Our Love Story
I like to believe our story was in the works long before we knew each other existed.
You see, as a teen growing up in Hawaii, I dreamt of the day when I would live on the “mainland”. I pictured my future, and my husband. Don't get me wrong, Hawaii was an amazing place for me to grow up (seriously, like none other)! But I couldn’t help but wonder, what was next for me? Who was out there?
My "daddy", set the standard of what I should be looking for, so very high. It was also him who engraved a love for adventure/travel into my soul. Which made what I did next, so extremely hard!
A year earlier than my parents anticipated, I left the comfort of home and everything I knew. I was only a junior in high school. I did so with the support of my family, who knew my wings needed to fly.
I moved to Arkansas and lived with a family that would help me pursue my horse riding. My hope was to attract the attention of a college interested in signing me.
There I had my "Papa" who was a God given "extra" Grandparent. Him and his wife, instilled so many valuable lessons in me.
Thanks to the support of many people along the way, I landed a spot on the Western Oklahoma State College rodeo team, eventually transferring to Oklahoma State University. "WOSC" was located in the middle of nowhere Oklahoma and was known for two things, Rodeo and Baseball.
I was driven to this school in particular because it was close to my then boyfriend (spoiler, it was not Casey, my now husband).
That particular relationship was the longest one I had at that point in my life. A whopping 6 months long!
When it ended, I vowed from then on to focus on my sport and not get distracted (silly, boys).
I am convinced the Lord has a funny sense of humor because unbeknownst to me, my now husband was not planning on dating anyone UNTIL HE made the Major Leagues! Whew!
So how did we eventually meet?
I was sitting in our community center (a place to play games) where one of Casey's baseball teammates decided to flirt with me, plain as day. However, recently jaded me, was not having it and brushed off all of his obvious advances which included him asking for my number.
To my surprise Casey was playing ping pong-I can’t help but laugh when I say "ping pong". He within ear shot and listening in on our conversation (hello, nosey). He apparently loved the fact that I blew off his teammate (who is known for getting the ladies might I add) haha! Casey was intrigued that I didn’t know anything about baseball (that's a story for another day). I was into rodeo guys, what can I say?
He walked over to me shy as he could be and introduced himself, I could tell this was out of the ordinary for him. He admitted overhearing I was from Hawaii and rode horses.
SO here we go again…another baseball guy.
After chatting a bit, I went on my way. Casey had sparked my interest. He was obviously handsome, but that wasn’t enough. So I did what anyone would do… I asked one of my close girlfriends about him (you know, the girlfriend that always has the scoop). She summed Casey up by comparing him to a guy on our rodeo team that she knew I had a major crush on. She said, he is the “Andrew of Baseball”.
If Casey was like Andrew, I knew he must be a good dude.
So I began to snoop. I looked at his facebook, his myspace (wow), and even our college website!
Later that evening as I was walking the halls with my roommate Travis, Casey passed us by smiling at me and I smiled back. My snarky roommate, who had annoyingly used my computer while his was broken, blurted out “so THAT'S the dude, you were creeping on the WOSC baseball page”. Oh, God-I was caught! I apparently left Casey's baseball “bio” page up on my computer screen. Mortified, didn’t begin to describe how teenage me felt in that moment.
I just remember looking at Casey's face and thinking, he is too handsome to be a good guy (but ladies, they do exists).
Spring Break came and I took a trip to Savannah, Ga to visit my Grandparents. During that time I couldn't get Casey out of my mind. I knew he was it! I had visions of introducing him to another man who helped shape my life, my Granddaddy. Someone I admired with all of my heart.
Eventually that came to fruition. The young man I loved, met all of the men I admired. In a way, things felt like they had come full circle.
Where I was and how I got there, all matter to me. Because it ultimately led me to the love of my life. The boys along the way led me to him. The men in my life thought me to not settle for anything less than him.
That handsome baseball player and I both pushed our "ideas" of not “dating” aside and eventually made vows to love each other for the rest of our lives. In fact we did the most drastic thing we knew. We got married to each other at only 20 and 21 years of age.
He eventually admitted to me, that he too “creeped” on me via our school page.
Oh and by the way, remember that guy who hit on me? Yea, that was Marty and he was the best man in our wedding and still a close friend to this day!