damon!” I blurted out without thinking.

He laughed, and I felt myself blushing at my stupidity. “I get that a lot,” he admitted. We chatted cordially for a few minutes. I discovered he was a sophomore, had gone to a rival high school, and was majoring in graphic design.

The opening chords of a worship song rang out from the guitar and he excused himself, moving over to an empty space on a pew and began to pray.

I looked around. Everyone was assembling for worship. People were moving into pews as I stood there alone in the aisle. I wanted to run and hide. I didn't know who to sit with or even where to sit. I spotted some girls from my English class, who smiled and waved me over to stand with them. I bolted toward them, relieved, and lowered my head for the opening prayer. Unable to contain my joy, I smiled as I looked at the pairs of flip flops lined up next to mine, and couldn’t help but feel I’d found a place to belong.

Perhaps this year won’t be so bad after all.

To be continued Monday, July 13…

Caffeinated Randomness: And since then I've warned all new brides to include the "sleeping baby" clause in the vows.

I've been up since 5:45 so I could go to the hospital to see my new nephew.

And I've decided that the only reason God made an hour that early is for visits to sweet little boys, because there is nothing else that can or will persuade me to set my alarm that early ever. again.

I got to hold him and burp him and cuddle him this morning after my sister-in-law finished nursing him. Then he fell asleep on my shoulder and made those sweet little one-day-old-baby-sleeping sighs. And I growled like a rabid dog at anyone who tried to walk over and take him from me.

Including my hubby. I was quick to remind him that, uncle or no, part of our marriage vows were that he never take a sleeping baby from my arms until I've had my fill of all the sweetness, which might take another 18 years or so.

I didn't have a thermometer for accuracy, but I'm pretty sure the temperature of my baby fever was reaching into the 200's.

Moving on...

Tomorrow morning we are taking our youth group out all over the city to film a video for another contest for one of our local Christian radio stations. The kids are excited, Hubs and I are excited, grandparents are here to keep and play with Princess. It's going to be a great morning.

However, I am a bit perturbed by weather.com, who at the beginning of the week teased me by telling me it was only going to be 90 degrees tomorrow. Now we're looking at 94.

I never thought I'd actually long for 90 degrees. But lo, it is possible.

I plan to spend the rest of the day editing video (it's due July 10! Aaah!) before we head down to the river, fight for parking and with drunk people, just to watch a fireworks show that lasts less than 10 minutes.

Oh, I'm kidding about the drunk people. We're going over to the Westbank side of the river to watch. All the drunks stay downtown.

I guess that's it. Don't forget that MM&M starts Monday!!! Do you have your stories (or first post if you're doing a series) ready??? I can't wait!!!


Oh, I did have one more thought (just one, though). I really like how my bloggy friends have nicknames for their reader friends. Kristen has Cupcakes, Andrea has Lovelies (nee Java Janes), Christy has Truffles. I want something to call you guys! However, I can't use my favorite food, because "Hi, Chips(es) & Salsas!" doesn't sound all that great. So I'm doing a little poll of some distinctly New Orleans-y things that could be your names.

The choices are:

1. Beignets (for those of you who don't know, they are fluffy deep-fried donuts smothered in powdered sugar; pronounced BEN-yays)
2.Queen Cakes (A twist on King Cakes, which are cinnamon cakes filled w/ all kinds of good stuff; only available during Mardi Gras. Boo.)
3. Snoballs (known everywhere else as a snow-cone)
4. Po-Girls (a twist on Po-Boys, which are sandwiches made on French bread and piled high with fried seafood)

Please vote! I put the poll up in my sidebar!

For more Caffeinated Randomness, visit Andrea @ Under Grace & Over Coffee!

6 years, 4 months, and 25 days ago...

I do.

I did then.

And I still do now.

Love ya always, babe!

For more wedding day pics, head over to Rachel's!

And for those of you coming by from Rachel's, come back here on Monday to tell your love story! A perfect compliment to a carnival of wedding photos!

Dummy.

So.

If a whole bunch of you have my first post for MM&M in your readers, it's not the real thing.

It's because your host over here was trying to auto-post her story for next week and somehow forgot to change the month, so instead of posting in July, it posted in June!

I hate technology.

Anyway, that is NOT the post, and if you try to click on it, it will be gone. The real post with the linky-thing will be up next week.

But I hope you enjoyed Part 1 of my story nonetheless since I can't seem to follow my own directions.

Grr...

One more week...

Update: The button links are not working in Google Reader, so if you want a button you'll have to come to the actual post to get the code. Sorry, I don't know why this is happening because I'm not very good with internet stuff. :)

Are you guys getting ready for MM&M??? I am SOO excited about it! I can't wait to read all your love stories! :)

I must admit, I'm gonna go all Pioneer Woman on ya'll and make mine into a saga. Because truly, it is. What else can you call it when there is an engagement to another man, a jealous former BFF, and an entire group of people who say you don't belong together?

Exactly.

If you're new around here and have no clue what I'm talking about, next Monday (July 6) is the first week of the Meetings, Marriages, and Memories carnival, in which I am telling my story and inviting you all to tell yours - how you met, how he proposed, etc. etc. etc.

I will be testing out MckLinky, which seemed to work well for Andrea last week.

I might be a little scarce around here this week. It's a big week here in the Big Easy.

1. My nephew will be born via C-section on Thursday! I can't wait to see his sweet little face (and finally find out his name)!
2. My in-laws will be here (and staying with us... in our 2 bedroom apartment, mind you) for 2 weeks. Needless to say the next two nights will be spent mercilessly cleaning my house.
3. It's birthday week for me! Holla! Hopefully Hubs and I can get away for a nice dinner at some point, though it might have to wait until after all the hubbub with the new baby dies down. (I have a gift certificate to here, which seems like a nice place to go... even though I don't eat steak.) :)
4. I have Exemplify writing and MM&M writing to do... which means I probably should do that and not blog. :)
5. Finish up this fabulous Bible study on discipleship I have been working on.
6. Oh, I forgot to mention that next Saturday we are filming a music video all over the city for a video contest a local radio station holds every year. Our submission is due July 10 (yikes!). It's supposed to be only 90 degrees (PRAISE THE LORD, SINCE WE'LL BE OUTSIDE ALL DAY) but raining. Last year we took home Best Director. This year we want the grand prize!

I have been looking for a solution to my DMV problem. Thankfully one of my "prophet" youth girls is going to come sit with Princess so I can go to the closest thing to hell on earth and get my driver's license renewed.

I hope to pop in around here this week, if for nothing else to post pics after Thursday. In the meantime, get your MM&M posts ready! Here's some buttons if you want to advertise!

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I'll leave you with a quote that I heard yesterday:

"It is not the Church's job to make Christians say, 'Glory to God!' It's the Church's job to make the world say, 'Glory to God!'"

Thoughts?

Hope you have a happy Monday! :)

A-Z

I should probably save this for a Caffeinated Randomness post, but oh well...

Stolen from Amy Beth.

A

Available: Pretty much all hours of the day when the girls in the youth group call or text me.

Age: 27 for four more days.

Annoyance: Rude drivers who endanger me & my daughter.

Animals? Pretty much love them all.

B

Best feeling in the world: Waking up from a long restful sleep.

Best weather: Upper 60s, clear sky, lots of breeze, sunshine!

Been in love: Yes, and still am with my amazing hubby! (And I'll be telling our story starting a week from Monday - are you joining in?)

Been on stage: I used to be on stage a lot for dancing (ballet), music (flute), and performances (I was in a Christian drama group) but I don't do anything now that requires me to be on a stage.

Boys: Love them but I'm SO thankful I had a little girl.

C

Candy: Lindt Hazelnut Wafer bars or a Kit Kat. Any maybe some Strawberry Sour Punch.

Chinese / Mexican food: Yes, please, to both. Lots of each.

Cake or pie: Neither. Cookies or see above candy answer.

Continent to visit: Hmmm. LOVED Europe. Would love to go to Asia or the Middle East as well.

D

Dancing in the rain: As long as I'm wearing a dark shirt (I always get caught in the rain when I'm wearing a white shirt - like going to Walmart the other day. I realize I have issues.)

Drop things: All. the. time.

Dog: Used to have a mini schnauzer named Charter. Couldn't bring him with us to seminary. I miss him all the time but my parents took him in so I still get to see him about every 6 months.

Isn't he cute??? He needs a haircut here.

Diamonds: I have a couple in my rings but overall not a huge fan. I definitely don't need any more.

E

Eyes: Green that looks gray from a distance.

Everyone’s got: trouble??? (I heard a sermon on that two weeks ago)

F

First thought when you wake up: I have to pee really bad.

Food: Chips and salsa top the list.

G

Greatest fear: Losing Hubs or Princess.

Gum: Not supposed to chew it thanks to TMJ but sometimes I sneak a piece from one of the youth girls.

H

Hair color: Bottle blonde. Don't judge, m'kay?

Happy: Not always. There's a huge difference between happiness and joy.

Holiday: Easter.

I

Ice cream: Edy's! For giving me a neighborhood ice cream party!!!

Instrument: Flute & piccolo and dabbled a little in piano.

J

Jewelry: Love earrings and necklaces; hate bracelets and rings because I feel like they hinder my mobility. (Again, I realize I have issues.)

Job: Chef, chauffeur, maid, laundress, CPA, file clerk, web designer, graphic designer. That's what my day usually consists of.

K

Keep a journal? Yep.

Kissing: so sweet from Princess. Always want more from Hubs.

L

Laughed so hard you cried: The other day when Hubs was telling me a story about the customer service he and his co-worker received at a local garage the other day when his co-worker needed some repairs done on his car.

Last time slept: Last night, and it was bliss! Our whole family slept in until 10 AM!!!

M

Movies: I’ve watched 2 chick flicks today - Devil Wears Prada & Ever After. (Hubs is working today, obviously, and Princess and I are having a "girls day" - pajamas & movies!)

Motion sickness: Not until after I got pregnant. Now I have a hard time riding in backseats. If I sit in the back I have to remove the front seat headrest so I can look out the windshield.

N

Not ready for: This fall when my husband's work and school load doubles.

Name: If we'd had a boy, Jackson.

O

One wish: That my husband would be done with seminary.

P

Perfect pizza: Cheese, eggplant, tomatoes.

Pets: See "Dog" above.

Q

Quote you’re loving: "It is easy to be religious when religion is in fashion; but it is an evidence of strong faith and resolution to swim against a stream to heaven, and to appear for God when no one else appears for Him." — Matthew Henry

R

Reality TV: What Not To Wear and American Idol are the extent of my reality TV watching.

S

Song of the moment: God of this City by Bluetree (although the Kris Allen version is much, much better.)

Salad Dressing: Italian all the way!

Strawberries: 2nd favorite fruit.

T

Thunderstorms: Love them!!!

Trust: goes hand-in-hand with security.

U

Unpredictable: My daughter's moods. Come to think of it, my moods too.

V

Vacation spot: Beach or Switzerland.

W

Weakness: Hugs from my little girl, my hubby's baby blues (they still make me melt!), Dr. Pepper.

Worst feeling: Puking non-stop from a stomach virus.

X

X-rays: Went to get one once because I thought my arm was broken. The doctor tried to turn my arm to get a better shot and when he did he finished the break and my bone cracked all the way through. So, I hate them.

Y

Yellow: Color of my old kitchen.

Z

Zoo animal: Sea lions! I could watch them swim and play all day long.

OK that was fun. Now I'm off to do some cooking for dinner tonight, and a little writing too. Hope you all are having a wonderful weekend!

Caffeinated Randomness: If I Were A...

Stolen from Andrea, because I'm not original either... :)

A flower, I'd be a camellia (LOVE this flower):


A song, I'd be "It Is Well With My Soul" by Jeremy Camp:


A movie, I'd be Phantom of the Opera. *sigh* What a show!


A place, I'd be Lucerne, Switzerland - one of the most beautiful, peaceful places I've ever been:


A book, I'd be To Kill A Mockingbird - will always be my favorite book of all time, and a great portrait of humanity through the eyes of a child:


A holiday, I'd be Easter - such a significant day for me: my Savior conquers death, I am redeemed and given a second chance, my daughter is dedicated... I could go on and on:


A time of day, I'd be nighttime - I love the moon and the stars, and let's not go into how important my sleep is!


A drink, I'd be sweet tea (because I'm so sweet, *cough* in case that wasn't obvious!), but no lemon ...


Although one of my good buddies from Austin TX just brought me a whole case of this last night:


That, my friends, is Dublin Dr. Pepper, made with pure cane Imperial Sugar, otherwise known as Gold In A Can That's Only Sold In Texas.

(I'm rationing - I am saving them for Mondays.)

Moving on...

A food, I'd be chips & salsa - because my temper can make me a little spicy sometimes:


A gadget, I'd be an aluminum Macbook with a backlit keyboard - functional, durable, multi-taking, and yet delicate at the same time:


An item of clothing, I'd be yoga pants because I AM ALL ABOUT THE COMFORT:


A shoe, I'd be a flip-flop. I was reminded yesterday when the streets flooded after five minutes of rain that the only acceptable shoe here is, in fact, a flip-flop.

Visit Andrea for more Caffeinated Randomness!