Friend Makin Mondays

So this is my first Friend Makin Monday, but I couldn't resist when I read today's question. And I have loved reading my 'blogging buddies' responses every Monday, so I am taking the plunge. If you want to find out more about FMM's then check out Kasey's blog by clicking here! (and go read more of the fabulous stories on how people met their spouses!)

Today's question is:

How did you and your significant other meet?

This is a very long story that I am going to try to make into a much shorter version. So I apologize that it will most likely still be very long! :)

I first heard about my husband in college in 1996, one of my very best friends dated him in HS and her and I had similar breakup stories in regards to our HS sweethearts and so a friendship started between us. At the time, he was in the Marines, stationed in Japan. We were in Corvallis, at OSU. I didn't meet him until sometime my sophomore year in College, my friend and I drove to Seattle to another college (PLU) to meet up with Dan (my husband) and a few other friends and we drove to Vancouver, Canada for the weekend. Off and on I would hear about him or randomly talk to him on the phone because he and my friend kept in touch.

In the spring of 2001, I had one of the worst years of my life, I had been in a terrible relationship and was living in Seattle, Wa. and the guy that I had been dating had proposed to me, but I knew he was NOT the man I was supposed to be with, I ended up packing up my apartment and moving to Portland, OR. where my friend and Dan were living. At this point, Dan was out of the Marines and he and my friend were dating again. The day that I moved to Portland, I went out with Dan, my friend, and another guy that they had went to HS with, his name was Kris. I ended up dating Kris and fell MADLY in love with him. We dated for a little over a year, and our break-up was not good, I was so in love with him and he just didn't feel the same way. Before Kris and I had broke up, I couldn't stand Dan! I thought he treated my friend like crap and basically I thought he was a jerk. I would make fun of him, and ask my friend, why in the world was she ever with him. (LOL, funny to look back now)

So when Kris and I had broke up, so did Dan and my friend (right around the same time). And Dan ended up moving to Southern California. My friend would have me call him to get him on the phone for her and I am thinking that at some point that is how he got my number because then he started calling me. We would sometimes end up talking for hours at a time, I would cry to him about Kris and he would be so upset about his break-up with my friend that we would just console each other. He would usually talk to me until I fell asleep. One month my friend and I were supposed to take a road trip to Cali. to see him, but she had started dating the man she would eventually marry so she cancelled the trip at the last min. Dan had taken the time off of work so he told me that he had a ticket already and that I should fly down. I ended up doing just that, and we had such a great week (strictly as friends- at this point I still only thought of him as a friend and no way in a million years would I EVER consider dating him, I was still hung up on the ex Kris) so on our vacation we went to Disneyland, Mexico, out to eat at fabulous restaurants and really started a true friendship.

That summer I was still so miserable because of my ex, I had to get out of Portland for a few months, so I decided to take a leave of absence from my work and go to Montana for the summer to work in Glacier Park. (Dan is from MT. and I had also worked there two summers while in college). Not knowing that Dan also would be moving to Montana for the summer. We hung out almost everyday, but again, we were 'just' friends. A few more years went by and we would call sporadically and see each other now and then, but again I NEVER thought of him in that way. It was like taboo, because he had dated one of my very best friends.

Then in Oct. of 2005 I took my nephew to Disneyland and Dan met up with us and stayed for our entire trip. I didn't think anything of it until I got home and showed everyone the pictures of him with my nephew and me etc. My Mom looked at the pictures and was like, 'he likes you!' and of course I was still in denial. That January, Dan came to visit me in my home town on his drive from MT. back to California. He had bought me a birthday present (my b-day is New Years Eve) and they were diamond earrings. After he left, my Mom stated again that he liked me and that no boy would buy diamond earrings for a girl he didn't like. I was STILL in denial. Then Valentines Day rolls around and I get two dozen roses delivered to me at work and it didn't say who they were from. I knew they were from Dan, because by this point we had started talking more then usual, almost everyday.

He came to visit me twice in Portland, but we were still nothing more then friends. Then one day (around March of 2006) he texted me and said, what are you making me for dinner, and I said, ummm, if you come here (to Portland) I will make you something, and the next thing I knew he was on a flight from Cali. to Oregon and basically we have been together ever since. I didn't know it then, but he said he had started liking me about 3 years earlier.

He bought my engagement ring about one month into our relationship (I didn't know this until later) and he proposed to me the night before we went on a trip to Ireland on Oct. 8th 2006 and we were married one year later on Oct. 13, 2007. 10 years after I first met him.

And that is our story! :) Wow, sorry that took so long (and if you can believe it, that was the short version).