Our Love Story!

Now this is an old picture! Taken our junior year of high school.

Arthur and I have always known each other. No doubt we were in the church nursery together and we were in a lot of the same classes from kindergarten on into high school since we are the same age.  We actually went on our first date when we were 13! Arthur's sister dropped us at the Patch Restaurant for rhubarb shakes or something like that.  We weren't always a "couple", but stayed good friends from then on.

3rd grade.  I'm not sure what Arthur was looking at or why I had pants under my dress!  

It was quite convenient being good friends. He would ask what I thought about this girl and I would tell him how she wasn't what she looks like and not to waste his time. I would ask him about a guy and he would tell me what a jerk he was. Saved us lots of heartaches!!  But we were "just friends" and the girls he liked didn't appreciate it and the guys I liked didn't care for it either.

The summer before our junior year we were both working for a Bible camp. The girls were starting to really irk him with their flirting because he really wasn't interested in any of them. The camp director gave him some advice, "Give your class ring to a girl that you really trust to get them off your back. Make sure she knows it's just to help out."  He thought I would be the perfect girl for it and I gladly took it. It worked. They left him alone!

Something changed though with that ring, and eventually we started to talk about even getting married. I mean, we were best friends and together all the time anyway! We got engaged at Christmas 1984 and got married January 1st, 1986. During that engagement time, I think we saw each other about two weeks because we were both so busy with trips and college.  It was a simple wedding and we took a six week honeymoon and helped out some different ministries as we traveled around the country. We still have friends today that we made on that honeymoon trip.

While looking for this picture I found some old Valentine's he gave me back when we were 13. I think some group was selling them in school and I have quite a few of them from him that year.  In one he asked me to go roller skating that Valentine's Day evening. If he could get us a ride. And if our parents let us.  We were so young!  I also found a necklace he gave me that Christmas that I still have.  I also have lots of notes and letters we wrote each other as we got older. Not a lot of pictures though :(   I remember sitting in Mr. Hendrickson's science class discussing how when we got old we could live in a cabin in the wilderness where there were no people, maybe in Alaska. Can't remember learning much but I remember that!  I don't think I would've passed any of Mr. Schmitz's math classes from 8th grade on if he hadn't helped me understand what I was suppose to do!

And so here we are today. Very much still in love and still best friends! There's so much more I could say but I don't want to write a book. Hope you enjoyed hearing our story!