how we met

so today marks the anniversary of the day chris and i decided to be together despite the distance. i have never had a long distance relationship before and wasn't sure how or if it could work. i'm SO glad we did! i'll tell you the story of how we met.... i was visiting my friend who had moved to virginia. it was a girls weekend, old friends from michigan who i hadn't seen in forever. it was may of 2007. so we went out on the town and we grab a seat at the bar and order some drinks.
it's blurry, but this is where we were sitting. i wish somehow chris was in this picture, but he's down at the end of the bar, just out of the picture.

we are having a great time, laughing our butts off and joking around and all the way down on the other end of the bar i see this adorable guy! now, i am not the type of person that really goes after guys or really ever sees anyone who really sparks my interest. i never see a guy and feel an attraction to him. i can say they are cute or handsome, but i never am personally drawn to them. this time, i was instantly drawn to this person i saw from across the bar. i told my friends to "look at how cute that guy is down there!!!" and as soon as i said that, they all looked at him and he looked at us all gawking at him! eek! i am pretty shy so i quickly turned my back to him and pretended that didn't happen. he jokingly says, "what i'm not good enough for you?!" what am i going to do? go hang out with some random guy that will probably turn out to be a jerk like the rest of them? right now? when i'm hanging out in a different state with all my old friends i have not seen in forever? nope. so i go on, never looking back at him. my friends and i had a great time, such a fun night! and as far as i knew, the night was over....the bar was closing down and my friends went outside. i went to the restroom and when i came outside, who is standing there waiting? my christopher! it was like one of those moments when your whole body, inside and out, smiles uncontrollably and you are walking on cloud nine! we clicked instantly. of course we had some drinks so i am sure that helped but honestly i never felt anything like that for someone ever before. we ended up all walking to our cars together, chris and i staying back to talk and smooch. it was such a fun night!

these pictures are from that night. this is us all smoochy, like we've known each other for years!

but i couldn't fully take it seriously. he lived i virginia, i lived in florida. we were both completely cynical about relationships at this time. we exchanged numbers and texted for a bit. then we were emailing/myspacing. eventually one day in an email i took something he said the wrong way and he said, no you don't understand my sense of humor! let me call you so you can hear me talk. so that started about 8 months of phone calls. we were "friends" but we both liked each other as more. for two people who were completely apprehensive about relationships, this was a perfect way to ease into it. plus we were both thinking, could this really end up working? eventually we decided we HAD to see where this goes. so he planned a trip down here. he came to visit in february of 2008.i wish i had more pictures from his first visit, but i really like this one.

we couldn't figure out how in the world we waited so long. and WHY????? instant chemistry when he got of the plane. it was like a movie. i'm standing there waiting for him and the second i see him, i zoom over to him and we are all kissing...pda in the airport! haha... i would love to relive that day :) anyway, he stayed with me for about a week. we had an amazing time and we decided we wanted to make this real. we wanted to be together. today is actually the anniversary of that day. unfortunately, chris was being deployed for 5 months!!!! he was in the navy at the time. so even more looooooong distance. thankfully he was somehow able to call me from the ship every day. we could also email and send pictures. so it wasn't completely horrible. it was really actually a lot of fun and a completely different experience than i have ever had before. we never had to have an awkward first date, let's put it that way! but i couldn't wait for the 5 months to be over!

us in july 2008.

after he was done with his deployment, he came to visit again in july. this pretty much sealed the deal. he was moving in with me after he got out of the navy. so in october of 2008, he moved to florida and in with me!


these pictures are from a visit to oregon, where his family lives. this was right after he got out of the navy and right before he came to live in florida.

wow, that was a long post! i tried to condense the story as much as possible. i just love how we made it happen even though we had to wait soooooo long! hope you enjoyed our story.
here's us today. yeah chris hasn't used the scissors much since he got out of the navy!

i still have no clue what to do for valentines day. these holidays are kind of pressure, do you feel that way ever? hhhm.... i'll figure something out! hope you are having a lovely day! xoxo, katie