The Story of Us, Part 4

(I’ve been an all-star blogger this week…if you’re just checking for the first time in awhile, scroll down to catch up on parts 1 through 3!)

In March of 1997, Derek passed through town on his way to a spring break mission trip.  We had been talking  a lot about our relationship, but we were still broken up.  I wasn’t happy about that.  Even through the hurt feelings, I still loved him, and I thought that he felt the same way.  I only had one night to see him that week, so I very carefully chose my outfit and went to hang out with him.  Except it wasn’t just him I was hanging out with.  He was with a whole group of his college friends who were also going on the mission trip.  But I still did my best to flirt with him to make sure that he got the message that I was still in love with him.  When it was time for me to go home, we slowly walked through the darkness to my car.  (And when I say my car, I actually mean my mom’s mini van which is what I got to drive all through high school.)  I didn’t want to get in the car.  I didn’t want to leave things unresolved.  We talked awkwardly for a moment about nothing that really mattered and then we hugged.  Was this it?  A hug?  Did he not understand how I felt about him?  He pulled away and softly held my hand in his.  He looked into my eyes and after what felt like an eternity, he sweetly kissed me.  This wasn’t just any kiss.  This was a kiss that meant something.  He loved me, and I loved him.

I was so happy, and he seemed happy, too.  The months went by with more letters, phone calls, and weekend visits.  That summer, he did not come home, but instead got a job working in the lab at his school.  While I would have loved to have him home for another 3 months, it was okay that he wasn’t there.  Our relationship and our love was simply comfortable.  It wasn’t dramatic.  It wasn’t up and down.  It was there, a huge part of my life and my heart, but not all-consuming like it had been before the break-up.  We had both grown a lot in the 6 months we spent broken up, and once we got back together, I think it was a much healthier relationship.  We were used to the long distance thing.  I definitely missed him when we were apart, but I also had my own life filled with friends, family, youth group stuff, and volleyball.   It was pretty much smooth sailing for the next 8 months, until the winter of 1997…

The Story of Us, Part 3

(I’m having so much fun writing this, and thanks for reading along!  If you need to catch up, part 1 is here and part 2 is here.)

The spring semester of 1996 went by in a blur of letters, phone calls, emails, weekend visits, and anticipation of the summer ahead where we would have 3 months to spend together.  His parents hired him to redo their yard, and I had a job at the local video store.  But we spent every spare moment we could together. Of course, since I was only 16, I had some pretty strict rules and curfews.  Derek wasn’t allowed over if no one was home, he definitely wasn’t allowed in my room, and if I was out with him at night, I had to be home by 10:00.  At the time, it seemed like the most ridiculous, unfair thing ever.  My mom was definitely ruining my life.  Of course, now I can see she loved me, had my best interest at heart, and simply wanted to protect me.   I’m sure that I would be the same way if my 16 year old was not just dating a 19 year old, but was madly in love with him.  Derek was great, and let me cry on his shoulder over the unfairness of it all, but respected all of my mom’s rules.  That’s the kind of man he was, and still is.

The summer came to an end, and I said yet another tearful good-bye.  It was so hard to watch him leave again, even though I knew he had to go back to school.  I was completely, totally, madly in love with him, and by this point, I had started imagining what it would be like (someday, in the very distant future) to be his wife.

Which is why I was absolutely crushed when I received an email just a few weeks later telling me all about the interesting girl he had met at school.  Nothing had happened, the email promised.  She was just interesting and pretty and he was confused.  I was already planning a trip to Abilene that weekend with a friend, and with a horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach, I went to visit him.  I hoped that when he saw me, he would forget all about this interesting new girl, but he didn’t.  He broke up with me, breaking my heart into a million pieces.  I felt lost without him, and it only made it hurt worse when he started dating the girl within days of breaking up with me.

The months passed by, and slowly, my heart began to heal.  I had good friends and a very good life, and at some point, I even started to notice other guys.  I began dating someone else just about the time Derek stopped dating the girl.  Suddenly the tables were turned.  He wanted me back, and even though we still talked all the time and I wasn’t ready to give up on us forever, I was having fun dating this other guy.  And I will admit I like watching Derek bristle a bit.  Christmas vacation came and went, and sometime around February, the guy I had been dating broke it off with me.  I think he knew I was completely hung up on my ex-boyfriend, and he was absolutely right.  I was still in love with Derek.

The Story of Us, Part 2

(Part 1 can be found here.)

We spent the next two weeks hanging out as much as possible, but we both knew the inevitable was just around the corner.  Derek was leaving for college, and it loomed over me like a thundercloud.  I didn’t want to admit just how fast I was falling for him when the practical side of me knew he was leaving and there was no way he would keep on dating a high school girl who lived two hours away.  The night before he left town, we went to one of our favorite parks to hang out and talk one last time (and by talk I definitely mean make out.  I know you were all thinking it and assuming it!)  He slipped a tape into tapedeck and played me a song called Special by The Cranberries.  “I remember all the things we once shared.  Watching tv movies on the living room armchair.  But the thing that makes me sad…it’s the one thing that I had.  I knew, I knew.  I would lose you.  You’ll always be special to me…” I had to fight back the tears.  It was crazy how much I liked him after just a month of knowing him and a handful of dates.  He dropped me off at home, promised to write me, kissed me one last time, and that was it.  I figured I might see him here and there, but I knew that the whole thing was probably over.  A little summer romance.  My first summer romance, and I knew I would remember it always.

But then the first letter arrived.  And then the next, and the next, and the next.  We wrote each other several letters a week, talked on the phone as much as possible, and we both looked forward to the weekends he would come home for a visit.  By the time Christmas break rolled around, we were still very much together, and although neither of us had spoken it, I knew I loved him.

That Christmas was magical.  He gave me a small, wrapped box that rattled as I gently shook it.  I read the card, which had poem inside about the meaning of the gift.  It wasn’t a gift for me to open, the poem said, for it was filled with love inside.  I looked at him questioningly,  “It’s the key to my heart.” he said.

We spent New Year’s Eve together, watching movies, soaking up as much time together as possible before he headed back to school.  We had talked about love, and I knew that I felt it.  Judging by the gift he gave me, he felt it too.  But still neither of us said those three words out loud.  But that night, right in the middle of The Fox and the Hound, he whispered it softly in my ear.  I turned to him, and looked into his beautiful blue eyes.  “I love you, too.”  I said.  I wasn’t even 16 years old yet, but I knew without a shadow of a doubt that I loved him.

The Story of Us, Part 1

I never expected to meet the man I would spend my life with when I was just 15 years old.  But that’s exactly what happened.  In 10 days, Derek and I will celebrate our 10th anniversary.  (and another random little fun fact…on March 5, 2011, I will have spent exactly half of my life with Derek.  Fun, huh!  Who knew there were calculators on the internet to calculate such crazy things?!)

I’ve been thinking for awhile that it would be fun to write down our story, and now seems like as good as time as any.

We met the summer of 1995, just after he graduated high school and before I started my sophomore year.  I probably should have known who he was, but I really didn’t.  I knew his younger brother and sister, and he knew my older brother.  We were just far enough apart in age that our paths never really crossed each other until that summer.  We both signed up to go on our church’s youth group mission trip.  Ironically, he signed up because a girl he liked was going.  And I’d like to say that I signed up for nobler reasons, but really it was because all my friends were going.

I really don’t even remember meeting him until we actually left for the trip, which seems impossible because I know there were meetings and things before it was time to leave.  I was just so in my own 15 year old world, caught up with my friends and the drama of teenage life that I never noticed him.  As we pulled out of the church parking lot in the 15 passenger van, I very loudly stated that I was going to need some entertainment if I was going to make it through the 5 hour drive to San Antonio.  “Megan”, he said, “you are the entertainment.”  Those were the first words he ever spoke to me.

Once we were in San Antonio, we started hanging out more and more.  We were paired up several times to hand out flyers, and spent most of the week talking and flirting.  I think most everyone on that trip noticed there was something going on between us.  By the time the mission trip was over, I had the biggest crush on him and thought he was just about the greatest person ever.  But I figured there was no way it would ever amount to anything besides a summer crush.  For one thing, guys just didn’t notice me in that way.  I’d never even been on a date much less had a boyfriend.  I was always that girl who was friends with the guys, but nothing more.

Once we got back home, we almost immediately left town again to work as counselors for a week at church camp.  During the week,  I tried so hard to pretend I didn’t like him and pretend that I wasn’t going out of my way to run into him or take a picture of him, but I’m sure I was completely transparent.  Fifteen year old girls with huge crushes aren’t really known for keeping it under wraps.  I got to ride with him to camp and back home, which I loved every second of.  Except for the moment on the way home when I propped my feet up on the dashboard and the smell of my stinky feet filled the car.  Note to self: make sure and pack enough socks for the week at camp.  It’s never good to have to wear the same pair more than once.  But my stinky feet didn’t scare him away.  I’m pretty sure he just thought it was funny.  Gross…but funny.  I mean, one way that we flirted with each other was to burp and blow it in each others face.  Burping and stinky feet…this is how it all started.

Once we got back home, he asked me to go on our first official date.  We went to eat at Spaghetti Warehouse and to see the movie Nine Months.  I can still remember exactly what I wore, and how he made me feel so special and so beautiful.  I can still remember how my palms started sweating when he reached out and held my hand in the movie theater, and how my heart raced at the end of the date when he sweetly asked if he could kiss me…

oh the weather outside is frightful…

I will admit that I totally scoffed when Connor informed me back on Tuesday that it was supposed to snow on Friday.  Yeah right, buddy.  First of all, it hardly ever snows in Houston, and on top of that, it snowed last year so there is no way we would get snow two years in a row.  I sure am eating my words!  This morning it started snowing big, fat, fluffy flakes.

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Camryn ran out the back door while I was taking this picture.  It didn’t take her long to realize that was a mistake!  Before these snowflakes started falling, it rained quite a bit.  Our yard gets quite swampy when it rains, and Camryn ran straight into the puddle.  Which definitely doesn’t feel good when it’s 34 degrees outside.

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It was much cozier to just watch the snow fall from the window.

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By lunch time, the snow had pretty much stopped.  There have been a few flurries here and there, but not the big flakes like this morning.  The boys really didn’t care, though.  They put on their winter stuff and played in the backyard.  They are so happy about this wintery weather!

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I’ll tell you what I’m not too happy about.  Right now, I should be getting all fancied up for Derek’s company Christmas party.  But, because of the weather, they canceled it.  I mean, I got a new dress that needed special undergarments and everything.  In my mind (and I’m sure this is only in my mind) it was going to be like grown up prom.  The dress, the shoes, the jewelry, fixing my hair pretty and putting on make-up.  And, of course I cut the tags off everything and washed everything so it’s all going to be in my closet forever.  Anyone throwing a fancy party any time soon?  I’ll be there, decked out in my new duds.  The good news is our sitter is still up for coming over, so we are just going to have non-comany-paid-for date night instead.  I’m sure we’ll have fun, but I was so looking forward to dressing up fancy!  In fact, I might just put my new outfit on anyway and make Derek take a picture of me, just for fun.  This makes the third year that I’ve wanted to go to the party but something always comes up.  Year one, I was in our church play, had rehearsal, and I was first trimester preggo to boot.  Year 2 I had a 5 month old and no sitter I felt comfortable enough with.  And now, year 3, the party is canceled.  I wonder if I will ever go to a fancy Christmas party.  They are probably overrated anyway.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Megan Thurman Photography?

While we were in Arlington, I had a couple of friends ask if I could take family pictures for them.  Of course I said yes, and it once again put that little idea in my head that I should start my own photography business.  I’m still mulling over things, but I actually did take one little step and talked to my playgroup friends about it, which led to another photo shoot scheduled for this weekend.  I’m excited, but also a little nervous.  Derek pretty much hit the nail on the head when he told me he knew I was scared to even try because I am scared people will think I’m not good enough or that I will fail.   Issues, much?  But he was totally right. Now that I’m almost 30, maybe it’s time to get over some of these I’m not good enough hang-ups.

But that’s not what this post is about.

I just wanted to share the pictures I took of my beautiful friends.  And share that I had fun with it and I’m interested in gaining more experience.  So, if any of you are local and would like me to take some pictures, email me (megan at the thurmans dot net) and we can talk about the details.

First up, one of my lifelong bff’s, RyAnn and her family.

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(his eyes are really that blue in real life.  They both have such gorgeous eyes!)

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Next up is Derek’s lifelong bff, Ryan.  And I love Maggie, too, but we wouldn’t know each other if not for Derek and Ryan.

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Be nice to me…I’m telling you, I’m scared to even blog these and mention anything about being a photographer!  This is good for me, putting myself out there a bit.  Thanks, Ry and Ry (and Mag), for letting me practice on you guys!

Because a thankful heart is a happy heart

Is it seriously December already?  Time is flying by!  It’s feels like it’s been forever since I blogged and we’ve done so much that I hardly know where to start.

We spent all of Thanksgiving week in Arlington with our family and friends.  It was so great.  I am so thankful for our families that support us and love us and for our friends who do the same.  We are so blessed!

The kids were happy as little clams getting tons of grandparent/aunt/uncle attention, and getting to play with their cousins several times.  I am so glad that they have cousins to grow up with.  I have such fun memories about my cousins, and I’m so thankful that Connor, Logan (and eventually Camryn) will have the same.  Especially since soon we are going to have a brand new baby in the family!  Madison, Abby, and Max (pictured below) are going to have a brother in the next few months!  Cindi and Matt started the adoption process quite some time ago, and just a few weeks ago they got the call that Sam was waiting and ready for them.  They will go to Ethiopia sometime in January to bring him home.  I can’t wait to meet him and watch him grow up with these crazy kids.

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I really did not do a good job of taking pictures of everything and everyone.  Patrick and Noel came in from California, and I don’t have one single picture to prove it.  But, take my word for it.  We had a blast!  I love them.

My mom and I lost our minds and went to Toys R Us at midnight on Thursday night.  It was insane!  We did score some great deals, and I know it’s crazy, but I really do have fun with the whole Black Friday shopping experience.  Of course, it really put a damper on the fun with Camryn woke up at 5:15 on Friday morning, which was only an hour or so after I had fallen asleep for the night.  I may or may not have had a complete meltdown…I seriously have the best husband ever who takes over when I lose it.  And thank goodness for Derek’s parents who let us sleep in not once, but twice!  It was great.

At my parent’s house, the kids worked all week long raking this huge pile of leaves.  And of course, a good pile or leaves just begs to be played in.

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One night we got to hang out with our friends Ryan and Maggie.  We went out to dinner, all 9 of us, and it was really fun!  We only spilled one drink and broke one plate, which is a victory in my book considering Connor is the oldest of the kids.   (And the drink may have been my fault…)  After dinner, we made s’mores in the fireplace which was of course a huge hit with the kids.   And the grown ups.  S’mores are the best!

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Let’s see…what else…I had lunch with Juli Beth and we went to see New Moon.  It was a really fun girl’s afternoon.  We ate tons of good food at our two Thanksgiving dinners (with my family on Wednesday and Derek’s family on Thursday)…I know there is more but my mind is going blank.  I do know this.  We had a really great Thanksgiving.  We were away from home for  8 days, which is a long time!  But it was perfect.  It was also great to come home, get back into the swing of things (who am I kidding…I’m still trying to get back in the swing of things!)

I am so crazy excited about Christmas.  I’ve been busy all this week decorating, getting the last few gifts purchased, planning our Christmas trip to Arlington, thinking of fun things to do with the kids.  I love this time of year so much.

There is more to say…so much more.  But this is it for tonight.

And after proofreading this post I rally can’t believe that I am going to publish it.  Hello, most disjointed blog post ever!  I just felt like I could not move on to other things until I blogged about our Thanksgiving trip.  Done.  And if you read this, um, sorry for being so lame and disjointed and boring.  At least someday when I’m old and gray I’ll have something written down to remember Thanksgiving 2009.