Our Story Part 1

So lately I have been thinking a lot about the past seven years of my life and just how important every single one of them has been in regards to one of the biggest parts of my life, my husband. I want to spend the next few days sharing with all of you our story, every last bit of it! I hope you enjoy & I apologize in advance for the overload of writing in this first post {there weren't any pictures taken of us at this stage in our story}...

Our story isn't one of "love at first sight" or "I just knew when I met him that he was the one" {If yours is like that, you are lucky and I am happy for you} In fact, ours is the absolute opposite. It all started seven years ago in 2005 when I was a newly seventeen year old, going to high school, reluctant to get a job & just wanting to live carefree not worrying about anything. Yeah, that didn't last long, my parents had been hounding me, & by parents I mean mostly my mother, to get a job. I was seventeen and had a car, there was no reason I didn't need to get a job, were her thoughts. Well my reasons were quite obvious, to me, how was I going to have a job, keep up with my classes & have enough time for my friends? {the last one was of course the most important} I also had a boyfriend that I had been dating for about five months at the time {no not Andrew}, I just didn't see how getting a job had absolutely any benefits. Little did I know. Well one afternoon my mom comes home & hands me an application & says "fill it out & you will have the job"... Background, at the time, the lady who was in charge of hiring for the Subway closest to our house was also one of my mom's friends, hence the "I have the job" comment. I was aggravated, I didn't want to do this, I had absolutely no desire to get a job at that point, let alone work at a food place. I very reluctantly filled out the application & returned it to the store. I was done fighting my mother and I started working at Subway the following week... Still not thrilled & I let it show, even at the job. My first day included filling out paperwork & learning the ropes, and who better to show me the way than Andrew, yes, my Andrew was at that time, my manager {he was also the boy I had given my application to a few days earlier}. I worked the minimum & got upset if I had to work more than two days a week, I was an absolutely horrible employee. Andrew didn't like me & I didn't like him. Ask my family, they can remember me constantly complaining about him, how much I hated working with him and didn't like one thing about him... Harsh I know but I couldn't help it. He would {seemingly} deliberately put me on the schedule for more than I had wanted, in attempts to get me to quit... Trust me, it almost work. Oh, and he almost fired me a few times, thanks to my mom's friend that didn't happen. This went on for about a year, however I did start making some friends at work which helped out with the "hating to be there" attitude that I had previously showed. I still wasn't fond of Andrew but I didn't let that show as much either.

In October of 2006 I started showing more enthusiasm at work, not caring as much about my schedule, wanting to work more than I was. {once you start making money, it becomes addicting, at least for me} My relationship with the previously mentioned boyfriend was rocky, it always had been ever since the start. We broke up & got back together more times I can count. Come November one of my work friends was having a birthday party & invited me to go, I didn't want to go alone so I invited someone to come along with me, no not Andrew or the ex-ish boyfriend, but another guy who ended up bailing the morning of the party. I went to work, upset because I didn't want to go alone and was planning on just not showing up, when Andrew offered to meet up with me beforehand & let me follow him to the party, that way I wouldn't be alone & since he knew people who were going to be there I wouldn't stick out among all of their other friends. I took him up & that night we met up at a CFM/Shell station off of the I-55 & Arsenal exit {yes I still think about this night every time I drive by this exit & see the gas station... which is every day :) }

Well when we got to the party, which was in some nice downtown hotel, we couldn't find it so we spent a little bit of time wandering around and laughing at ourselves for not being able to navigate our way through this hotel. It was the first time we actually spent any time together outside of work & I was beginning to see that he wasn't as bad as I had always thought, he was actually kind of fun... & I do believe he was starting to think the same thing.

{Check back tomorrow for Our Story Part 2}

<3 Melissa