Love Story Link-Up

One of the blogs I recently started following put this out there...In honor of Valentine's Day coming up, here I go. <3 

1. How long have you and your significant other been together? Our "together" anniversary is March 5, 2004. It will be eight years in a little less than a month.

2. How did you meet? {What's your "love" story?} Short version: We met at work.

Longer version: In September 2003, I was a senior in high school (17) and Ian (19 when we started dating,18 when I met him) had been working at Red Robin for a couple months when I started working there. I was attracted to him right away and liked that he was one of the only guys who seemed to have values and morals at work. He was dating another girl though and who was, in my very jealous high-school girl opinion, annoying. They broke up and Ian and I started to work together more frequently. I also kind of had a crush on another boy (I was 17, people!!) and remember sharing with my best friend "but I like Ian more." We talked a lot and little did I know, Ian and the other boy, let's call him "Bobby", (Anchorage is a small town) had agreed that neither of them would "go after me" (ahhh, young love...) since they were both friends. Ian apparently wasn't a very good friend because he asked me to the movies in January. Apparently Bobby wasn't such a good friend either because the same day he asked for my number.Bobby never called, and Ian and I went to see "Butterfly Effect" on January 27, 2004. We continued to see movies about every week until the first week of March when I started to wonder WTH was going on. Did the kid just like to see movies? Enjoy making out w/ me but not want to be "tied down"? (I tended to over-analyze things back then...No, of course I don't now! ;) I told my best friend, in my best "Independent Woman" voice, "I'm going to tell him he either has to stop making out w/ other girls, or I'm out!" Turns out he wasn't making out w/ other girls, and asked me to be his girlfriend that night...Awww. You can tell we met in high school and not later in life now, huh?! ;)Here is us the summer after we started dating...such babies, we were!

3. If married, how long have you been married? If not, is this the guy you hope to marry? {do tell} We will have been married for four years in May.

4. If you are married, where did you get married at? Big or small wedding?  If not, where would you like to get married? And will it be big or small? We got married in Maryland, with about 100 guests. My grandfather married us at Cedar Grove UMC in Deale, MD and we celebrated with a reception at Chesapeake Beach Resort and Spa in Chesapeake Beach, MD.

5. Do you have any nick-names that you call one another? Do share! Besides babycakes and butterballs? (Guess which nickname belongs to whom!) Just kidding. We call each other babe, love, lover, baby, hot piece of ass...but no real nicknames other than I call him by his middle name, Lando, a lot.

6. Name 3 things you love most about your honey. He is hardworking, goofy/carefree, and has a very kind heart.

7. Tell us how he proposed? Or your ideal proposal? Ian proposed the day after our three-year dating anniversary to throw me off (I knew he was going to propose *sometime*), on March 6, 2007. He asked me to come over and see his new duplex and he could make me enchiladas for dinner (nothing says romance like beans and cheese). I kinda gave him a hard time about it because he normally just came over to my house, and this was having me drive across town in rush-hour traffic (ha, what a joke that now is...having lived on the east-coast. It probably took 10 minutes longer than it would have anyways.) He said our friend Ben was coming over too. If I had any inkling this was *the* night, it was pushed aside because of the knowledge that Ben was coming over. When I got there he said "Ben parked down the street." Uhhh, ok? Then I came inside and said hi to one of his roommates, and while Ian was giving me the tour he kept telling me not to go into the downstairs bath. "Ben is in there. Ben is going to the bathroom. He's going to the bathroom, don't go in there." Ummm, dude I get it, I don't plan on barging in on a man while he's in the bathroom, especially knowing he's been in there for awhile already. We got to Ian's room at the end of the tour and he said "Well I guess we can see the backyard now." So I said "Ok!" and walked over to the big window and looked down. I said "Hey, there are roses down there!!" Ian replied "I meant we could go to the backyard." Oops. So I was kind of clued in at that point. ;) We went down there and Ian said some very lovely stuff (most of which I do not remember because I was in such a daze over it all!), got down on one knee in a bed of roses in the snow and asked me to marry him. Ben popped out from behind a bush where he was waiting, soaking wet in the snow, and taking pictures of us! 

8. Is he a flowers and teddy bear kind of guy for v-day, or strawberries, champagne, and rose petals? I guess he is a rose petals guy from the question above? Haha. Naw, he is more of a candy and coffee kind of guy, probably because he knows that's what I like! lol.

9. Are you a sunset dinner on the beach kind of girl, or pop a movie in and relax on the couch? Mostly the latter, but I can definitely enjoy both!

10. Tell us one thing you'd like to do with your significant one day. If you could do anything? Go anywhere? For one day? Hike a mountain. He is in his element on top of mountains. It'd be great if that mountain was in Hawaii or somewhere we had not been before, but I'm wondering if travel time has to be accounted for in the one day. ;)

11. Tell us what you plan on doing on this Valentine's Day. Oh, probably nothing...he has work and school. I might make a special meal to enjoy at home with our baby girl. :)

12. Are you asking for anything this Valentine's day? Nope. :)

13. Give us one piece of advice of keeping a relationship strong and full of love. Openness and honesty. When all else fails, I trust Ian fully because I am 100% honest with him and him with me. 

14.  Show us a picture of what love means to you.