…I married the man I met on my doorstep, with scissors in his hand! Having a flare for the dramatic, this is how Curt informs people of our first meeting. Then he leaves me to tell the rest of the story! LOL

I was a college grad, ready to start teaching 5^th grade. A friend from college, Lori, also a first year teacher, had just moved in to a new apartment with me. We had no sooner settled in when a friend from college, Chris, called and invited us to single’s prayer and praise night at his church. That’s where I first saw HIM. Not that he ever came to meet me.

About a week later, while I was cutting out pictures for my classroom bulletin boards, Chris and the rest of the prayer and praise team came over to visit. They saw my cut outs and took over! Where were more scissors? They all thought that cut outs was the hottest thing since the latest techno gadget. That evening all of my bulletin board pictures were cut out!

Lori was not prepared for this, so she decided to invite the gang over another night…just to cut out her bulletin board pictures. They asked if they could invite Curt. Who’s Curt? A good looking hunk from the base with muscles. Okay, so this is all I had to go by when HE came to the door, with scissors in his hands. Oh, that was Curt! I remember him from Prayer and praise night! He never did come to meet me. And I was too shy to go and meet a guy.

He used to call to the apartment, but I was never certain he had the right girl. After all, roommates named Lori and Laurie can create confusion. (There is a difference in how our names are pronounced. Lori rhymes with story and Laurie rhymes with starry night.) Our parents were always confused. They never knew who they were talking to on the phone. The guys (mostly just friends) had interesting ways of calling us up. Pat was really nervous and would say, "Lori? Laurie? Laurie? Lori?????" Chris knew right off the bat which one we were…."Helloooooo Laurie?????" he’d say. Curt would call and start talking. How did he know he had the right one??????

Chris could not get through on the phone one time, because Curt and I had been talking. When Chris found out that Curt had never asked me out for a date, he went to work on a blind date. He and Pat called Curt and told him to show up at my apartment after church. Chris and Pat told Lori and Pam. Lori relayed the information to me. Now this is the best date I’ve ever been on! The guys planned this (Chris and Pat). The girls didn’t have to do a thing but be ready at our apartment. The guys stopped at Bill Miller’s BBQ and purchased take out, picked us up and took us to a state park for a picnic lunch. We settled down to eat brisket, cole slaw, potato salad and bread with no plates, napkins or utensils. There were no cups for the ice tea! So the guys went around to all the picnickers asking if they had any extras we could use! ROTFL!!!!!

I’m not sure what ever really sealed the deal, because Curt probably took me on 2 dates. We went on a date tonight. His mom generously gave us some money for our anniversary. This was enough money to enjoy a 5* restaurant at a 5* hotel nearby. We left the kids alone watching movies. Dd chose "The Aristocats" which was always one of her favorites from toddlerhood. After that, ds had "Magic Schoolbus" episodes I had taped years ago for backup. (Was he trying to score points with the teacher???) We have never left the children home alone while on a date. Being ages 15 (tomorrow) and 12, and being that we’d be 3 miles away and had our cell phones, we left them to watch movies.

We had a good dinner at the type of place where they seat you, pick up your napkin from the table and spread it across your lap. We had a silverware issue tonight. They kept laying extra silverware in the center of the table and we didn’t know what it was for. Turned out we used our regular fork for the salad and the salad forks were taken away, unused. Later we ordered a dessert sampler. One of the items was chocolate soup in a little skinny glass. We were drinking out of it, but we didn’t feel that was right, because the soup was a bit thick. Finally I tried the spoon they gave us right before the desserts were placed in front of us. What do you know?! It fit! What a concept!