Ran Off and Got Married: The story of Melissa and Sean

So, I've had a couple of people mention wanting to know the back story of Sean and I "running off and getting married". Well, it's not a story I'm sure I want to tell my children, simply because I'm not sure I want them following in our footsteps, but it does make for an interesting story and kind of romantic too.

It all started in November of 2006. I was living and working in my hometown and just having gotten out of a two and half year relationship I wasn't looking for anything serious. I was dating a few different people and knew the relationships weren't going anywhere.

At this time I had an account on the ever-popular MySpace. I used it mainly to keep up with my friends. However, a guy started messaging me. He was in the Army and from the same hometown I was. I had never known him though because he was four years older than me and we had attended different high schools. I kept talking to him because unlike a lot of the messages I got from random people at that time, he wasn't hitting on me or sending any sort of raunchy messages. He seemed genuinely interested in what I had to say. I kind of dismissed him at first. Sure I enjoyed talking to him and I knew he was different then anyone I was seeing at the time, but he was in Louisiana and I was in Oklahoma, seperated by over 9 hours so I really didn't see the point.

A couple of months went by and we were still talking through emails and by now I'd given him my phone number. We talked a few times and I was so nervous everytime we talked but really enjoyed our conversations. He would jokingly ask when I was going to marry him and I'd just laugh it off. I couldn't deny the feeling though that I knew this one was special. This guy was different then all the other men I'd been in relationships with, yet we weren't even really dating, how could we when we were so far apart?

There were several times when he would try to come home and visit me, but not having a car that was hard to do. Eventually we just planned to meet up on his block leave in June. That seemed a long time to wait, but the months went by and I by now as odd as it seemed I knew I was going to marry this man that I'd never met, just spent huge amounts of time on the phone with.

June came finally, I met him in Dallas and we drove back to our hometown, we spent 2 weeks together and in one of his last days there he asked me to marry him. We decided to run off to Texas and do it since active-duty didn't have to wait any days to have the ceremony once we applied for our marriage license. We broke the news to my parents the day the met Sean and of course they were less than happy. They didn't speak me to me for about a month and a half after that. It did seem crazy to everyone but us.

We got married in Gainesville, Texas on July 5th, 2007 by a Justice of the Peace. I planned on wearing a dress, but the JOP was running late so I didn't have time. It was just us in our causual wear. Our "honeymoon" was nothing special. We spent the night in Dallas and ate at a Grandy's. Very low-key and very low-budget! The next day Sean had to go back to Ft.Polk so our time together got cut short. We spent the next five months in seperate states since I had a work contract to finish before I could move to Louisiana with him. We did eventually have a bigger ceremony in December since we both decided that was something we really wanted to have, but we consider our anniversary to be in July.

I am by no means an impulsive person, I think everything through, I plan ahead, but I knew that this was something I had to do at that time and I've never regretted doing it. A lot of people thought we wouldn't last six months, but we knew this was forever and we love proving people wrong that doubted us. My parents eventually came around and I know they really love Sean. I don't tell this story to everyone because some people find it odd we met online and then got married without really even "dating", but it works for us and that's all that matters!

WWWAT- July/Summer Days

It's finally that time again! I've been looking forward to Wordless Wednesday With a Twist for the last few weeks. Today's theme is July/Summer Days. I decided on a collection of photos that reminds me of the lovely month of July.





The first part of July is important because not only is it our nation's birthday, but also my husband's birthday.



Next up is our anniversary, this is our marriage certificate from Texas. We pretty much "ran off and got married"



My birthday was always a hightlight of July, I may have missed out on the celebrating it with my classmates during the school year, but I more than made up for it with warm wather and wonderful birthday parties.



With all the holidays out of the way we can get down to the summer essentials!

Tanning:



Grilling:



Enjoying lazy days at Grandma's with the cousins:



After all those activities you have to cool off!

Birthday Weekend Recap

My birthday weekend was great. Nothing terribly excited happened. No big trip to New Orleans...yet. Instead we went down to Lake Charles which is one of our favorite places to go around here.

Since it was my birthday I got to choose what I wanted to do for the day. I had originally thought about going south of Lake Charles on the Creole Nature Trail, but I opted to save that for another day.

Instead it was a day of shopping and good food for us. We went to Target first. (My how I wish Leesville had a Target!) I was looking for a specific lip gloss from Max Factor but apparently Target or at least this Target doesn't carry that, so I had to make do with the awesome pale pink nail polish I found. Sean and I also bought some basic baby stuff for a friend of ours. He and his wife are new parents as of yesterday and they had no baby stuff. He said they could use anything so we got them a diaper genie, which happens to be one of my favorite gifts to give, some bottles, 3 onesies, a couple of pacifiers, and a baby medical kit that had a thermometer, measuring dropper, and a few other things in it. I love being able to do stuff like that for people, it always makes me feel good to be able to help someone. I told Sean I'd keep an eye out for baby clothes at Goodwill too.

We stopped at our favorite sports bar for lunch and a couple of spicy Bloody Marys. If you're ever in Lake Charles stop by Pappy's on Ryan Street. They have a deli on one side and a bar on the other. Usually we just sit in the bar because the deli is so busy and order what we want. The Po'Boys are amazing there as are the Spicy Bloody Marys. I've never been one for Bloody Marys, but these can't be missed. We like to play Buzztime Trivia while we are there too, so I enjoyed an hour or so of that. Few things I find as fun as beating my husband on multiple rounds of trivia! Muah ha ha.

Next up was Books a Million, which also happens to have a deal with AAFES online, so remember that all you military gals! I have never been in such a wonderful bookstore! They had the most magazines I've ever seen in a bookstore. The selection of books was also amazing. I ended up with a travel book about Europe and I bought Sean a book about the history of paratroopers.



We also hit Goodwill and Hobby Lobby. How I miss Hobby Lobby too! I cannot go in that store without buying at least one thing. They were having great sales on summer stuff so I grabbed a couple of picture frames.



We ended the day with a feast at Olive Garden. I had the Tour of Italy and a strawberry bellini and thought Sean was going to have to roll me out of there, I was that full!

I have a feeling that my 25th year is going to be simply amazing!

A Cool Freebie

I hope everyone had a pleasant Monday. Mine wasn't too bad. It was cloudy most of the day which led to cooler temperatures. Our boss is gone the entire week and since it's just me and another lady we decided to dress casual the rest of the week. I have to say I'm pretty excited about that. I did have a minor occurence yesterday though when I came out in the afternoon to find my car had a flat rear tire. That led to me having to purchase new rear tires today and I'm a $150.00 poorer, but I'm just thankful this flat didn't happen while I was driving or while we were in Lake Charles this past weekend.

Sean is at the ranges all this week so he won't be getting home until late and then leaving early in the mornings. So, it's just been Boomer and I this evening, even though I did go to the gym for awhile with my friend Lauren. After eating so much Olive Garden this weekend it was imperative that I got myself to the gym!

So I know many of you out there probably like to travel as much as I do, so I'm going to let you in on a great deal that I just happened to run across. I love taking road trips and there's a program called the American Scenic Byways program. There are scenic byways all over and I requested what I thought was a brochure about them. This is what came in the mail.



That's right folks. A full-color National Geographic Guide to Scenic Highways and Byways. It didn't cost me a dime! I just got it off of this link. The price on the back says $25.00. To say I was shocked to get this is an understatement. I had to call my Mom and tell her about it since she loves travel books like I do. Do yourself a favor and go check it out!

I'm still planning a post about my birthday weekend and a few of my cool buys, but I'm going to save that for another day.

Thank You

I wanted to say thank you to everyone for the kind comments and birthday wishes. I have had a wonderful birthday weekend and I'm sure I'll be writing all about it tomorrow.

Thanks again!

25 Years

I'm so pumped that it's Friday, this week has been pretty decent for me. I got a $1.00 raise yesterday at work and my boss told me I was doing a great job and they were so glad to have me working for them. To say it made my day is an understatment.

This Sunday is my 25th birthday! I haven't decided what I want to do for it yet, but I'm sure it will include a trip to Olive Garden. Hey, a girl's got to indulge on her birthday right?

Anyway, in honor of being alive for a quarter of a century I thought I'd put together a small list of some the best things I've experienced in my first 25 years.

1. Getting married to the love of my life



2. Graduating high school and college

3. Spending 25 years with an amazing family

4. Having the President of the United States speak at my college graduation

5. Having the opportunity to live in two different wonderful states

6. Being lucky enough to have friends that I'm certain will be there for me for the rest of my life

7.Getting to see such sites as the Grand Canyon, Niagra Falls, New York City, the Hollywood Hills, Yellowstone and countless other places

8. Seeing the highest point in North American, Mt. McKinley

9. Snorkeling in the waters of Mexico

10.Realizing my dream in life is to be a photographer

11.I've worked as a cashier, library reference desk assistant, program assistant for Girl Scouts, bakery girl, picked grapes for a vineyard, put together air conditoners and now I'm working for the Louisiana Sheriff's Law Enforcement Progam. Interesting jobs in a short amount of time!

12. I won several essay contests in high school that I was extremly proud of. They were through the VFW and provided me with some money for college.

13. I'm proud of all the other events in my life that has made me the woman I am today.

My Pre-Blogging days

Before I was a blogger, I was a journal keeper. No big suprise there huh? I started keeping a journal the summer before my 8th grade year. It was a journal from Sanrio, makers of Hello Kitty. It looked a little something like this:



That first journal is chock-full of innocent crushes I had in my early teens and the difficulties I had my eighth grade year.

I filled up that first journal pretty quickly and soon I had amassed a collection.



Those journals hold the highs and lows of high school, the adventure of setting off to college and some amazing family trips taken over the years. When I lived at home and it was tornado season, I kept a duffel bag of what was most important to me so I could make a quick run to the storm cellar if need be. What was contained in that duffel bag was my many volumes of journals, my photo albums and the stuffed bear my Dad had given me the day I was born. No clothes, no jewelry went in that bag, just my memories.

I once had a friend go through one of my journals when I was in college, it was one of the most humiliating things I had gone through at that point. To have someone go through your private thoughts and then call you on it? I was beyond mad and I thought for awhile our friendship would end, but we mended it and are still friends to this day. I always told my friends and now I tell Sean, that if I should die unexpectedly that they should burn all my journals immediately. I'm sure some might look at it as a great rememberance of my life, but to me, my journals are my innermost thoughts and confessions and I couldn't bare anyone reading them after I was gone.

I've been trying to keep a journal this past year, but I find I rarely write in it. I've gotten out of the habit of writing in it and with blogging online I sometimes don't feel the need to write twice a day in different forms. I love looking back so much on what I have written that I feel bad about not keeping a hard-copy of what I am experiencing in my life right now. It's just not the same to go back and look at my old Xanga, MySpace and Blogger posts.

So here's to many more years of online and plain old old-school journaling!