Our story told by me (Kari):
I spent quite a bit of time at my friend Heather's place over the course of my teen years. You could say we were really close. I would spend just about every weekend out at her house, there were occasional weekends that Heather's uncles and cousins would be visiting. She has a fairly large family, but one particular cousin (Dustin) caught my eye. I remember being nervous and blushing because I thought he was incredibly cute! We only met briefly a few times throughout High School and I didn't know much about him except that he was gorgeous!
Heather found out about my little crush when she caught me gawking at the pictures of him around her house. When she got a few of his senior portraits she offered me one so that I would have my own picture instead of always staring at theirs. I didn't say no. Why would I? I still thought he was cute. I'm not sure what Heather thought, but I could see that she thought I was kind of silly for being so captivated by one of her relatives. I knew she thought I was being silly, so I decided to tease her a little bit. They had one of his graduation pictures propped up on their piano, so whenever I would go over to her house I would pick up the portrait and remind her of how cute he was in a silly, girly tone. It was all in good fun, but secretly I still had a crush on him.
Time slowly passed and it was around three years since I had last seen Dustin. I had long since moved on from that silly little crush. I had other relationships in which I got my heart broken and may have even broken a few myself. Heather and I had gone through some serious fights, and went through most of our senior year without speaking. It was almost six months after we graduated that Heather and I had started to hangout again.
Shortly after we had made up and become friends again, we were "cruising" the streets of my hometown; it was something that we used to do quite often. We were on our way back over to the east side of town when we passed the Holiday gas station. I noticed someone walking passed the gas pumps, and I found them to be quite familiar. I signaled that I was turning and told Heather that I thought it was her cousin. He lived a couple of hours away from where we lived, so we wanted to find out if my eyes were being truthful. We pulled up next to an SUV and hoped that it was him that we saw in the drivers seat. He was just about to drive away when he turned and looked once, and then did a double take and looked again, realizing it was his cousin that had pulled up beside him waving her hands. He pulled back forward, parked and they began to chat, while I sat sheepishly quiet.
He was still just as cute as I remembered. I tried to keep myself from staring at him by texting random people on my phone. Heather and Dustin sat and talked for a good half hour or so, and then she invited him to hangout with us later that night. He said that he would let her know. After he pulled away, she turned to me and knew exactly what I was thinking. She said something like "Ohh, see. Now maybe if he hangs out with us, you two will hook up or something." I thought she was probably wrong.
Well, much to my surprise, she was correct. We hung out that night at a party and I tried to gain some liquid courage. I did have a little more "courage" than normal and we ended up cuddling while we were all hanging out. He seemed a little more reserved that I thought he was, but he had enough courage to kiss me. Apparently he was intrigued because he decided to stay with us at Heather's house that night. I ended up getting sick off of all that 'liquid courage,' and he took care of me. He never left me the whole night. He brought me into the room and laid me down after a long night by the porcelain thrown. He covered me with blankets, and then laid down beside me. We spent the night cuddling together.
That was the beginning. That night led to a few more days with each other. Eventually he had to go back to college but we had exchanged numbers, so we kept in touch while he was gone. He would drive over four hours almost every weekend to come stay with me. After about a couple weeks we decided to make our relationship official and he asked me to be his girlfriend.
We spent Christmas together, meeting each others' family. After his semester ended, he decided to take the following semester off and move back up North. I started college during his little break and reversed the role; meaning I drove home on the weekends to spend time with him. After a year we moved in to an apartment together along with his sister and her boyfriend. We grew even closer as a couple.
A few months passed and he decided to talk with a Marine recruiter in hopes to pursue his desire of joining the military. It wasn't long before he signed the papers and committed the next 5 years of his life to the Marine Corps. He was going to be sent to boot camp in only a few short months. I was terrified, but I wanted him to do whatever would make him happy. Time seemed to fly by faster than I would have hoped, and soon enough he was on his way to boot camp. I moved out of the apartment and back home for the summer. I spent a lot of the first month crying and longing for him to come home. I wrote him a letter everyday that he was gone and slowly counted down the days until I would get to see him again. Finally the day arrived and I flew out to San Diego for his Graduation. I was nervous all over again, like I had been the day I met him. I was overwhelmed with excitement! Finally I got to hold him again, and it took a while before I wanted to let go! =) Those 12 weeks were the hardest that I have endured, but our relationship survived and only got better from there.
He spent the next year being transferred around the country while I continued college. We talked on the phone everyday, and constantly text one another. The distance was rough, but we did very well. We have a most incredible bond and we relied on that love for each other to get us through the time apart.
We had been together for two and half years when Dustin made a surprise trip home. He kept in touch with my family and they made a plan in order to surprise me. His cousin, Heather called me one night and asked me if I wanted to go out to a party with her out at one of the lake cabins. I didn't see why not... So I said I would go out. My family were also going out to one of the resorts on the lake to celebrate my brother's birthday and Mardi Gras. They volunteered to drop me off at this party, and I figured that was pretty convenient. Soooo... they drove me out and we tried to find the cabin based on Heather's directions. We pulled up to a cabin that seemed dark and not as lively as a party cabin would be. I was skeptical about walking up and knocking. I was worried that if it was the wrong cabin, I would be waking someone up and they wouldn't be pleased. My father assured me that it had to be the cabin, and he decided he would check and make sure. I was trying to get him to come back to the car, but he was insistent. I followed him up to the porch and when I looked through the glass door, I saw Dustin standing inside. My father immediately turned around and said bye as he did. I started crying and ran up and burst in the door to hold him. I was so surprised! I was overwhelmed with emotion... I couldn't stop crying. He had placed rose petals and candles everywhere. He had a candle lit table set and he had prepared a big supper. I was too overwhelmed to do anything but hug him. He asked me, "Are you surprised?" I was like, "Um YES!! Completely!" He smiled and said, "Good! But I have another surprise." I couldn't imagine what else there could be! He tried to pull away but I wouldn't release my grasp. So he said "Well... since you won't let me go..." and he pulled out a ring from behind his back and asked me, "Will you marry me?" I said, "Of course YES!"
It was the most romantic night of my life! I later found out that he spent that day with my parents, asking them for their permission to take my hand. He planned out every detail! It was the greatest moment in my life thus far! That was in March 2009.
We got married on September 9th of 2009 with a justice of peace, and are planning a ceremony for June 12th with our families! We currently live happily in Arizona together with our adorable puppy Marley and a stray kitten that wandered into our backyard and refused to leave. =) It is a marvelous life and it has only just begun!
I spent quite a bit of time at my friend Heather's place over the course of my teen years. You could say we were really close. I would spend just about every weekend out at her house, there were occasional weekends that Heather's uncles and cousins would be visiting. She has a fairly large family, but one particular cousin (Dustin) caught my eye. I remember being nervous and blushing because I thought he was incredibly cute! We only met briefly a few times throughout High School and I didn't know much about him except that he was gorgeous!
Heather found out about my little crush when she caught me gawking at the pictures of him around her house. When she got a few of his senior portraits she offered me one so that I would have my own picture instead of always staring at theirs. I didn't say no. Why would I? I still thought he was cute. I'm not sure what Heather thought, but I could see that she thought I was kind of silly for being so captivated by one of her relatives. I knew she thought I was being silly, so I decided to tease her a little bit. They had one of his graduation pictures propped up on their piano, so whenever I would go over to her house I would pick up the portrait and remind her of how cute he was in a silly, girly tone. It was all in good fun, but secretly I still had a crush on him.
Time slowly passed and it was around three years since I had last seen Dustin. I had long since moved on from that silly little crush. I had other relationships in which I got my heart broken and may have even broken a few myself. Heather and I had gone through some serious fights, and went through most of our senior year without speaking. It was almost six months after we graduated that Heather and I had started to hangout again.
Shortly after we had made up and become friends again, we were "cruising" the streets of my hometown; it was something that we used to do quite often. We were on our way back over to the east side of town when we passed the Holiday gas station. I noticed someone walking passed the gas pumps, and I found them to be quite familiar. I signaled that I was turning and told Heather that I thought it was her cousin. He lived a couple of hours away from where we lived, so we wanted to find out if my eyes were being truthful. We pulled up next to an SUV and hoped that it was him that we saw in the drivers seat. He was just about to drive away when he turned and looked once, and then did a double take and looked again, realizing it was his cousin that had pulled up beside him waving her hands. He pulled back forward, parked and they began to chat, while I sat sheepishly quiet.
He was still just as cute as I remembered. I tried to keep myself from staring at him by texting random people on my phone. Heather and Dustin sat and talked for a good half hour or so, and then she invited him to hangout with us later that night. He said that he would let her know. After he pulled away, she turned to me and knew exactly what I was thinking. She said something like "Ohh, see. Now maybe if he hangs out with us, you two will hook up or something." I thought she was probably wrong.
Well, much to my surprise, she was correct. We hung out that night at a party and I tried to gain some liquid courage. I did have a little more "courage" than normal and we ended up cuddling while we were all hanging out. He seemed a little more reserved that I thought he was, but he had enough courage to kiss me. Apparently he was intrigued because he decided to stay with us at Heather's house that night. I ended up getting sick off of all that 'liquid courage,' and he took care of me. He never left me the whole night. He brought me into the room and laid me down after a long night by the porcelain thrown. He covered me with blankets, and then laid down beside me. We spent the night cuddling together.
That was the beginning. That night led to a few more days with each other. Eventually he had to go back to college but we had exchanged numbers, so we kept in touch while he was gone. He would drive over four hours almost every weekend to come stay with me. After about a couple weeks we decided to make our relationship official and he asked me to be his girlfriend.
We spent Christmas together, meeting each others' family. After his semester ended, he decided to take the following semester off and move back up North. I started college during his little break and reversed the role; meaning I drove home on the weekends to spend time with him. After a year we moved in to an apartment together along with his sister and her boyfriend. We grew even closer as a couple.
A few months passed and he decided to talk with a Marine recruiter in hopes to pursue his desire of joining the military. It wasn't long before he signed the papers and committed the next 5 years of his life to the Marine Corps. He was going to be sent to boot camp in only a few short months. I was terrified, but I wanted him to do whatever would make him happy. Time seemed to fly by faster than I would have hoped, and soon enough he was on his way to boot camp. I moved out of the apartment and back home for the summer. I spent a lot of the first month crying and longing for him to come home. I wrote him a letter everyday that he was gone and slowly counted down the days until I would get to see him again. Finally the day arrived and I flew out to San Diego for his Graduation. I was nervous all over again, like I had been the day I met him. I was overwhelmed with excitement! Finally I got to hold him again, and it took a while before I wanted to let go! =) Those 12 weeks were the hardest that I have endured, but our relationship survived and only got better from there.
He spent the next year being transferred around the country while I continued college. We talked on the phone everyday, and constantly text one another. The distance was rough, but we did very well. We have a most incredible bond and we relied on that love for each other to get us through the time apart.
We had been together for two and half years when Dustin made a surprise trip home. He kept in touch with my family and they made a plan in order to surprise me. His cousin, Heather called me one night and asked me if I wanted to go out to a party with her out at one of the lake cabins. I didn't see why not... So I said I would go out. My family were also going out to one of the resorts on the lake to celebrate my brother's birthday and Mardi Gras. They volunteered to drop me off at this party, and I figured that was pretty convenient. Soooo... they drove me out and we tried to find the cabin based on Heather's directions. We pulled up to a cabin that seemed dark and not as lively as a party cabin would be. I was skeptical about walking up and knocking. I was worried that if it was the wrong cabin, I would be waking someone up and they wouldn't be pleased. My father assured me that it had to be the cabin, and he decided he would check and make sure. I was trying to get him to come back to the car, but he was insistent. I followed him up to the porch and when I looked through the glass door, I saw Dustin standing inside. My father immediately turned around and said bye as he did. I started crying and ran up and burst in the door to hold him. I was so surprised! I was overwhelmed with emotion... I couldn't stop crying. He had placed rose petals and candles everywhere. He had a candle lit table set and he had prepared a big supper. I was too overwhelmed to do anything but hug him. He asked me, "Are you surprised?" I was like, "Um YES!! Completely!" He smiled and said, "Good! But I have another surprise." I couldn't imagine what else there could be! He tried to pull away but I wouldn't release my grasp. So he said "Well... since you won't let me go..." and he pulled out a ring from behind his back and asked me, "Will you marry me?" I said, "Of course YES!"
It was the most romantic night of my life! I later found out that he spent that day with my parents, asking them for their permission to take my hand. He planned out every detail! It was the greatest moment in my life thus far! That was in March 2009.
We got married on September 9th of 2009 with a justice of peace, and are planning a ceremony for June 12th with our families! We currently live happily in Arizona together with our adorable puppy Marley and a stray kitten that wandered into our backyard and refused to leave. =) It is a marvelous life and it has only just begun!
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