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I'm SO sorry it has taken me this long to write another post!! Last weekend was my baby shower and things were just INSANE the whole week. My mother-in-law, two sisters-in-law, and some of my sweet friends/"family" came in town on Friday for it and left yesterday afternoon, so I have just been one busy girl preparing for them and enjoying them here!
So, pretty much, I've been writing this same blog post for the last week!
I'm working on one about the baby shower, but in the meantime, I figured you guys wouldn't mind another post about back when Jon and I were dating. :)
And can I just tell you girls how much I loved reading your comments on Monday's post? Some of them were fun to read (you guys have such FUN romance stories!!), some brought back tons of memories of when I was in high school and dreaming about my future husband, and some just broke my heart (and know that I'm praying for all of you who are playing the waiting game right now).
And can I also tell you that I was twenty-one before I ever went on a date? It is so completely okay to wait for awhile. I'm SO glad I did. Jon was the second guy I ever dated and I can't tell you how huge of a blessing it was for me to walk into our marriage without tons of baggage from previous relationships.
Getting back to memory lane... :)
I remember that Wednesday night Bible study was starting to become my favorite night of the week and not just because of the Bible study. Every week, everyone would come and then around ten-ish when everyone else would be leaving, Jon would be just sitting down on the couch and I'd go take my place in the recliner and we would end up talking until way past midnight every night.
A couple of weeks after it was starting to get obvious that he wasn't just hanging around because the poor guy was lonely, I took a bunch of high school girls from my church - including my sister Cayce - on a long weekend retreat.
The Wednesday before I left, Jon was talking about a family that we both knew from church and how they were moving and he was going to go hang out with the kids the next day and would I like to go with him?
SUCH a smooth move! I totally noticed how great he was with kids and how nuts they were about him.
He ended up texting me the rest of day and by the end of Thursday night I was completely certain that Jon O'Brien was not interested in just being friends.
So, I went on the retreat. And there was very little - if any - cell reception, which ended up being great because it gave me a lot of time to just think and pray about Jon and whether or not I was ready for a relationship. I would tell all the girls to grab their Bibles and find some alone time and then I'd go find Cayce and tell her that we were going on a walk.
Poor Cayce got almost zero alone time that weekend.
But she did listen very well as we walked all around the camp and I talked and talked and talked about Jon. Did he like me as more than a friend? Did I like him as more than a friend? Did she think he was a nice guy?
And, I didn't know this until much later, but apparently my brothers and parents invited Jon over for dinner while I was gone. Just to "get to know him better". Apparently, it was obvious to everyone else but me that he was interested.
We got back and Jon asked if I'd like to go to lunch at a local Mexican restaurant. I remember being SO nervous before he showed up at my house but by the time we got to the restaurant, I was completely fine. I felt all small and petite next to him (again, not an easy thing to feel when you are 5'7"!!!) and we ended up talking at lunch about everything and there was never a moment where the conversation got awkward.
Actually, I take that back. I was playing with my straw wrapper during part of the conversation. I was tearing it into little squares and then arranging the squares on the table and he - Mr. I'm-Going-To-Teach-Special-Ed - told me that I probably had a mild form of ADD and OCD.
Um. Thank you.
We started noticing that a lot of people had cleared out of the restaurant and there was some new people sitting down and realized then that we'd been talking for FOUR hours and we were running into the dinner crowd. Our poor waiter guy. I hope Jon tipped him well.
More memories to come! And I want to keep hearing yours! And new question - is there (or was there) any characteristic in a future husband that would (or did) keep you from marrying him?
I'll post pics of the shower in a bit! Have a great Tuesday!
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