Want to give your husband a unique Father’s Day gift this year? Sometimes, finding the right gift can be hard. I had this idea late last night and I decided I was going to run with it this week and I’d like to invite you to join me.
I’m going to write up the ‘story of us,’ and then give it to him with all the photographs I can find to illustrate it. If you want to share your story here, feel free to PM me with the information and I’d love to post your Father’s Day Stories of You. 
Today we’re going to write the prologue to our story. Walk down memory lane with me?
Before I Met You, My Life Was ….
Once upon a time, I made rash and impulsive decisions that often landed me in as much hot water as refreshing. I could do this because I was young, single and capable of rolling with the punches. One of those decisions was to move to California because I had an online relationship with a guy who lived there. It was a horrible mistake and in retrospect, I saw all the signs, but I leapt before I looked.
After three months, I was living on my own, desperate for working and struggling to pay the bills. I lost nearly 30 pounds over those 3 months because I was practically starving and living on ramen noodles. My mother sent me the money to bring me home to Texas and I scurried home, tail firmly tucked between my legs. Three months after coming home, I had another opportunity. This one would take me to Virginia, but the job possibility wasn’t strong.
Never one to let fear stop me, I took the step (but not the leap) and went for a visit. I spent a week there, interviewing and securing the job before returning home. Not two weeks later, I packed a suitcase and two cats to move to Virginia. I stayed with a friend at first and two days after moving, I met the man who would eventually become my husband.
If I Hadn’t Done X, Would I Have Met You?
If I hadn’t moved to Virginia, if I’d let fear from my previous leap to California dictate my decision, I don’t know that I would have met my husband. Although, in an odd string of coincidences, we discovered that we both lived in California as young children. Our families moved to North Texas at about the same time. We both applied to the Air Force Academy. We both got in. We both changed our minds, within days of each other, to not attend. We worked together online for AOL as community helpers and we actually talked online several times without ever realizing who the other one was.
We knew many of the same people and were actually in many of the same places, we just didn’t meet until I moved to Virginia, a place he’d moved to a year previously. Were we fate? I like to think that our choices were bringing us closer and closer together until our paths finally met.
The First Time We Met, I …
When we first met, I have to confess, I thought my husband was too much of a goof for my tastes. He was such a kook and had a gift for finding the humor in every situation. We were on a piece of where a mutual friend of ours kept his horses. The farrier (someone who takes care of their hooves) was due out to take care of the horses’ feet. It was cold outside (it was February) and there was slushy snow on the ground, mud and more. Cold and thirsty were not a good combination, so he volunteered to go get drinks and I got sent along to help carry them (no cup holders in the car).
The entire time I was in the car, I was torn between outrageous laughter and terror (he drives like a loon) and I’m the uber cautious type. When we got back, he parked the car a little too far into the mud, a fact we didn’t notice until after we were getting ready to go. We tried to get it to move out, but it wasn’t going. So I got behind it along with the farrier and our friend to shove it as he put the car in gear. Unfortunately, he didn’t hear us say ‘don’t’ hit the gas pedal and did hit it.
If you are imagining mud flying everywhere and being coated from head to toe – you wouldn’t be wrong. Just like a scene from a sitcom, we were plastered with mud, the car moved forward and I fell – face first into a puddle. I remember sitting there on the ground, covered in mud, laughing. Little did I know that this was just the prelude to our life together.
Do you have a story to share?