The Story of Us...

Way back in 1995, I was a young girl. Attending the local Community College with a handful of my girlfriends while working at Baskin-Robbins as the cake decorator. While at Baskin I started a new circle of friends, many of whom I am still attached to today. One of these girls was Nikki. Though she was slightly younger than me, we hit it off. We loved working together and began to hang out outside of work. I had also just recently in the few years proceeding, become interested in the Christian faith. And Nikki was the girl for me. Her dad happened to be the pastor at one of the Lutheran churches in town, and so I, along with another Baskin buddy began attending church there. I really enjoyed attending a church for the first time in my life and learning about God. My heart had been softened.

After about a year, though, I still had not had that "turning point" in my faith. It was at this time that another young girl, Alicia, joined the Baskin gang. With her, too, I began a great friendship. Alicia seemed to have a rather large group of friends who, nearly every day, would visit her at work. And so it happened that I also became friends with her friends. And it also happened to be that God had a plan for me and neatly set out a perfect path so that I would meet friends and grow spiritually. This group was very involved at another church in town, the First Baptist church. I began attending youth groups and bible studies. I really felt connected there and began attending services on a regular basis.

Sometime in early 1997, another member of this group started to stick out...her name was Lianne. I began to form a close friendship with her and we spent a lot of time together. Her brother had recently gotten out of the army and, he too started to hang out with this group.

In the Spring of ‘97 we had something here on the west coast called the "Red Tide," which is when algae cells multiply, or "bloom" and each time they do so they throw off a reddish pigment causing the ocean's water to look somewhat reddish-brown. And as exciting as that is, it gets even better…at night it glows. The breaking of the waves actually glow. You can write in the sand with your foot and it glows. It is truly beautiful. Anyways, our First Baptist group made a trip down there one evening and had a great time playing in the sand and water. This was the first time that I had met Brandon, Lianne's older brother. I remember thinking, "Wow, this guy is pretty quiet...and VERY tan…and has a hot bod to boot."

A few months went by and summer started. The church had beach trips every week, and of course our group went to every one of them. This is when that quiet guy began to open up. More than open up, he began to flirt. I still remember how fun it was pretending not to notice and to all too innocently flirt back. Finally we went on our first date (although we didn’t call it that at the time). I had tickets to see The Verve Pipe and invited Brandon along. Of course I had my best friend, Kerri (who later become’s my sis-in-law) tag along.

In July I changed jobs and landed the, oh-so-coveted job of waitress at the new Denny’s scheduled to open later that summer. One week in the middle of July we had training, and it happened to fall on the same week that my family went on vacation. The first vacation I had ever missed. Part of the First Baptist crew was also out of town that week for camp…that included Lianne. Anyways, one day, our training got cancelled, and being the innocent one that I am, with family out of town, I had the grand idea to throw a party. I bravely invited Brandon…and yes, there was alcohol. And so being a little loosened up, we gave in to what we had both been fighting and had our first of many kisses. From then on out we have been inseparable.

Only about a year later, it was Brandon who continued to help strengthen my faith until I finally came to ask Christ into my heart (don’t know why it took so long!). And after three years of dating, Brandon proposed to me on July 6th and a year later we were married on July 7th, 2001. It’s hard to believe that 5 years have already passed; we have two beautiful children, a wonderful dog and cat, and our dream house. I love Brandon more today than yesterday, think that he is hotter now than when we first met, and look up to him more than when we said “I do.” What a blessing God has given to me.