Bud & Biz....8 years!

Once Upon a Time....there was a girl named Biz.

She was a freshman in high school.

She rode the bus to school everyday.

Somedays while riding the bus she would see a handsome junior in the back laughing and making everyone else laugh.

She was drawn to him.

He was so nice to everyone.

Fast forward to 2nd semester.

The Winter Homecoming dance was fast approaching and she didn't have a date.

She started up a conversation with said guy that went something like this:

"So are you going to the homecoming dance"?

"I'm not sure, yet," he said.

"Oh," I replied.

"Are you going to the dance," he asked?

I coyly replied, "well I don't have a date".

"I know,"he exclaimed,"you can go with my brother"!

Panicked (as this was not playing out as she imagined it) she replied, "Oh well I don't have a dress".

Still excited he remarked, "he'll buy you a dress"!

(She didn't know that at the time....her future brother-in-law....had a small crush on her)

Stumped...she concluded that maybe if she made a good impression on the brother....her main crush might want to go out with her later.

"Okay," she responded.

Later that day she told her mother about the arrangements for homecoming at which point her mother exclaimed, "NO boy is buying you a dress...if he buys you a dress he'll expect something in return".  

She couldn't have been further from the truth, which I tried to explain to her, "The *?#$@#$@ Boys aren't like that Mom".

Well as life would have it, I started dating my first boyfriend and had to tell Bud's brother that I couldn't go to the dance with him after all as my boyfriend wouldn't approve.

He didn't mind too much and quickly found another date (it was a short crush obviously).

By the time homecoming came around I didn't have a date of any kind and ended up going with a friend.

At this point I kinda gave up on my crush and just allowed the idea of being friends to be okay.

(Mainly because it became apparent that he was more interested in my friends than me at the time).

2 years later.

Bud returns from Basic training and AIT and his brother tells him that I said, "Hi".

Bud came over to my house to show me the pictures from his military training.

After a lunch date and odd bowling experience, it became apparent that we were bordering the line of just friendship.

There may have been a kiss...or two.

Bud stopped me outside of work one night to tell me that he didn't think he should be kissing someone who wasn't his girlfriend.

I, being so level headed, thought we were over before we had even begun.

The he uttered, "Will you be my girlfriend"?

The rest is history.

We've been together for over 10 years and as of today we've been joyously married for 8!

It's amazing how we can't see the full picture until it's right in front of us.

I feel so blessed to have such a wonderful, loving, supportive, and awesome man to call my husband!

(Back in the early days of us...shirts didn't come in long yet...tall girls were just out of luck.  Oh and yes Bud has highlights in his hair <3)

Hanging out at the ice cream cafe his Dad owned for a period of time.
Not sure why he looks so much shorter than me here...we must have been standing odd..
well maybe the platform sandals don't help!

I was dating a guy in college!
I felt so cool.
Oh and puka shells were cool then too, ha ha ha!
Can you believe there was a time when I didn't want Bud to get rid of those glasses?
How silly of me.

Junior prom for me, this picture doesn't do my hair justice.
I had tried to get my hair colored red with blonde highlights.
The lady didn't do it right and 2 days later when I washed my hair...it turned pink.
I had to have the color removed and by prom it was a lovely odd shade of orange.
I was mortified.
He's been with me through every hair color and length!

Senior Prom for me, much better hair!
Poor Bud felt a little weird about going back to his old school for the 2nd time since he'd graduated.
But he loved me and did it all for me!

October 12, 2003.
He had been gone to the bathroom for nearly 30 minutes.
Then he came around the corner with 3 of his friends singing the barbershop quartet song,
"Let Me Call You Sweetheart".
It was magical.
The first words out of my mouth.....

"I thought you drowned in the toilet"
followed quickly by,
"Yes, I'll marry you"!

Engagement pictures weren't nearly as cool as they are nowadays.
We simply went to Wal-mart and got pictures done there.
My oh my how the times have changed!

April 10, 2004.
A day that will go down in history as one of the best of me entire life.
It sprinkled all morning and we were unable to have the ceremony at these gardens.
After holding the ceremony in our church we came to the gardens to take extra photos since the sun graced us with it's presence, unfortunately it didn't grace us with any warmth.  After a week of it being in the 70s it was a CHILLY 45 degrees that entire day!
Pssst....his hair is highlighted again here ;) 

Our next 'Family Photo'....also taken at Wal-mart.
After this picture I made the decision to cut all my hair off.
It was bad.

We've been through a lot though.
Rooting for the same team....

Him converting to another team and me trying to be supportive!

More hair colors...and style changes for both of us.

But always supporting each other no matter what we did.
(My first and only 5K)

The moral of this story is that I married my best friend.

There is no one else in the world who knows more about me than he does.

I wouldn't have it any other way and I feel so blessed that God brought us together when he did.

I have no doubt that if we would have started dating when I was a freshman this would be a different story.

God is good all the time.

Happy Anniversary Bud!

Thank you for 8 magical years....I look forward to MANY more.

I hope you all have a Blessed Tuesday!