It's a Love Story

Well, since it's almost Valentine's Day, I thought I would tell you the story of Danny and I.

It all started in the summer of 2004, the summer between my freshman and sophomore years of college. I wanted to do something fun over the summer and thought camp would be a cool experience. I ended up working at a day camp in Bellingham. Though the kids were only there during the day, the staff stayed at the camp all summer. It was a lot of hard work, but it was really fun and I made some really good friends.

As the summer of 2005 approached, I decided I should probably get a job that paid more than 50 cents an hour (camp wages). My dad works out at the BP Refinery and during the summer they hire children of people who work there for odd jobs. My job was to count fire extinguishers and paint fire hydrants. It was rough. I took a few weeks off to guest counsel at the camp I had grown to love the year before. While there, I met this guy named Topple. Well, that wasn't his real name, but we all had camp names and that was his. I had a little crush on this kind hearted, patient, and very tall boy, but so did a few other girls at camp. Every week at camp feels like a months worth of time when you spend every waking minute with the other staff, so really, we spent 2 months together over the summer as Topple and Haleakala. After my visit to camp, I went on my way and didn't think too much more about this handsome fellow I had met.

 {Summer 2005}

Somehow, one of us somehow got the other's AIM (remember that!?) screen name and we started having nightly chats over the computer. It got to the point where I came to expect that we would talk at some point during the day.

 

 {My nursing school graduation - Dec 2007}

Eventually, he was coming to my neck of the woods (he was at Western and I was at PLU) and invited me to come along to the Puyallup Fair to a concert with him and some of his friends. Little did I know that the concert would be full with no tickets and that it would be me and a number of his guy friends. So, we wandered around and he impressed me with his eating skills by eating a huge hamburger about the size of his head. Those of you who know me well, know that this is not something that I would normally do. I would rather be at home in my pajamas with my friends than out with a guy I didn't know that well and all of his rambunctious guy friends. I'm not sure what made me go that night, but I'm glad I did.

 {Fall 2008}

{Winter 2008}

 After that, when I came home on weekends or holidays he would suggest that we get together. And I would turn him down. I was scared of boys. He asked me several times and I continued to say no. Finally, I was taking my niece to go see "Charlotte's Web" and told him he could come with if he wanted. I figured he would turn me down, but he didn't. He came with us and sat through the whole movie like a champ.

We continued to talk over AIM and eventually he asked me what I would say if he asked me out. I told him I might say yes. He then told me that he was going to call me. He called me on the phone and asked me out. I said yes and that was the end of the conversation. We hung up and went back to talking online. Such romance! He always asks me if it sounded like he was reading off of a card and I always tell him that yes, it did.

We went out on our first date and then several more after that. He would come down to PLU to visit and I would see him when I went up north. Danny had to work hard to get me. He was very persistent. The first evidence of this was when he asked me to be his girlfriend. At first I said yes. And then I called him after he left and said no that I wasn't ready. Poor boy, he should have known then what he was in for. But, he didn't let that stop him from continuing his pursuit.

We continued to date and after about a year, we broke up. I was just finishing nursing school and this was the time my Gramma had gotten really sick. I was trying to study to take my nursing boards and help take care of my Gramma. I was spending nearly every day with her. It was all just too much and we broke up. In my heart, I  knew that we would get back together, but it was really hard on both of us because I couldn't explain that to him.  After about 5 months apart (I am really bad with dates), in the fall of 2008 we got back together.

In March of 2009, Danny proposed. I was still working in the recovery room at the hospital in Seattle and I had been on call at the hospital the night before and had gotten called in for an emergency surgery. I woke up late in the morning to find Danny at my apartment with a picnic basket. He said he wanted to go hiking and for a picnic. We stopped at Subway for sandwiches and then went out for our hike. On the car ride I was holding his hand and asked him why he was so sweaty. I thought it was odd since it really wasn't that warm out. We got a little ways up the trail and we stopped by a little stream. He hugged me and pulled a ring out of his pocket and proposed. Afterwards, I scolded him for not getting down on one knee and he told me that he had. I had gotten so excited that I didn't even notice that he had been on one knee but he showed me the dirt to prove it. We finished our hike and I just kept holding my hand out in front of me and looking at my sparkly ring.

 {The propsal spot}

{The ring}

We decided we didn't want a long engagement and set our wedding date for August 15, 2009, five months after we got engaged. We planned a nice, simple wedding and it was perfect.

 {Rehearsal dinner}

We have now been married for 2 1/2 years. We spent our 2 year anniversary camping for a night within close range of the NICU. Our short marriage has been filled with joy, pain, laughter, tears, a few fights, and lots of love.

I could never imagine a better husband and friend than Danny. This last year has just proven to me again that he is the perfect one for me. He spent countless hours working for our family and then driving back and forth from Seattle to be with us. We have heard that situations like ours can be really hard on marriages and while it certainly hasn't been easy, I do think it has brought us together and taught us new things about each other. We never could have imagined where life was going to bring us on that day we said our "I do's" but I am so, so thankful to have Danny by my side. I can't wait to see what the rest of our lives is going to bring us.