Happy Anniversary Andy!

This is not a picture of Andy, this is his favorite hockey player, Mario Lemieux. Andy doesn't want his pic on the internet, so Mario said he'd stand in. I must say, that Andy is better looking.

I thought I'd commemorate this 7th anniversary with the story of how we met and fell in love. Not because it is wild and crazy, nor necessarily intriguing... but because it is our story and Fischer may want to hear it someday... and I have the memory of a pea.

Andy and I actually went to the same high school. He was a year ahead of me, but I had seen him around. He had a peculiar sense of "style", that made him get noticed. He almost always wore fingerless wool gloves, two pairs of socks (2 different colors), 2 pairs of shorts (I found that out later) and at least two shirts. He never ever wore pants, no matter the weather or the occasion. I found out later, he didn't even own a pair of pants! His outfit was interesting, he worked the school store, he was always surrounded by friends, and he put his own picture in the yearbook about a hundred times one year. So, needless to say, I had noticed him way back then.

He says that I must have been a nerd, and that is why he hadn't noticed me back then. Whatever. Just because I went to an early morning bible study at the Belgium Waffle, ate lunch with the same crew everyday, and skipped classes to hang out in the theater rooms... doesn't make me a nerd! Sheila and I spent many weekend night painting things at my house, discussing this very fact. If only people (boys) had known how incredibly amazing we were!... Anyhoo... that is a whole other story...

Fast forward to my second year of college. I was taking an Intro to Special Education class (that all education majors have to take). The first day, I walked in late (as usual) and plopped down in the chair closest to the door. The chairs were set up in a circle and guess who was sitting across from me? That weirdly-cute guy that used to wear fingerless gloves every day in high school! He was still wearing his trademark Girbaud shorts. I noticed him, again.

He still didn't notice me, he was busy noticing the tan soccer chic to his right. This went on for a few weeks (same seats every week), then our class moved rooms. In the new room, we were set up at tables in rows. I sat directly in front of him every day. My roommate had to help me curl the back of my hair so that my head would look enticing. I don't know why I was trying to entice him when I actually had my eye on 7 different guys at the time (The 7 wonders of the world) - No, I was NOT a nerd!

Anyway, one day as I came in late, sporting Umbros, a t-shirt and ponytail, the only seat available was next to him! I sat there, strangely nervous and quiet. An outgoing friend on the other side of me made conversation with Andy, and the tan soccer chic, continued to pull his gaze to the right. I was ... invisible. He was sending my hormones out of control! We stayed in these seats for a week or two and then... drum roll please... I spoke! "Goodbye rest of the world, that super hot blond girl is soooo funny!!!" is what he was probably thinking. Sometimes it is really rough being immediately charming the moment your lips utter a sound, but hey... we all have our problems! After a couple of days of talking and walking out of class together, he invited me to a BBQ at his house. I said I'd try to make it, but I was super busy. So, two of my friends and I sat around all night waiting for the perfect timing to show up. Then we decided it would be really impressive if we rollerbladed over there. Andy roller-bladed everywhere, so this would surely be a good thing to do. Except that we didn't know how to rollerblade, we all owned a pair, but had no idea of how to get from point A to point B without a constant parking strip of grass to slow us down or break our falls. It took FOREVER to get there. We stumbled, scooted, crawled, careened out of control, and dragged our breaks the 10 blocks downhill to Andy's house. By now it was around 11:30 and.. the BBQ was over. Well, what can I say, sorry to be late, but I have a very busy social life.

My tactic totally worked! My friends were bleeding when we arrived, which made them look clumsy and me look like a rock star! We played basketball on rollerblades and then he rollerbladed home with us (uphill was much easier). He was so skilled on his blades and with the basketball it made him even hotter!

The next day I was packing for a backpacking trip with my real crush "Drew", when Andy showed up at my house for some reason with his roommate... a girl! Um, bad move. Who was she? Why was she at my house? Whatever, they chatted for a bit and after they left I didn't think of him too much for the rest of the weekend.

I can't remember how things progressed after that. It was May and school was almost out and by the time we moved out of our apartment, Andy was my boyfriend. He must of relentlessly pursued me until I finally gave in. I remember a lot of loooong walks with hours and hours of talking. Again, me charming the pants off him, I just couldn't help it. He talked about odd topics, and his point-of-view was so different from mine. his opinions were opposite, and yet he made sense! I actually remember thinking... well, I'm going to just have to get used to this (as if I knew he was the one).

I went to work at a summer camp a few hours away and he wrote me letters upon letters, and poems upon poems. He was so romantic and smart, and cute and doting! I was 19, he was 21.

We dated three years before he proposed. We'd known we were going to marry each other for years, but wanted to wait till we were done with school. He proposed at a natural spring in the mountains, the place he said we were when he first realized he loved me. We sat by the water and I talked endlessly about wanting to put this in my backyard and hang a hammock over it. I was going into the details of how I would get in and out of it... when he stopped me. He hadn't spoken much the whole time we sat there, I hadn't even noticed. There I was just being so charming again! Anyway, he said that our lives were just so perfect and he listed all of the ways. There was just one thing missing, and he pulled out the ring. I didn't now what he was doing, I was totally caught off guard, I sat there staring at the ring thinking, why does he have that? Then I stumbled back into reality and stuttered a OMG, yes!

He finished up his Masters, and I finished my dual major, and we moved 2 hours South (closer to our families). We were married on June 30, 2001. And everything has been completely perfect ever since!!! ;)

Andy is the kind of man that I hope my son grows up to be. I am very lucky.