Eight

In celebration of our 8th anniversary of wedded bliss I thought that I would share our How We Met story.
 
During the summer of '99 I sent in my housing application to TWU with a wish and a prayer for a decent roommate. I had my doubts since like most tasks in my life I procrastinated sending in my application until the absolute last moment. I received a confirmation letter a few weeks later informing me that I would be living in the Northwest Building. After a quick look at the campus map I noticed that Northwest was at the furthest reaches of the campus bordering a highway and a forest. Hmm... not exactly the hub of activity I was hoping for. Apparently this is where they dumped all of us procrastinators together. Thankfully there was another Norwegian procrastinator sending in his application at the same time...

When I arrived at college I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the dreaded Northwest building was the only Co-ed building on the whole campus. It has since been reported to me that all the dorms at TWU are currently Co-ed buildings- but back in the late 90's (during the Christian dark ages) young men and women could not be trusted to live and interact in close proximity. It was in line with the whole dancing leads to sex ideology. I digress...

The first week of school was a blur of late nights, a sea of new faces and getting used to communal living. After coming back from a class one afternoon I noticed a strange guy with shaggy, bleached hair sitting in the dorm lounge pouring over multiple copies of the National Enquirer. Hmm.. 'the only person I know that reads the National Enquirer is my 75 year old grandmother,' I thought to myself. This was my first impression of Ben.

About a month after the National Enquirer episode a group of people from the Northwest dorms decided to go on an impromptu camping trip. Ben came along too. My first impression of Ben was further enhanced by the fact that he decided to go skinny dipping in a freezing cold lake with a few other guys during the camp out. So at this point I knew two things about this guy 1. He had penchant for (ahem) fine literature 2. He was confident enough to take his clothes off in front of a group of near strangers.

Later on that same evening, when our dorm mates were climbing into their sleeping bags, Ben and I decided that we were not tired and stayed outside by the campfire. We ended up talking for several hours and I learned that there was a lot more to this guy than trash magazines and skinny dipping. After that night we began instant messaging each other constantly. It was almost awkward when we would see each other in person because we spent so much time 'speaking' virtually. Then one night when Ben was visiting his brother in another city, he decided to ask me to be his girlfriend over the instant messenger. The rest is history...

Not exactly an earth shattering story but it is our story. After eight years of marriage I am still in awe that I am married to a man who makes my life more rich, vibrant and complete.

I am wordy, he is succinct.
He is calm & steady,  I am excitable.
I crave sweet, he is all about salt.
He calculates, I act impulsively.
We like to be lazy on our vacations.
We laugh with our child.
We love God.

We are blessed.