Apparently I needed to read the whole thing, because I didn’t impress her enough and we were just friends for the next 3 years. The next thing I noticed was that Holli is a free spirit. She has a fun loving side to her and she marches to the beat of her own drum.
We both lived separate lives. We both dated other people and had our own groups of friends, but every time we hung out we always said, “We should hang out more”, almost as if there was some force trying to pull us together. We both resisted, which was good because I had a little growing up to do.
Apparently the force that was trying to bring us together had enough and a fateful Sunday evening at a church event I made the most important lie of my life. I said, “do you want watch season 1 of arrested development. I own it and we can watch it at my place.” I did not own it, but thought for some reason I felt compelled to tell her I did. She said yes and I made a trip to Wal-Mart the next day.
I didn’t quite intend for this post to be a chorological story of how we met, but I’m too far in and now I’m going to roll with it. So you can stop reading if you want.
The next saga of our relationship I like to call the “what are we?” phase. I had just gotten out of a serious relationship and I had all but sworn off the female race. I was deeply depressed and not in exactly a good place to be starting a relationship. The next thing I saw in Holli was her patience and compassion. Patience is an essential quality that anyone who would marry me would need. To this day I still have no clue why she stuck with me through that particularly dark period of my life, but she did and I am grateful. As I slowly fell in love with her and slowly let go of that past relationship, Holli was my beacon of light and she has been ever since.
As I got to know Holli better I realized we were perfect for each other. It was like I was a puzzle piece and had been looking for the right match and one day it just clicked. I learned how artistic and creative she was. I realized how smart she was. I saw how excited she got about certain things like fabric and articles about domestic violence (I don't get it). The best of all and I think this is one of the most important parts of a relationship, she made me want to be a better person.
I also remembered the day that I knew I wanted to marry her. I remember we were apart and I wanted nothing more than to be with her and I knew I would never be happy unless I was with her. I was sold, 100% in. Holli on the other hand wasn’t so sure. I kind of tested the waters and we had talked a little bit about marriage, but she wasn’t sold on me. To her defense I was still a little rough around the edges, so I don’t blame her.
So I decided if I wanted Holli I had to man up and ask her to marry me and hope for the best. She doesn’t know this, but I had an “if she said no” speech ready. Luckily I never had to use it and threw it away.
Now that we are married I find myself falling more and more in love with my wife. So much so I have forgotten about my secret Canadian family…just kidding. But seriously Holli is the most amazing woman, everyone who knows her looks to her as an example of the kind of woman they want to be. She is a wonderful mother and wife and friend. And with a husband as crazy as I am she deserves some kind of medal. So on my wife’s 26th birthday I want to say that I love her and can’t wait until we are old so I can really let my crazy out!
