The story of us

Matt and I met when we were around 16. (12 years ago) Wow I didn’t realize that I have known him almost half of my life! We were friends with the same group of people. I don’t really remember where we first met. He went to a different high school than me but mostly hung out in the town I live in. He dated a girl in my class for years. She wasn’t really friends with my group of friends and she really didn’t care for hanging out with us. So, a lot of times if Matt was hanging out with us it was because he had broke up with her so that he could.

He and I worked at the same factory the summer after our senior year of high school along with a couple of our other friends. So a lot of us would party together after work. Then after that I was working 3 rd shift waiting tables at Denny’s (best money I’ve ever made, by the way). He was still working at the factory that we had worked at together. He would come over to my house about one a week, usually right after I had fallen asleep at 2 in the afternoon and want me to go boozing with him. About 9 times out of 10 I would tell him no because I had to work that night.

After this, I had a few longerish relationships and wouldn’t see him for months at a time. But I always considered him a good friend even when we wouldn’t see or talk to each other for a period of time. Then I heard that he went to the Army. I didn’t get to say good-bye.

Fast forward about 2 years (3 years ago). It was actually probably about October too. I got a friend request on MySpace from Matt. He gave me his phone number and I immediately called him. He was stationed out at Ft. Lewis, WA. We texted and talked until he came home for Christmas that year. That Christmas we feel in love. I knew before he ever came home that I loved him. I loved the fact that we had known each other for so long and he knew so much about me.

(Real drunk here but only pic I could find)

Matt left to go back to Ft. Lewis and I made a trip out there around Valentine’s Day. He came home again in April. Around the end of May I went out there and stayed with him for 6 weeks before he left for Iraq in June.

While he was in Iraq, I worked two jobs. I missed that boy more than words can express. I sent him packages all the time and whoever went through his mail said he got the best packages out of his whole unit. I made him blankets and sent to him. I sent him cards every holiday. I wore his dog tags the whole time he was gone.

He came home for R & R in December and we got engaged. No real romantic story to tell here. He asked me to marry him before he went to Iraq but I didn’t want to be “that girl” that got married because her man was going to war. I don’t look down on anyone that does this; it just wasn’t for me. He asked me to marry him again on the phone from Iraq and told me to pick out a ring. When he got home for R & R, we got my ring and got our engagement pictures taken.

We had planned on going to Cancun and getting married on the beach during the summer of 2009. About 6 weeks before he came home we decided to get married as soon as he came home. This mean I had 6 weeks to plan a wedding. I bought our wedding bands. My engagement ring didn’t have a band that matched it so I picked out the one that matched it the best (more on this later this week).

Matt came back from Iraq on August 22, 2008 (14 and a half months) and we got married on 9/5/08 at a little wedding chapel around here by a hippie preacher and had our reception at a bar here also. After all was said and done, we spent around 2 grand on our wedding. I don’t regret for a minute not having a big fancy wedding.

Matt thought he was getting out of the Army in April. So, I stayed at home and waited for him. He ended up not getting out until the end of July because his contract said 4 years and 22 weeks. I took on the responsibility of finding a house and was able to mail him all of the paperwork he needed to sign. I made numerous trips out to see him between the time we were married and the time he got to come home.

I made my last trip out there on 7/28/09 and we were able to drive his car home together. Matt enlisted in the Army Reserves to cut his IRR time in half and we are finally living the life that we have been waiting on for three years.