10 years ago

i realized in all the hubub that was the end of 2008 that i neglected to post about stephen's and my four year anniversary on december 18th. this is not to say that it was not special or memorable, bc it was both.

i think, though, that today cannot simply be neglected.

ten years ago today, stephen and i were official. the boy had yet to kiss me, but we were dating. we decided this after our third date earlier that night to our high school's basketball game. feb 2nd 1999.

let me tell you a little story, (for all of you brave enough to read the long saga below)

a story how this one girl met her one boy.

it is a story covered in controversy, high school drama, young love twitters, and a splash of teenage spice.

it all began in the lunch line mid-week in high school, early january 1999. i was talking to a few friends of mine in line behind me about weekend plans. these friends invited me to come to the hunting camp with them that upcoming weekend. my friend kimee's boyfriend preston was coming, and bringing some friends. sounded like a kickin' good time to this 17 year old. after committing to the weekend trip, i realized later i had already talked to my best friend candice about possibly hanging out with her that weekend. sooooo this silly 17 year old canceled plans with her best friend and decided to hit the hunting camp. {strike one for natalie in our little drama}

my mom dropped me off at kimee's house friday after school. preston and our friend collin were talking to the girls, and a really cute guy i didn't recognize was sitting on an open tailgate tossing a football in the air. and when i say cute, i mean rugged 18yr old cute. longish curly brown hair with striking blue eyes. we dont really say a word to each other, bc we dont know each other, the girls hop in one car and the boys hop in theirs and we head north.

i remember snippits of that weekend, all of course revolving around this mystery boy (who i learned was named stephen, and that one of the girls with us kinda liked him) {strike two}.

he near tackled me while we were "playing" football (guys vs girls). then there was that quick hand brush on the couch while we were petting kimee's king charles spaniel. (chills ladies, i had 17-yr-old-i-have-a-serious-crush chills). then there was the blatant flirting on his part. and then the weekend was over.

i left with a little crush, but the knowledge that nothing would happen, bc he obviously wasnt looking for a girlfriend, plus someone already had called dibs on him. kimee and preston had a different idea, however. several after school phone conversations later and stephen and i were set up on a double date with preston and kimee. shakespeare in love it was. (the movie that is).

kimee, preston and i watched the movie (still one of my faves) while my precious date proceeded to make 'the mask of zorro' with his hot tamales box and a rather large hunting knife (WHY did he have that in the first place? and to think that is normal to me now....). we started writing notes during class, and sitting with each other at lunch in the cafeteria. oh, and there were plenty of those 'talk on the phone for three-plus hours' all us teenagers were so famous for back then (what DID we talk about?!?).

on feb 2nd, 1999, after a date to a basketball game, and withOUT a kiss, we had the incredibly important talk and decided it was official. stephen and natalie became stephen and natalie.

{valentine's day 1999...showing you just how young we were, i apparently was still carrying on a few pounds of baby fat in my cheeks}

from there, a good amount of drama followed. stephen waited almost a full month before kissing me, and the remainder of my junior year of high school was sprinkled with good ole girly "you stole my crush" catfights (dont you just love those?). best friend candice forgave me for the canceled plans that early january weekend, and she and stephen got me through the remaining months of that not-too-fun junior year.

{high school spring formal, late spring '99. LtoR: preston, kimee, me, stephen}

stephen and i were young, and after dating about three and a half months, summer was here. i left for a two week vacation with my family to hawaii, then stephen left for a two week choir tour with his church the day before i got back, and before he got home i think we both had decided we were going to break up. i dont remember it clearly, but according to my mom i was heartbroken it didn't work out.

we didnt see that much of each other until the very end of the summer, when i joined the same hunting-camp-girls at their church's Centrifuge summer camp. i didnt want to go at one point, bc stephen was going to be there and, well, bc of all that good ole girly cat fight stuff, but my mom convinced me this was a CHURCH camp, and i was going there for a much bigger reason than all of that.

my mom was right, and God seemed to have higher plans for us that weekend. somewhere between cafeteria lunches, evening praise and worship, and a couple "permissions to ask me out" asked to stephen by a few of his friends, we decided maybe the natalie and stephen chapter of our lives was not quite over. at the end of the summer, right before stephen went up to auburn to start his freshman year of college, we became us again, or i guess us-lite.

we parted with our first "i love you"'s, and an agreement that we were both welcome to go out with other people if we so desired (after all, it was in fact his freshman year of college, and my senior year of high school, so we were not to be naive). stephen took/went with a couple different girls to different fraternity/sorority parties, and i went out with a few guys on a few dates, but by homecoming '09, when stephen surprised me by coming home (i hadn't seen him in over a month), and i deserted my sweet date {strike THREE}, we both knew we were in this for the long haul.

{Sig Ep fraternity winter formal in Auburn, late Fall '99. lookie at my stylin' watch}

i would say "and that is all she wrote," but in fact there were five more years of our story until we tied the knot in december of 2004. we traveled together through many different stages in our young lives, and thankfully grew together, not apart, through all of them. i would be lying if i said there werent growing pains, cause we definitely had our share.

{Auburn football game, Fall '00}

{Yosemite, June '03}

here we are, ten years later, with a house::a dog::a baby::our life.

stephen is the yin to my yang in every way - and through good times and bad times (cause we have had both) we carry the one constant with us that has never changed - not through high school, college, first jobs, long distance, and close quarters - that we truly love and respect each other. so much that i am starting to get those silly cheesy tears in my eyes as i type this.

i am so thankful for him - we are so intertwined that i cant see myself ever functioning without him, but i know that we are both independent enough to stand on our own two feet and choose to travel through the rest of our lives together.

he knows all the good and bad things about me, and loves me still.

and my life and my person have been made better by knowing him.

Happy TEN years, stephen! here's to ten more!

haha jk - i think i may stick around a little bit longer than that, if you will still have me :)