[Yes, I'm asking you on a] Date (No 5)

Part No. 4 left off with Mr. W calling to ask me on a date.

I believe this was on a Wednesday or Thursday. I had just gotten off work and was getting ready to leave on a run when my phone rang. This is almost word for word how it went down.

Josh Hey, are you free this Saturday? For like, a 4 hour chunk of time?

Me  Yes, I'm totally free.

Josh  Awesome! How about I pick you up around 1130? Oh and don't worry about eating lunch beforehand.

Me Okay.

Josh Great, I'm excited! I'll call when I leave my house. Bye..

Me Wait! Um, this might sound high maintenance but what should I wear? I mean, I'm a girl- we need to know these things.

Josh Oh right. Wear a bathing suit under your clothes that you wouldn't mind getting wet.

Me  Okay then, see you Saturday.

And that was how Mr. W asked me on our first date.  I actually had no clue this was, in fact a date. See, Mr. W had (up until this point) always been inviting everyone along for activities ex boating, playing cards, bbq's, movies, tennis clinics, bowling.  So when we hung up, I actually thought he was asking me to go boating on Saturday with a group.  He had invited me boating several times already so I don't know why I thought we were boating. Wouldn't he have just asked me to go boating instead of being all mysterious? This was [Clue No 1].

Saturday morning just after 1130 Josh arrived to take me on our [I didn't know it was a date] date. I hoped in his car, fully expecting to make more stops along the way to pick up other friends.  When that didn't happen [Clue No 2] I noticed we were on the highway and headed out of town.

Midland is tiny. Out of town = greater than 3 miles from the downtown strip.

I can't remember what we talked about but my memory picks up when we stopped at Subway for lunch. I ordered my "usual" veggie on wheat, pepper jack, toasted, everything but olives and jalapenos, with oil and vinegar.  Josh ordered ham on italian with monterey jack, lettuce and mayo.  I tell you all this because after 4 years of ordering Subway together, Josh now orders everything but olives, jalapenos and peppers on his ham sandwiches. Evidence I've pulled him away from his meat and potato roots; though, he still eats ham. Can't win 'em all. Josh then paid for my sandwich [Clue No 3].

He drove us to his aunt's house on the lake. I had been here before because his dad kept The Boat in their driveway during the summers. He introduced me to his Aunt Eileen.  He set up lunch for us on their back deck which overlooked the lake.  It was just the two of us for lunch [clue No 4]. Again I can't remember what we talked about and this is probably because I still didn't realize it was a date.

After lunch, Josh drove us to his parent's property. It was an empty lot with a lot (pun) of wild grass and a trail that led down to the water.  The water is actually a river that feeds the lake his aunt lives on.  It's really simple to picture but having hardly lived in Midland for a few weeks, I had no concept of this middle-of-no-where country Josh had brought me to. Josh pulled two blue kayaks [Clue No 5] out of a shed by the water and hauled them up to the car.

I know I should have picked up on all the other clues but I am terrible at dating so I missed them all. Except this one. My brain clicked. I finally got it. There would be no one else coming with us and no one would be waiting at the final destination to join us. Josh wanted to spend a whole afternoon with me. Just me. Anyone who knows him understands he prefers to invite everyone and anyone along. He deeply desires to make others feel included. However, today everyone else was being left in the dust.

With the kayaks stowed on the Jeep, we drove to the top of the Tobacco River..

To be continued.
Mrs. W

Not a date (No. 4)

psst. here is the beginning just in case :)

Ice cream is a thing during Michigan summers.  There is a quaint, non-chain ma and pa that makes in-house, from scratch ice-cream on almost every corner of town.  My apartment for the summer just happened to be a mile from Great Lakes Creamery.  They have blue ice cream there which tastes exactly like Paramount's Kings Island Blue Smurf ice cream.  Smurf ice cream is the stuff my childhood dreams were made of... Anyway, Great Lakes is the bomb and everyone should get a chance to eat 3 scoops while catching up with a close friend.

A bunch of the other co-ops had left for the weekend to visit family except for me and a guy from Northwestern named David. It was my roommate, Jane's birthday and I think it might have also been Easter weekend. Which explains why everyone was fleeing Midland. David and I tried to entertain ourselves but Midland is tiny.  By Saturday afternoon we were board. Before anyone gets fuzzy on who I was interested in at this point, David is a great buddy but he was in a serious long term relationship and I was pretty keen on this Josh kid. Though, I hadn't told ANYBODY. Except for my girlfriend from school who had just started a pretty special relationship with a boy named Jon ;)

I texted Josh that afternoon asking if he wanted to grab ice cream with me.  I guess I had sort of initiated things but I totally don't remember it feeling like that. During co-op, you were always away from home and familiar friends so everyone was game for becoming instant friends. You invited everyone to join in whatever plans you had all the time. It kept us from being board in the world's smallest town for a global company's headquarters.

Josh was reffing a soccer tournament all weekend (I later found out). So he was too busy earning money to respond back.  I took his non response to mean he was busy so David and I went for ice cream. Later that day Josh would call me and explain how he would LOVE to go for ice cream because it had been hot all weekend while he was reffing. My response [that I am so not proud of and we still talk about it to this day] was "sorry we already went, maybe another time?". Yes! That is what I said. Can you believe me? Well, I can't either.

Flash forward 2 nights later. Josh texted me after work asking if I would get ice cream with him to make up for inviting him along then ditching him over the weekend. I said I would meet him there. I got to Great Lakes when my phone rings. It's Josh telling me he is outside my apartment.  He was there to pick me up.  Whooops! I told him thanks for coming to pick me up but I was already there. I can not believe my 21 year old self now but there are many more of those moments to come.

This moment had arrived where I was face to face with this gorgeous blonde haired, blue eyed man.  I felt like I was talking to an old friend, even though we hadn't really talked much before this moment. We talked about our childhoods, what high school was like for us.  I shared about loving college and my study group of girl friends I couldn't live without.  He told me about his high school buddies who became irreplaceable friends. We talked about his younger sister. I told him about my older sister.  We bonded over sports and playing soccer.  I would later find out all about more about why soccer was so important to him and why he started reffing.  We shut down Great Lakes and they kicked us off the porch at 11pm.

Josh had offered to buy me ice cream that night but I had just eaten dinner and wasn't very hungry. I had rejected this guy twice now without even realizing it. What was I thinking?! I was too busy listening to the stories he was sharing and enjoying his incredibly loud [some times obnoxious but mostly charming] laugh.

It didn't phase him. Though, he still does tease me about rejecting his ice cream offer. He called me about a week later asking me if I had plans for Saturday..

Anyone's guess what was being planned ;)

Mrs. W

I got my flippy floppies (No. 3)

After our official introduction, co-op life continued.  There were weekly 1hr lunches scheduled that we would stretch into 2hrs simply by showing up early to reserve the table and ending late.  We would talk about how awesome our work groups were, this one really cool operator that has terrible humor, a project that was exciting until 4 weeks in when progress had stopped because your boss was going out of town or those silly people you emailed hadn't emailed you back yet (the horror!).  We also talked about weekend trips. Going to Loon's Games (baseball), car trips to Cedar Point (I ended up never going), and camping at Lake Michigan.  We also talked about BOATING.

It appeared Mr W was accustomed to boating in the summer.  Specifically, hours spent in the sun shine on a ski boat wake boarding and tubing until your arms fell off.

Growing up in Ohio, there was limited access to pretty blue water for boating.  Sure the Ohio river is there but no one actually goes in it.  Actually, I know of 2 boys who swam across from Ohio to Kentucky in it for a school project.  They both contracted pneumonia.  I had water skied and gone tubing before but that was only for a few summers at a close friends lake house in Tennessee.

Anyway, our first boating trip happened in April. On the first day that broke 60, a small group of us [stupid enough] who wanted to try wake boarding took off work at 2pm.  We met at The W's home and drove out to the lake.  I remember I didn't actually get in the water on this trip because the water temperature was roughly 50 and I was sick with a cold. Mr W. let me off easy that time [he later told me].

We went boating again in May and the water was still too cold. But in Mr W.'s mind that just meant less people would be on the lake.  He was right and the water was as freeze your swimsuit off as before.  Mr W. taught me how to wake board on this trip and I loved it.  Even though I had a hard time crossing the wake and would always end up face down in the water (one thing at a time!).  Another high light from this trip was Mr W's mad tubing skills.  Anyone who's tubed with him knows, he's cray cray.  At one point, he was being torn across the water, skimming the thin ripples from the edge of the wake and he was being really loud.  An eruption of noise and then nothing, he had let go of the tube and was bobbing in the water.  As we approached him with the boat, he started screaming "Jon! Jon! Dude, my pants are gone!".  Yes he rhymed. Once he got back into the boat with some one's spare pair of soccer shorts he told us this dramatic (is anyone surprised?) story of how his swim trucks had peaced out while he was tubing.  He eventually realized losing his trunks weren't worth tubing longer so he let go and tried to hold onto them.  But apparently the lake swallowed them up.

A lot more boating happened in May and June as Michigan was still thawing itself. Eventually, Mr W taught me how to drive the boat.

Need for speed.

He told me later his reasoning was two fold. (the following are his words).  1.) You  are [I am] really hot so teaching you [me] how to drive the boat would only make you [me] hotter and 2.) I [he] was tired of always taking everyone else tubing and wake boarding.  So if you [me] learned, I [he] could have more fun.

Wow! You still with me?

Also, I can't leave this out. The more I hung out on the boat with Mr W, the more comfortable I became.  Until one trip I decided Mr W. shouldn't be the only one pushing everyone else in the water for fun. Mr W was teaching Leslie how to get up wake boarding and I thought he looked too dry. The following series I shot with Papa W's camera while David did my dirty work.

I miss boating. I miss Michigan... Wait. Northern California is breaking 65 today. I just miss boating :)

Mrs. W

The title of this post references a song that was pretty popular that summer. I won't link the song here cause it's not clean and makes my ears cringe. But these two lines sum up boating while everyone else is at work.  "I got my swim trunks and my flippy floppies. I'm flipping burgers you at Kinkos straight flipping copies." 

I would never date an engineer. [No. 2]

This post is No.2 in a series called Divine Romance.  Which, is actually a song by Phil Wickam Mr W. and I danced to on our wedding day. To read how about my first impressions, see post No. 1.

So, when did we finally meet? It was about a week after the movie diss that we planned Mexican themed potluck. Probably to celebrate Cinco de Mayo. I had heard from my roommate that one of our friends living in the apartment across the hall from us was going to host.  I am sort of ashamed of this but I actually persuaded my roommate, Jane, to ask Mr W. if we could have the potluck at his dad's house instead.  See, Mr W. was actually from the small town we were living in during our summer co-op.  The rest of us were living in corporate housing while we were working.  Ie, our apartments had the bare bones of kitchen supplies and minimal space.

Well, it worked, suddenly we were meeting at Mr W's childhood home for a potluck. I think it was a Wednesday.  I brought supplies for root beer floats [guess I thought it'd go with the Mexican theme??].  Mr W. was making a batch of taco meat and chatting.  He looked like a man who knew his way around the kitchen. I would later find out he could cook pretty well -a skill my sister reaffirmed was scarce in men these days.

"Hi, this is my dad's house. I'm Josh"

[Exactly what I thought] Finally, this kid introduces himself to me! And I notice he has wonderfully blue eyes, dimples in his smile and an ability to dress himself.  He was wearing a button down shirt and khakis.  I would find out later his sister dressed him for work, thus the nice work clothes. Though, it takes a strong man to admit he needs a woman to help dress himself.

We eventually settled into the basement to play hold 'em and pool. I had just sunk a ball in the corner pocket and I think we were talking about relationships. [I hope] because I distinctly remember exclaiming how "I could never stand to date another engineer", and "you'd never get anything done because you have two very smart people battling out how to do something most efficiently".  Cue thunder and lightening; I had just challenged God.  Or at least, that is how I feel now thinking back on it.  Oh, how silly I was [and still am] thinking I could go around making these all-encompassing statements.  

At this point, Josh. had just been mercilessly beaten at hold em' by none other than his Dad! He joined us for pool; he wasn't on my team but I forget who was.  I can remember sinking the eight ball, kicking butt and taking names.  I had beat Josh at pool.  To which he retorted "I can't win in my own house!" and proceeded to be melodramatic for the rest of the evening.  All in good fun, of course.  His sense of humor made me laugh.

I thought here is someone who doesn't take himself too seriously.  Which, is something I did do. All. The. Time.  A few weeks later I realized how he could influence me to be so not-stick-up-my-bum serious.

Not a straight face in the crowd.

But that happened weeks later. There is still a bunch of in-between ridiculous details to savor.  And that was the last time I thought about him for awhile.  Least, until several friends started inquiring about what we were.

And least you forget how handsomely studly Mr W. truly is, I'll leave you with this little gem.

Yes, you are very welcome.
Mrs. W.

First impressions

I was 21 years old.

Just moved to Michigan for the summer. [I thought] It was freezing for April.  I remember having to scrape ice off my windshield while trying to avoid the black snow. You know the nasty stuff that sticks around for weeks after the last snow fall.  It has accumulated all the dirt into one convenient spot right next to the driver side door and refuses let your khaki slacks go unmarked.

My roommate and I were both going through a short hair phase.  Engineering can be such a man's world. Even we felt compelled to have short hair. Makes it easier to recover from hard hat hair (sigh).

Roommates.

We went to the movies to meet the other [co-op] students who were also working that summer.  These pictures are from Cinco de Mayo a few weeks later.

B-dubs to celebrate Mexican independence.

Like civilized young people, we introduced ourselves to the group.  Except, for one boy who showed up a little bit after everyone else was already at the theater. I thought he was pretty cute for a engineer [nerd].  But he never introduced himself to me.  Nope. I was told by another girl who he was.  I remember he brought his dad to the movie with him.  I love hanging out with my family (more than an average young person) and liked that this boy valued time with his dad.**

Source

The movie we went to was "I love you, Man".  Now that I think of it, I haven't seen that movie since.  What happened to it?

Anyway, that was the first time I didn't met Mr W.
-Mrs. Dubyah

**Mr W. would like to clarify here. He ALWAYS went to 5 dollar Wednesday movies with his dad.  He was simply inviting all the co-ops along to partake in their tradition.  Knowing this made me melt even more. What a family man. ;)

we are (now) cat people

Meet Legend

Meet Dairy. Aka Mr. Fluffy.

I like to yell at them at the same time.  Not because they are bad but I enjoy exclaiming Legendary and feeling remarkable about my life. Yes, our cats are named Legend and Dairy because we adopted them at the height of watching season 5 of How I Met Your Mother. The brother/sister duo were feral kitties rescued by our friends.  Mr. W adopted them and surprised me for Christmas (2011). I was thrilled!

Baby Legend and Dairy

We tried a lot of other names (Samson and Delilha) but none of them fit their personalities. Legend sort of hates that she is someone's pet.  She gives me this look like she would rather die than sit in my lap.  But I hear that's just how cats are. She also likes Mr. W a lot more than me.  She'll dodge my hand all day but rub up against his leg.  We call Legend the Turd-burglar. That is the sort of potty humor we have in our family.

Dairy, on the other hand, is my boy.  Maybe because he is needy.  He would rather be in my lap than on the couch..  He thinks he's the size of a chihuahua but really, he is a puma. Which has led to many falls off our furniture. He runs and hides when  the mail man comes to our front door.  He has indeed tried to sniff a candle and melted all of his left side whiskers off. Sometimes I wonder if he's eternally toasted on catnip.

Legend wonders how Dairy tolerates such torture.

You can see me?

These two kitties make me talk in baby voice.  I call them "my fluffies". I remember my mom used to talk like this to our dogs.  I actually used to make fun of her for doing it.

Now look at me, meowing back to my cats.
-Mrs. W

24 years ..part I

Having a birthday right after the New Year, I equate new year to new age.

A brief recap of how I spent 24:

Josh rang in my 24th birthday with a surprise trip to Tiffany's.  He brought me into the store and told me to pick out whatever I wanted. Probably every girl's dream.  Well, a sales woman heard him exclaim this she promptly lead me to the platinum and diamonds counter.  After lots of trying on, we left the store with these gorgeous silver bow earrings.  Which, actually turned into a hilarious story that I'll need to explain in more detail because Mr. W realized such an open ended statement could have lead to trouble!  I really did marry the most wonderful man in the world.

bows

My mom and sister visited; we went to wine country and ate wonderful food here.

Mr. W's dad, sister and best man visited our little 2 bedroom apartment.  We hiked at Angel Island, Ano Nuevo and had hours of glorious family time.

Mr. W. Sister (in law). Mr. W's Best Man.

Family.

Angel Island

Sausalito

Ano Nuevo.

elephant seals!

We spent Easter weekend hiking in Point Reyes and vowed to fight each other less and hike more.

through the woods.

the coast.

I planned a last minute backpacking trip through the Ventana Wilderness just south of Big Sur.  I remember this trip as the time we learned to really depend the Lord's plan for our marriage.  There was no nagging, no yelling, no you suck because. We worked as a TEAM thanks to the Lord for answering our prayers to strengthen our marriage. #winningformarriage! Afterwards we stopped at Barb's Fish Trap, a must go to if traveling any where near Half Moon Bay.

Ventana Wilderness

Refueling.

Mr. W finally convinced me to try out a nearby rock gym. I couldn't get enough.  We climbed 4 days in a row.  My hands were shredded and I had knots from my knuckles to my eye balls but I was in heaven on earth.

We walked in the Bay To Breaker's Parade.  I dub this my first city experience.  It was memorable enough that I've retired from participating ;)

Willy Wonka and his crew.

My dad came to visit for the US Open in the city.  We use any visit from family or friends as an excuse to explore like tourists :)

my dad's visit.

We took 2 days off for a last minute trip to Tahoe with family friends. I climbed outside for the first time at 90 ft wall.

90 ft wall near Eagle Falls.

Angora Lake.

We planned a backpacking trip in Yosemite with a group of co-workers. I conquered my fear of heights and hiked Half Dome. We also hiked to the Cascades near Little Yosemite Valley and spent a day riding a natural water slide.

half dome.

Stretching out for the climb.

water slide.

At Mr. W's prompting, I participated in our rock gym's top rope series and I some how walked out with 2nd place in women's beginner level. Rock climbing became our thing.

We climbed more. This time near Table Scraps in Sonoma County.

Table Scraps

I competed in our rock gym's grip challenge.  This was my first time dead lifting on a fat bar any bar.  I went out at 155.

I look like I'm about to die.  Photo credit.

We took a trip back to the Midwest.  Saw family, friends, had rest and recuperated in hammocks.  I spent every morning near the water talking with the Lord and He healed my soul of many earthly things I had been holding on to since we moved.

Family. Photo Credit.

Sister (in law) and I at the grandparents lake house.

Mr. W can fly.

I completed the Tough Mudder in Tahoe and was dubbed hard core by our mostly male team.  For anyone who is curious, the electric shock obstacles really do pack a punch.  If any one has ever told you it was no big deal, here's a secret, there is actually a power on/off switch.  I assure you it was on when I ran through.  My heart does not normally jump like that for kicks ;)

Before the race.

Mr. W tore his acl playing Ultimate Frisbee and I planned less intense hiking trips for the fall. Our criteria for less intense meant the trail had to be flat with ample parking close by.  We felt like posers.

Mr. W got a new job.  I quit my job.  And then we moved to Hawaii..

Hawaiian roller coaster ride.

Tune in for part II
-Mrs W

update: here is Part II