Our Lima.Oscar.Victor.Echo. Story

Last week all of my military spouse friends were posting their Lima.Oscar.Victor.Echo {LOVE} stories and linking up for Valentine's Day.  I'd never shared our story here so I typed it out, dug up some old photos and was all set to share it with you...then I had some issues with Google not wanting to let me renew my domain name and in the panicked frenzy to get that resolved, I accidentally deleted the whole, long post!  I was so bummed and did not have the time or mental capacity to retype it.  I figured maybe I'd redo it for next year or our anniversary or something.  Then Jessica Lynn posted about her 9 year blogging anniversary and talked about some of the old sites she'd used before blogger or blogging was a big deal.  This reminded me that 10 years ago I used to write on a site called LiveJournal.  I decided to find my way back into the site (I had no clue what username/password I used back then).  February 22nd, 2002 I wrote my first ever "blog" post and after ready through 2 years of my posts on that site  (90% of which were about stupid boys) I found some entries that I don't remember ever writing, including some about Jason & I.  With that I found the drive I needed to rewrite our story.  Here it is!

April 27th, 2005, I had recently ended a long, serious relationship and my girlfriend and I were hanging out at my house chatting about boys and love and all that stuff 22 year olds talk about.  She told me there was this boy that she used to spend time with as a kid (her aunt & uncle were best friends with this guy's parents) who she had recently found on Facebook.  She told me he was smokin hot and pulled up his profile.  One look at this photo and I was sold!

I sent him a message, and looking back, had I known this was the man I would marry, I definitely would have said something different, that said 

"hi :)

my friend says you're hot and that I would eat you alive ha ha...I love West Point, that campus is so gorgeous!"

We chatted for a few weeks via Facebook and AIM which evolved into long conversations on the phone and plans to meet up once he graduated a few months later,

Here is what I shared on LiveJournal about my initial feelings for him.

I'm going on a date in a few weeks that I'm really excited about. This guy is so unlike any guy I've ever been interested in but we get along so well. He's about to graduate from West Point but other than that (the military aspect) he's the total opposite of the 2 serious relationships I've had in my life which is something that I need in my life right now. Something different and refreshing. So I guess there will be more (hopefully positive)to come on that in the near future.

He graduated on a Sunday and we had plans to meet on Thursday.  He only made it 1 day at home in Cincinnati before he was bored and called me to see if I wanted to hang out.  It was the weekend of the Taste of Cincinnati and there was a musician I wanted to see playing that day (Keith Anderson) so he picked me up and we headed downtown.  Every thing was going well and after the show on the way back to his truck he asked me if I had plans for dinner, I told him I didn't, he asked if I like tacos, I reminded him I do not eat beef or pork but I love turkey tacos, and that was it.  He changed the subject, drove me home and said good night.  I was so baffled.  He continued texting/calling like nothing had happened so I eventually forgot about it, we went on the date we had planned and really started to hit it off.  We continued to hang out for a few weeks, then he left town for a while to attend some wedding/bachelor parties/general post graduation festivites.

So Jason was supposed to be getting back from Miami some time tonight. When I talked to him last night around 1am he said they were getting ready to stop for the night, so when he called me at 7 this morning and said he needed me to do him a big favor I was a little worried. Until he told me what he needed...for me to open the door and let him in! They drove all through the night so they could get home, he dropped the boys off then came over to wake me up. It's the little things that get me!

I think that was the moment I knew I could love this man.  We spent a few more glorious week together before he had to leave for OBC (Office Basic Courses, as it used to be called.  I think they call it BOLC now).

One of our very 1st photos , 4th of July at my uncles house.

When it was time for him to leave we both struggled with how to proceed.  We were both expecting a fun summer fling and I think we were caught off guard by the feelings that developed.  We made plans to meet for my birthday 2 months after he left.  We didn't make it 2 weeks before we met in STL for the weekend.

From our 1st weekend rendezvous.

After 6 months of back and forth between Cincinnati and Fort Leonard Wood Jason was preparing for a deployment and decided to end things between him and I before he left.  That was a sad time for me and I don't care to relive it.  The good news is that not even a month into his deployment he realized he'd screwed up royally and started calling me.  He didn't admit that mistake for a year and a half but during that time we talked regularly (as regularly as a deployment permits) and everyone around me swore they knew we would get back together but I didn't allow myself to believe it.  When he returned from that deployment we started dating again and 6 months later we decided to get married before he left for deployment #2.  It was kind of spontaneous and a little rushed but we knew it was the right time for us, so we gathered our immediate family and headed to a fabulously ghetto "chapel" in Kentucky and got married!

He deployed shortly after that.  For his R&R during that deployment we met in Europe for our "honeymoon".

Then, shortly after he returned from that deployment we had our big wedding with all of our friends and family!

That's a really long story, and it's just the beginning!  If you read the whole thing, thanks!