How We Met

What you are about to read is (as far as I know) a historical account. Please correct me if you know any of the details to be false.


 Travel with me down a little country road in northern Idaho. After about a half a mile, sits a little country church and a Bible camp near a lake. Across the road are the homes of the son of the folks who donated the land for the church & camp, two of his sons homes, and the home of his daughter-in-law's mother. This is where our story begins.

 It was August 1999. As I recall the day was warm & sunny. I had spent the night at the home of the daughter-in-law's mother who just so happens to be my grandmother. It was mid-morning and I sat in the family room wearing plaid pajama pants, a navy blue t-shirt, and dripping wet hair. I don't remember exactly what I was doing but I do know I had showered shortly before, was sitting in her big comfy chair by the window, and was likely reading one of Grandma's People magazines that were stashed in the end of the coffee table. Grandma was in the other room.

I was not quite 17 years old and Grandma had asked me to stay the night. I think she was feeling a bit sorry for me as I had been having a hard time of it that summer. My heart had been broken for the first time a couple months before and I was feeling pretty lonely.

As I sat curled up in the chair, I heard footsteps on the porch outside the window & as I looked over my shoulder there came a knock at the door. I saw a young guy, unremarkable to me at the time, all I remember is that he wore a ball cap. Feeling suddenly embarrassed about my appearance, I called to Grandma.

"Hey, Grandma. Some guy is at the door. I didn't want to answer it in my pajamas."

"Oh. Okay. I'll get it."

She answered the door and the young man asked her if she had something. They only spoke a couple of minutes and I hid around the corner in the family room. I watched him retreat down the porch steps and then Grandma came into the family room.

"That was one of those boys from back at Ed & Jan's," she told me.

"Oh. One of those people that live in the bus?" I asked. Ed & Jan were the people whose parents gave the land and they were the other grandparents of my cousin who lived right next door to Grandma. My cousin had told me about the family that lived in a big bus and were parked at her grandparent's house. We referred to them as, the weird people that live in the bus.

"Yeah. Oh they are such nice boys. And can they ever sing."

"Oh really?"

"Oh yes. They travel around and sing and play old cowboy music and they are so good. Grandpa & I went to one of their shows. They are really good. And can their sister ever sing."

"Hm."

And that was it. That was the first time I ever saw him. I don't have any idea what we did the rest of that day. And I never gave that boy another thought. I sometimes wonder what would have happened if i had gone to the door that day, but my vanity and pride got the better of me. Unbeknownst to me, God would bring that same boy back into my life but He would wait a year and a half to do it.



 Time went on and I dated another boy and got my heart wrenched out a second time. This time was worse than the first. It was almost exactly a year later and it was at that point that I decided the boy/girl relationships weren't all they were cracked up to be. So began my vendetta against the opposite gender.

 It was sometime in July of 2000 when two new guys started coming to church. It was also about this time that the church started a college-age Bible study. My sister & her fiance' were attending and so were the two new guys. Terah told me that they were really nice & that I should meet them. As I recall, my response was something along the lines of,

*snort* "I don't.think.so."

"Why? They're really nice."

"I'm not interested in meeting guys."

"I don't mean you have to date one of them. Just meet them."

"I'm not interested."

"Why?"

"Because they're hicks!"

And that was my honest-to-God opinion. And the subject was dropped.

A month or so later we were at Lyle's parents' house preparing for Lyle & Terah's wedding. Lyle & Ryan were doing some yard work & Terah & I were sanding the barn so it could be repainted. A truck pulled in the driveway and out of it came one of the new guys. I remember looking to see who it was and he was talking to Ryan. Lyle's mom came over and was talking to Terah and me.

"Heidi, don't you have to go talk to Ryan about something?" she hinted.

"Um, no."

"You should go meet that boy. He's cute."

"Uh. No thanks."

"And he's blonde. Kind of."

At that point I rolled my eyes and turned the sander back on. Not happening.

As luck would have it, minutes later Lyle, Terah, & I ended up near Ryan and his "cute, kind of blonde" friend and I sort of hovered in the background trying not to be blatantly rude. Lyle introduced us.

"Oh, hey Matt. This is Terah's sister Heidi."

"Well, it's good to meet you," he said.

"Hi. Nice to meet you."

We stood there, the guys talking, girls listening, for a few more minutes. Lyle invited him to the wedding and he left. I endured a few more comments from people and life carried on.

A couple weeks later Lyle & Terah were married & life changed drastically. I had never spent much time away from my sister in my 18 years and it was a hard adjustment for me.

The months passed, I continued to ignore the opposite gender as much as possible, and December rolled around. I remember feeling particularly sorry for myself that day. I have no friends, I'm going to be alone forever, why are guys such jerks. That sort of thing. It was that day that Lyle's twin invited us to a birthday party for a friend at a house he was house sitting. I didn't want to go. I wanted to stay home and finish my pity-party. But for some reason, I decided to go at the last minute. I did not realize that that one decision was about to alter the course of my life forever.

The house was really nice. It was one of those houses where there were carpet protectors all over the floor. Terah, Shelby, and I got a wild hair to flip them all poky side up and sit and watch people step on them. Matt walked in, walked on one of them, looked down, stepped off, and hardly altered his course. For some reason, it gave us the giggles. We ended up talking to him for a couple minutes and then everybody played games and we did a white elephant gift exchange.

At some point during the evening I was introduced to Matt's brother, Jason. I don't remember who, or when, or how we were introduced, just that we were and he was surprised Terah and I were sisters.

During our games, someone(you know who you are) told a nasty joke and as I looked around horrified at everybody laughing I noticed Matt & Jason covering their faces and blushing. I was in awe that two guys were embarrassed at the joke. I didn't know guys like that. And a tiny piece of my icy heart started to melt.

It came time to go home. I was at the doorway, tieing my shoes when Jason came over to bid us adu.

"Well, it was nice meeting you Heidi."

"It was nice meeting you, too."

"Now I know your name so I can say hi instead of ,'hey you.'"

"Uh. Yeah." I'm known for my witty, intelligent responses.

"Okay. See you guys next Sunday."

"Bye."

And with that, we went out, got in the blazer, and left.


To be continued...................

Tuesday

1) Life seems to be getting back to a somewhat normal pattern now that the holidays & birthdays are behind us. We have started school again & I find that I am craving simplicity, organization, & routine. It's something that's been seriously lacking the last 3 or 4 years around here.

2) I also find that in order to get to the simplicity part, I must first get the organization & routine part into action. So begins the great organization project of 2013. I have already started on my kitchen. I have pretty much moved & purged everything. However, it probably won't be complete until the end of the week or the middle of next. I have a few purchases to make and I have to wait for paychecks, bills to be paid, clothes to be bought, yada, yada, yada.
I am finding much of my inspiration via Pinterest. Among my favorites are www.abowlfulloflemons.net , good ole Martha, and this lady for the printable part of being organized. It's quite the project and my house looks worse than ever but it's a means to an end.

3) I have birthday posts of the boys just waiting to be completed and published. And Christmas cards to be mailed. I got sick right before Christmas and one or another of us has been coming down with it ever since! I think we are finally all well today!

4) Rhett is 8 months old today! I will be taking pictures of him and posting them as well. He has grown! There is so much he can do now.

5) Avril is way into helping with everything these days. I am trying to nurture it as much as possible. I haven't done well with the boys on that. And it's starting to show. A lot. Which brings me to number 6.

6) I bought this book. And I am really loving it. This is so happening at our house.

7) Our poor couches are coming to the end of their life. It's a little sad since we bought them right after returning from our honeymoon. They were one of the few things we bought brand new. They are still usable but looking pretty shabby. I predict we will be purchasing others within the year.

8) I climbed Mt. Everest! In my living room. I believe that this is the biggest pile of laundry I've ever had in my living room and I finally got it folded. Now I just have to put it away!

9) Womens Ministry meeting tonight. Woo-hoo! I think it's been about three months since I last went to one and I've been missing church due to illnesses so I've missed those church ladies. It's always refreshing and great fellowship. Plus it's nice to hear what's on the agenda for the year at our little church.

10)  Saturday is a youth fellowship concert at a church in town. It's a fundraiser for the basketball teams. And it's featuring the worship team from our church. That means Jay will be singing. I'm already thinking about copping out. I know I'm terrible but standing and singing for an hour is not entertaining to four young children and Jay won't be able to help me contain them. I don't know if any of you all know my kids very well, but my kids + boredom = very naughty, loud, & downright evil. And all of that + loud music + me = very crabby & unsociable.