My Heart Holder

Since we’ll be lounging on the beaches of Thailand on Valentine’s day, I thought I would post this early. Boys, let me tell you a little story of how I met your father. Keep in mind, this was WAY back in the 90’s and we were in High School. It’s filled with all the cheesiness that for some reason I can remember every detail of….. can’t find my keys, but you better believe I know the ridiculousness that makes up the non essensial details of our love story.

I was really close friends with Amy and Emily Chiles. Amy was a year older than me and Emily was a year younger than me. It turns out Emily started going to a new church group – and I mean it was new and tiny – Denton Bible. (look it up, it’s now a mega-church) Anyway, One day Emily says “Jennifer, you have got to meet this guy that goes to Denton Bible. His name is Keith McDaniel and he is C U T E ! Being slightly boy crazy I was hooked. Months later it was a Friday or Saturday night and I was going out with Amy. We made a pit stop by her house to get re-ready and as I walked past Emily’s room, I notice she had friends over. As it turns out, she invited Dan Shipman and Keith to come hang out with her and Meredith Shuck. Boys, you should keep these names in mind because almost everyone involved still lives in the Flower Mound area. If we ever live there in the future you could be friends with THEIR children. And I will have more input than you’ll ever want when it comes to whom you date ;-)

I quickly walk past her room and get an eye glimpse of your dad. She was right, he was CUTE, BUT he was also starting to date Meredith. This might have been over the summer because when school started back up guess who started going to Marcus???? Keith. His Dad (Grandpa Slothbear) moved and he was able to switch schools. I would see him around and we had lunch together. We never sat near each other – he with his friends and me with mine, but I would always delay getting up and throwing my trash away when the bell rang so I could walk near him. He also did the same to be near me. I noticed. Everyone together…. AAAAHHHHHHHHHH!

Fast forward almost the entire school year! May 21, 1993 and I’m in 4^th period Study Hall with Michael Dougan. We’re sitting around chatting and the question comes up “if you could go out with anyone in the entire school, who would you go out with?” My answer was Keith McDaniel. To my surprise Michael says “HOLD ON!” He gets up and leaves the room. Turns out he went to the class next door and finds your dad. Michael comes back and says, Keith will pick you up from work when you get off tonight and you’re going on a date. Umm, what just happened? I kinda didn’t care because I was very excited.

I worked at the Vista Ridge Mall in a candy store (Tropik Sun Fruit & Nut) and frantically had Melissa bring me up her best outfit to borrow. I think it was cream Bongo pants from The Wet Seal and a cream flowery silk tank top with brown flats and brown belt. Ask your father if he remembers what I was wearing… he won’t. That's ok, it might also have to do with the fact that I had a clothes journal. I wrote down what I wore every single day so I wouldn't repeat an outfit more than once every 2 weeks. Can you imagine the horror!? (ps - thank you for being boys) So she brings the clothes up to me and I close up the store possibly a little early to make sure I’m ready at 9:00pm. Guess who walks down the stairs… Keith AND Matt Garrison. Let me pause right there and remind myself that the writing was on the wall. This guy brought his BFF on our first date. I don’t even know if you can classify it as a date (again… writing on the wall) because we went back to his house where a party was already in full swing. See, Grandpa Greg worked and your dad’s friends always went over there to hang out. Yes, our date consisted of not spending ANY money. Man, so many bells are going off now that I’m recalling all these details.

At this small gathering/party is a girl I was fighting with, AJ Thompson. If you want to know the details of our tiff, I can still rattle off that story word for word. All the “he said” and “she said”… why? I have important things to remember, but this is locked away in my mental file cabinet. So AJ is there and I tell your dad that I don’t like her and can we go somewhere else? Sure we can! Do you know where we went? Uncle Brian’s Farm. And by “we”, the entire house AND MORE showed up at the farm down by the river. Since it was already kind of late and Papa and GeGe were the MEANEST with my 10:30pm curfew, I had to be home shortly afterwards.

We were standing in the back of Grant Kelly’s truck when your Daddy gave me our first kiss. From that moment on, it wasn’t “maybe we’ll see each other again”, it was as natural as “what are we doing tomorrow… for as long as we both shall live?” There was not any awkwardness or guessing, we knew that we liked to be together and were almost inseparable for the rest of the week (and years to follow). On May 26, 1993 your Dad asked me to “go” with him. Thirteen years later on that exact date your brother was born. BUT FIRST you have to have a wedding. I’ve got 8 ½ years of stories between first date and that!!

There’s so much more because young love in High School comes with DRAMA. But true love conquers all! Happy Valentine’s Day Keith. I love you so so much. Thank you for almost 17 years of memories. We’ve officially been together longer than we ever were apart!