two first dates

i've seen other bloggers write about how they met their husbands, their first date with them, etc. and i love reading those posts, so i decided to do one myself. 

thatcher and i go way back. we first met in 2001 while working for the community education program at our high school (i was a senior, he had already graduated and was a freshmen in college). i worked after school in the office each day. he would come in around 5pm and our shifts would overlap by about a half hour. the first time i talked to him, i was in the storage room looking for card stock and asked him to help me. we would casually chat while setting up the chairs, treats, and coffee for the adult education classes (if you worked there, you totally know what i'm talking about). my best friend kelli also worked there (although not in the office at the same time, if i remember right?)

one day while at kelli's house, she and i logged into aol instant messenger (because, of course!) and i asked her about a screen name i saw on the list. 

"oh, that's that thatcher guy from community ed" she said. 

"what? why are you friends with him on instant messenger?" i laughed. 

we decided to message him just for fun. over the next few weeks, he and i chatted more at work and started chatting online as well. kelli, thatcher, and i would all be logged in at the same time at our respective houses and kelli would talk to thatcher, thatcher would talk to me, i would talk to kelli. he started confiding in her that he had a crush on me (but shhhhhhh don't tell her!). kelli would copy and paste everything he wrote and send it over to me. bahaha! 

kelli invited both of us to come watch one of her dance competitions on a weekend afternoon. thatcher picked me up and when i went to sit down in the car, i noticed a bouquet of sunflowers sitting on the seat. i didn't think anything of it (actually i figured they were for kelli) and set them on my lap as we drove off. a few minutes later, he sheepishly confessed they were for me! oh! was this a date or something? me the dorky high schooler who hadn't dated anyone before, wasn't quite sure what to make of this all :) we had fun together that afternoon and even stopped over at his house briefly, where i met his parents. meeting the parents on a fake first date? why not? :) 

not long after that, he asked me out on a real date. we went out for dinner at figlio in uptown (we had many dates there after that, too). i can still remember exactly what he wore: a black, mock turtle neck shirt with a green apple seed cast (a band)'s t-shirt over it, khaki pants, and black dress shoes. haha! it's so vivid in my mind, yet i have no idea what i wore. we had a nice dinner, then decided to go for a walk because it was a warm spring night. while on our walk, we kept bumping hands....finally i got up the courage and just grabbed his hand. he smiled at me. while walking along hennepin avenue, all of a sudden a car pulled over and someone was excitedly waving to us. it was his roommate's mom and sister. ha! awkward....

we hung out together quite a bit  for a month or so after that. then, he went off on a 2 week long road trip, a cross-country tour with his roommates who were in a fairly big band at the time. that's when "the letters" started coming. i got a handwritten letter from him almost every day in the mail. most of them were about their day to day adventures on the road. remember, we didn't have cell phones then! sometimes he would mention he missed me. i tried to sneak the letters up to my room before my parents noticed, but usually failed. 

"another note from that thatcher guy, huh melissa? ;)" they would tease.

the last note he sent to me, we lovingly refer to as "the blue note." (it was written in blue marker). you could call it a love letter of sorts. it was very sweet and i knew right then that i had found a keeper. another day, (i can't remember if this was before or after his trip), i was at home sick and he dropped off some flowers for me. i had to waltz back into my living room where my mom was, with a bouquet of flowers from my "friend" thatcher. bahaha. 

we became "official" (that sounds so silly, but you know what i mean) when he came back in town (june 2, 2002). he also came to my high school graduation party where he met my parents. we spent the whole summer together. i had already decided to attend college in duluth that fall, so i was a little worried how that would work out. i really liked him, but worried that i was going to be "missing out" by having a boyfriend back home. i decided i didn't care and told him i wanted to give it a shot. so, we did! it helped that my roommate also had a boyfriend back home (who she is now married to and has 2 kids with), so she wasn't really chasing boys either. we spent 4 years talking over the phone, instant messenger, and only seeing each other every other weekend. it was hard, but we both knew it was worth it and i have no regrets about that time. it taught us to be great communicators. and once we finally were back in the same city again, it felt like the greatest thing ever. 

it's so funny to think back on those days. we were really young when we met and even when we got married, but we both just "knew" from the beginning that we were in this thing for the long haul. 12 years and 2 kids later, things just keep getting better and better. thanks for taking a trip down memory lane with me! 



one of our first pictures together. before selfies were called selfies :)