12.19.05

did you know that my aunt gave shawn my number?
and that we went out on a blind date?
it's true.


On Saturday, December 17, 2005 I worked. all day. I got home tired & not feeling cute. plus my mom needed a babysitter. so i decided to stay home. I had been planning all day on going to my cousins basketball game. but knowing i would have to get ready + interact with a bunch of people. i just didn't feel up for it.  while we were sitting at home....thinking of something to do, the phone rang. (at this moment i can't remember which sister answered) but it was aunt kerri calling. wondering if i remembered shawn (i had seen him at a previous basketball game, but we didn't have any interaction---so i didn't remember him) and she also wondered what my cell phone number was. i kept saying to my sister 'i'm right here, just let me talk to her' but she didn't want to talk. just needed the info & then hung up. saying she'd call back later. well she called back. she had given my number to shawn, and told him that we would probably have fun if we went out (i was back home from college for christmas break). we weren't sure if he would even call. but she just wanted to give me the heads up. 

an hour later my cell phone rang (a number i didn't have in my phone book, but would soon memorize). it was him! i remember my sisters and i screaming and trying to calm down. play it cool. so i answered. we talked. not for very long. since it was saturday night but also christmas break, we decided to go out monday. i hung up really nervous but really excited. i'm not much for dates, so the thought of all that one-on-one time with a guy i had never met made me pretty nervous, but i figured how bad could it be? and if it was terrible it wouldn't matter. because we didn't even know each other!


monday. my cousin & i planned the perfect outfit. cute. but semi-conservative since the only thing i did know about this guys is that he worked for youth for christ. i figured he was a typical youth pastor type. shawn called when he arrived at our house just to make sure he was at the right place. he rang the doorbell & i'm pretty sure that my dad answered the door. he came into the kitchen where my mom had been baking christmas cookies all day. every available space was covered in cookies. he said it looked like he walked into santas workshop (ooo, he believes in santa? we don't. oh no.) my family really wanted to talk to him so i couldn't really get a word in. finally we got out of there. our first interaction? shawn opening the door for me and saying 'woah, you are tall.'  (and really, it's true. at least he is still much taller) we got out to his car (a black mustang! he completely redeemed the fact that he might believe in santa & that he thinks im tall.) christmas music was playing (shawn had planned exactly where he wanted the jessica simpson christmas cd) i made a completely awkward comment about his tires when we squealed out of the gravel (unfortunately, its true, but the date proceeded to continue)


sidenote: this story is getting long! are you asleep yet?! also, shawn & i were  talking last night (oops, if you didn't already know...i guess i gave away the ending to my story :) but we were talking about how our date was not very creative or exciting  (he is a completely creative & exciting guy) and he said he didn't put a lot of effort in planning something special or creativeness into our date because he didn't know me. he didn't know that it would go so well. 


so, we went to chilies! (haha. i know) it was fun though. and we sat and talked. and i noticed his big muscles. and here is the part that will be amazing forever...it wasn't awkward! at all! i don't know how that was possible. but it was really fun. looking back, i wish i could remember all the lines i'm sure shawn used. but at the time, i was just eating them up.  we finished at the restaurant, and went over to amc. little did i know that i was out with one of the finest movie connoisseurs in omaha. he had already seen every good movie! so we saw capote. not ideal. but it gave us time to chat. because i wasn't really into the movie. at all. but shawn saved me! he had skittles in his pocket. (i have no idea why) 


well, this about wraps up our date. we proceeded to go out Tuesday, Wednesday, not Thursday (i was babysitting) & then Friday. we even convinced him to stop over on Christmas day! (he was waiting in omaha for relatives to arrive the day after christmas)


i'll stop for now. but i could go on. it was the best blind date i ever went on. we have now been married for 2 1/2 years.