Once Upon A Time.....

This is where it all started.  A tall skinny boy named Kelly Watson moved to Albuquerque when I was 15.  Was it love at first sight?  Um.....NO!  He had on white skinny jeans and a pink plaid shirt the first night we met at a church dance, and he made no real effort to be friendly to me.  (In his defense, I think I was wearing a vest and a BOW TIE that night.  Gotta love the 80's!!)

We did not hit it off for quite a while.  The boys and the girls were constantly feuding about a woman's place in the world, and the only words I used to describe him at that time were names of various animals of the 4 legged variety.  This lasted nearly 2 years.  Not exactly a fairy tale beginning.  But then one day, the tide turned.

It was Sunday.  I had gone to prom the night before and according to tradition, was wearing my prom dress to church.  I had to speak that day, and when I looked out on the congregation, Kelly winked at me.  I thought he was messing with me - trying to get me to mess up or something.  But later on when he passed me in the hallway, he said "You look pretty today".  WHAT?????  I had no idea what was going on.  Up until this, we hadn't really had a civilized conversation.  I was flustered, but intrigued!

The next Friday, the phone rang.  It was for me.  It was Kelly Watson.  He asked me to dinner. I was totally shocked.  I said yes.  Here is where I should probably mention that I had a boyfriend, but when suddenly faced with the option of a date with Kelly, I had to go.  I mean, what was happening?  Did he take some magic potion that had turned him from an ogre into a prince??? I had to find out.  So I accepted and off we went.   Now I will switch to the short version of the evening's events.  It could take hours to give a full account!

*We had dinner at a 50's style diner called Yesterdave's.
*We then rented Lethal Weapon at Blockbuster and went back to my house to watch it.
*When we got there, my BOYFRIEND had called and threatened to come over and beat Kelly up if   he didn't leave.
*Kelly, unaware of said boyfriend, was not pleased and left immediately.
*I got on the phone and into a 3 hour phone conversation where boyfriend was threatening suicide if I broke up with him.  I broke up with him.  He survived.
*Next day, I went to see Kelly to apologize and see if he would forgive me.  It went a little something like this:
     K:  Why didn't you tell me you already had a boyfriend?
     J:  Because I liked you and wanted to go out with you.  But I broke up with him right after you left.
     K: So you're not going out with him anymore?
     J:  No.
     K: So you can go out with me now?
     J:  YES!

And the rest, as they say, is history!  The next day, Sunday, we were sitting by each other holding hands at church, and people who had witnessed the hostility between us for the past 2 years were in shock!  There are still friends of my family who can't believe that we are married.  I can.  I have loved him from that very day until now.  We had lots of on-again-off-again moments, and we survived being separated for 2 years during a mission and college.  There are many funny, happy, not so happy (Senior Prom!!),  sweet and memorable stories that have made up our history.  Now that we are 30 somethings, we have been together more than half of our lives.  We have spent more years together than we ever spent without each other.  I have the life I always wanted thanks to the boy in the white skinny jeans.

I love you Kelly!  Happy Anniversary.