i'm married, so you get guest bloggers!

well, that's it-the decorations are put away and the band has gone home. the stress, saving, head spinning, planning, dancing, and drinking are done and tim and i are married! i have known all along that i picked the right one and could stand by this love the rest of my life. this week while i go on my honeymoon-ok...that's a lie haha we will most likely be moving into our new home with a honeymoon planned for later in the year; in the meantime i have asked some old and new friends to share about their marriages. i am so excited to introduce you to some wonderful new people and i can't wait to share with you about our wedding!

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today we have libby from libby's life blog stopping by! we are fairly new twitter, blogger, insert more social networking sites here friends and i am so excited to have her visiting today. today i came down with food poisoning and am stuck in bed. didn't my stomach know to behave a little better while i was 'honeymooning' with my hubs? ugh!

I am Libby from Libby's Life Blog and this is the story of how I met my husband and how we became engaged. Enjoy! 

James and I met when I was 25 and he was 21. {yes I robbed the craddle} :) On March 31st, 2007. It all started with my friend Julianna and her boyfriend, Phil. She was here visiting her boyfriend who just so happened to be on the same ice hockey team as my soon to be husband. She had called me and asked if I would like to come watch her boyfriends hockey game so that we could see each other while she was here for the weekend and I jumped at the chance to see her because it had been awhile since I'd seen her. They picked me up on Saturday to go to the game with them and then hang out after the game was over. On our way to the ice rink they informed me that they were going to introduce me to one of his teammates. I was not thrilled at all. I had gotten out of an absolutely horrible relationship about 6 months before that and was still not ready to go out with anybody. I had just decided that I was going to try to be single for awhile. So I told them I really didn't want to be "set up" with anyone but they weren't listening so I decided to just humor them and let them introduce us and that would be it. We got to the rink and I was very unenthusiastic about meeting this friend of Phil's. So Phil went back into the locker room and then a few minutes later brought out James. We "met" if you can even call it that. I think we both said hi and then he ran back to the locker room to get ready for the game. But during the game I was paying close attention to him and trying to read his last name which to say it simply was not easy at all! I never actually figured it out because it is not pronounced the way it is spelled at all. So when the game was over I asked him how to say it and then he asked if all of us wanted to go to dinner together. So all four of us met at the McMenamins Pub right down the road. We had dinner and I ordered a Ruby Beer {only the best beer ever!} and he looked at me like I was crazy because he thought I was only 19. When I was actually 25, he was the one that was just barely old enough to drink. We had a great dinner laughing and talking for quite awhile. After dinner I asked him to come to Phil's other game {on a different team} the next day with Julianna & me so that I could see him again. We also exchanged phone numbers, well we talked that night for quite awhile  and he told me he'd be at the game the next night. I met Julianna & Phil halfway to the game the next day because my house was way out of the way and it worked better for all of us this way. At the game we hung out and had a really good time and then after the game Julianna and Phil totally ditched me and said have James take you to your car. So I asked him if he would and of course he said yes but he asked if I wanted to get a drink first and I really did because I really liked him at this point. We went & got a drink right near my where my car was parked and then he drove me to my car, which was parked in a Denny's parking lot and when he walked me to my car door he took my hands and pulled me into him and kissed me. My knees almost buckled! It was a feeling I hadn't experienced since my very first kiss. I was falling for him and hard only after two days of knowing him.

We talked every single day for the next week until he left for Canada for a hockey tournament and he told me he'd call while he was gone. I never in a million years thought that he'd call me because he's a guy and guys don't do the stuff they say when they're gone. But to my surprise he called me every day while he was gone {mind you half the time when he called he was totally drunk.} but I was madly in love with him already. I wanted to tell him so badly but I didn't want to scare him so I told myself I'd wait until he told me however long it might take him. I wanted to be with him and so I wasn't going to lose him. He got home Sunday which was also Easter and he came straight to my house telling me that he had something to tell me when he got there. He said he wanted to tell me in person and not over the phone. I couldn't figure out what he would have to tell me that he couldn't just say over the phone and it never crossed my mind that he was going to tell me, "I love you". He got to my house and we went into my room so we could be away from my roommate and her boyfriend and he told me this story... "When I got to Canada I told myself that if I made a goal during the game that I really liked this girl. So when I made that first goal I told myself that if I made a second goal that I was falling in love with this girl, I had just met a week ago. Well I made that goal, too I told myself that if I made a third goal {a hat trick} that I was in love with this girl and I would tell her when I get home from being in Canada. Well I made that goal too. So I just want to tell you that I LOVE YOU!"  I was in shock! I never in a million years thought he would be telling me that he loved me this soon. I was so excited that I almost forgot to say it back... he looked at me and said, "you don't have to say it back if you don't want to but I really do love you!" I looked at him and said, "oh no, I love you too! I was just so surprised I forgot to say it back." From that day forward we saw or talked to each other every day.

We started talking about getting married soon after we said I love you which to many people on the outside was WAY too fast but we both knew we wanted to spend the rest of our lives together. Well I had asked him if he wanted to go to Disneyland with me in the summer and he said of course he would. So we planned a trip down there. We stayed with my Aunt and Uncle so we saved money on a hotel and  my mom is a flight attendant so we had access to CHEAP, CHEAP airline tickets. So we only really had to pay for our tickets to Disneyland which we purchased here in Oregon so they didn't have all the taxes and stuff on them. It was great and not a very expensive trip at all. I had an idea he was planning on asking me to marry him sometime on that trip but I didn't know that for sure. When we got to Disneyland on August 10th, 2007 he told me that he had planned a special dinner for us at the Blue Bayou Restaurant in the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. {I had always wanted to eat there but never been able to, so he wanted to do something special for me.} We went to dinner and it was such an amazing dinner and it was exactly what I had wanted. When dinner was over he said, "can I ask you something without you getting mad or upset with me?" I looked at him and said "yes, I guess." I was totally confused at why he would ask me this after such an amazing day of fun and then such a great dinner, I didn't suspect a thing! Then he said to me, "Libby Wilson, will you marry me?!" And then I freaked out and couldn't think of anything to say except, "yes, yes, yes!" I never cried which is totally unusual for me because I am an extremely emotional person but I think I was too shocked and excited. We also didn't really think to give each other a kiss until this lady from the table next to ours started saying "kiss her, kiss her!!" So we kissed and then she proceeded to say "I love, love". It was hilarious we were both laughing at that and got totally distracted from just getting engaged! I was so excited though because he had just given me the most beautiful ring I had ever seen in my life. It was exactly what I wanted and he had designed it all on his own. I had never been happier. I of course immediately called my mom who had been waiting for my call all day because he had asked their permission for my hand in marriage which I thought was completely amazing of him! Yes, it was only 4 months from when we had actually met. I told you we knew almost immediately we loved each other and wanted to spend our lives together.

We decided to get married the next year on June 21st, 2008 which was only 9 months from when we got engaged. So we didn't have an ideal amount of time to plan but it was enough to pull off an amazing wedding at The Old Church in Downtown Portland, Oregon and then the reception at the Oregon Golf Club. It was the perfect start to our marriage! It was the best day of my life until I had my baby last year. That is the story of us. The story of how our love came to be and then grew. I hope you enjoyed hearing my love story.