My Very First Post!!

Well, I guess this makes it official, I'm a blogger. I am starting this blog to share my journey along the wedding planning path. After the wedding I hope to keep it going to keep friends and family updated on Mike and myself.



Let's start at the beginning...





Mike and I met F O R E V E R ago, or at least it seems that way ;) I worked at Schlotzsky's Deli in Middletown as an after school job. It wasn't glamorous, but it paid pretty well and I loved the owners. Mike worked there on and off for a few years before I started there and stopped in one day to eat. I had no idea who he was but he was talking to one of the managers and being the nosy little lady that I am, I demanded all the details after he left. (Who was he? How do you know him? What did he say? and so on...) Erich (my manager) said he used to work there and was thinking about coming back. Exciting for me, because he was cute. I came in about a week later and he was my new manager.



Our first shift together went well and he swears to this day that he met his friends for a movie later that night and told them he had met the girl he was going to marry that day at work. I guess I made a good impression =)



It took a few awkward dates before I let my heart tell my head how I really felt. I had just dealt with HUGE loss and didn't know if I was ready for any sort of relationship. Especially one that made me feel like this. About five months before I met Mike, I lost my mom. She was my absolute best friend in the entire world and losing her was worst thing that I have ever experienced and something that I will never overcome. Death leaves a heartache no one can heal. How was I supposed to open up my heart to someone while it was still bleeding from the last blow? That is a completely different journey, one that I'll share with you later.



One night changed it all...



I went out with Mike a few times but hadn't really given much thought to the long run. Until the night he opened my eyes to a future that i knew I couldn't let pass me by. It was the perfect date and we didn't even go anywhere. He really didn't know anything about me, including the fact that I had just lost my mother. It was still too fresh to talk about without choking back tears (unsuccessfully I might add). I hadn't been able to open up to anyone since it had happened and I spilled all the words of the story that was my past that night on his parent's deck. Every last detail. Never before had I felt so safe and comfortable with anyone, let alone someone I hardly knew. It was the best feeling in the world. He hardly said a word that night, probably because I had snagged the spotlight, and he didn't have to. His silence spoke volumes. He just held me and let me let it out. When I had finally finished my four hour therapy session (no exaggeration) he looked at me with the kindest eyes I had ever seen and smiled. SIGH... I was in love. Then he made a joke that I'm sure was the real reason I fell in love with him because that is my favorite of his many amazing qualities, his sense of humor. And that was it, the beginning of our love story.