This is what one blind date will get you....

I told you here a few weeks ago that you should tune in today, July 18th. The reason being that I would tell you the story of how Buddy and I met.

12 years ago, today, I met the man who would become my future husband.

It all started my Senior year of high school. I had a friend named April. Because our last names were close, we were always in homeroom together. The joke we had was that we needed to "hook each other up" with a date. Fast forward to July of 1997. It was the summer between high school and college. I bumped into April and her at-the-time boyfriend, David, in a restaurant. She said she had finally found a guy to "hook" me up with. It was David's friend from school. She talked me into going out with this friend.

I said I would go, but only if she and David went too. I had enough sense to not go by myself. David gave me a phone number for a guy named Buddy, and I gave him my number to pass along. Later that evening I got a phone call. I couldn't begin to tell you what we talked about, but I distinctly remember talking to Buddy for over two hours. I remember hanging up the phone thinking that he sounded nice. We talked several other times that week and decided to go out the following Saturday night.

The four of us went out to eat at a nice Italian restaurant in Greenville and then went to see the Greenville Braves play baseball. Buddy and David both played on their high school team, and us girls didn't mind watching a game. Baseball is one of the two sports I completely understand. (Football is the other one, but that's beside the point.) I remember I wore a khaki skirt and this really cool turquoise short-sleeve sweater I got in Germany. I think the Braves even won the game. Afterwards we went to a popular coffee shop in downtown Greenville. I remember thinking that this guy was really nice and I would like to go out with him again.

And so we did....many times. Sometimes David and April went with us and sometimes it was just us. As irony would have it, David and April broke up about three months after they introduced us. April later told me that she felt the Lord had her date David so that Buddy and I could meet. I totally agree, because I can't figure out how else we would have met. We lived on opposite sides of town and went to completely different high schools. I am so thankful for the little bit of time April and David were friends, because it led me to the best friend I've ever had....my husband.

Needless to say, I highly recommend blind dates!!

I think you all know me well enough now that I can't take a trip down memory lane without a few pictures.

You've seen this picture before, but I have to include it again, because this is the first picture I have of us as a couple. This was October of 1997, three months into our dating time, headed to the Homecoming at his high school.



This picture was taken in 2000. We both turned 21 that summer. Buddy's mom had an extra photo session at a photo place in Greenville and wanted to get some pictures of us. This summer we had been dating 3 years.



This was taken in the fall of 2000, at a Clemson football game tailgate. We had so much fun at the game, and yes, the Tigers won!!

This picture was taken about 2 weeks after we got engaged. If you look closely you can see my diamond! We had gone with some people to the Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia. Weren't the tulips pretty?

This picture was taken before we went to a wedding. This happened to be right around our 4 year dating anniversary.

This was Christmas 2006, at Buddy's parents' house. Don't ask me why we are wearing our Irish shirts, as if it were St.Patrick's Day.



Ok, this picture has a great story. The date was April 28, 2007. We were at a training burn with the fire department. (Trust me, we weren't the only ones taking pictures in front of the flames.) I was supposed to get to train on this one, but we had a feeling I might be pregnant. Later that afternoon, I took a home test and we found out we were pregnant with Quinn. This is our first "family" picture!



We've had a lot of fun together. Buddy's the one who convinced me you can go camping in a tent (no matter how cold it is). He taught me that even though Calamari is really a slimy squid, it is actually very tasty. It's been a fun twelve years, and I can hardly wait to see what happens in our future.