The next phase part 4

MIKE...This is the next phase. I am not even sure where to begin with this one. I love thinking about the first time we met. Or should I say the first time we laid eyes on each other. I was running into Delynn's house to pick up Kristen (Delynn was my babysitter). Scott (Delynn's hubby) and Mike were coming out. They were going on a trip. On a Friday night I went to pick up Kristen Scott snuck into the other room and the next thing I know Mike was at the door. We hung out for a while and made plans to go out to dinner the following night. This was the night Kristen stuck a tiny plastic Barbie tennis ball up her nose! She was always sticking foreign objects up her nose! LOL



Saturday...I spent the day running around looking for something to wear that evening. I had a date! Several times during the day I spoke to Delynn and made it clear that I did not want Mike to know where I lived and I did not want to get "stuck" with him if it didn't work out. I was insisting I would drive myself! Well, Mike was very persistant and very kind and gentle over the phone so I was persuaded into letting him pick me up at home. Boy, am I easy!



I will never forget how he looked when he showed up on my doorstep he had a rose! A rose for me! Okay, so maybe he wasn't some sort of psycho, axe murdering, rapist. We had a great dinner, so we went for drinks after dinner. Scott and Delynn (being an old married couple) decided to call it a night and went home. We decided to go dancing. We danced the night away...literally. It was so easy. He was easy to be with. I don't know how else to put it. It was just... right.



It was followed by dinners, movies, dancing, lunches, flowers ...lot's of flowers, long talks, weekend getaways, friendship. True friendship. He knew that Doug was my "best friend" but he became my "best friend" in other ways.



I remember one time we were talking on the phone one evening and there was a comercial on TV it showed a burrito. I said something like, "oh that looks good, I could go for a burrito!" One of those comments you just say in passing. We talked a little longer and said goodnight. Shortly after I hung up the phone with him my doorbell rang and there was a delivery person standing there with a burrito!!! Already paid for! He was soooooo thoughful, he actually listened to me, even the little meaningless remarks people make he heard me! WOW!



We spent every possible moment together or on the phone with each other. We did things as a "family" when he was home and he was allowed to see his kids. We talked about our future, our dreams, our goals, we planned. WOW! I didn't realize people actually did that! There were alot of ups and downs trying to combine two families while tearing apart two other families. We were both dealing with ending our first marriages. I had to deal with the fact that his marriage ending was not his choice but her doing. I questioned was he rally over her? I even tried to convince him to go back to her. I am not sure if I did that as a test to see if he was really committed to me or if I did it because I wanted him to be sure that he was finished and it was right to move on. I also was dealing with the fact that she had hurt him so deeply that I felt I needed to make up for it. I was also dealing witht he fact that his family clearly did not want me in his life. I thought that was something that we couild over come. I thought, "they just need time", time to realize that I was not "just like his first wife", I was not going to cause that kind of pain.

The ring... He gave me a ring! Well, I guess it's official! I wanted to share the news with the world! I went to the local paper to put an engagement announcement in the paper. It never ran.
Apparently someone at the paper mentioned it to his mother ( my soon to be mother-in-law) she didn't feel the same joy that I did and somehow had it stopped. That should have been a billboard for me! I should have listened to my head worked through the issues with his parents!
I heard from another family member that when his father heard about the engaement he said "there is no way in hell I would go to that wedding." Again, another "billboard" I should have paid attention to! I thought we could overcome, I thought they would see how much we were in love, I thought they would come around. We went forward planning the big day. We moved out of the house that he had shared with his first wife and bought one of our own. I guess we celebrated a lot because the next announcement we would make was "it's a boy!"