In the beginning.. part 1

Last night I had a dream about the first couple of dates that Judson and I went on then all of the sudden BARK BARK BARK! My dogs needed to go out and woke me up.

You know when you woke up too early from a good dream and you just lay there and try to force yourself to fall back asleep and start dreaming again at the same moment you woke up from? Well, I was doing that. Then I realized, how about I just lay here and actually just use my memory about the beginning of Judson and I. I can't remember the last time I thought about these times, it's been a loooong time. Maybe it was because yesterday my sister in law posted about her and Koby in the beginning of their marriage or maybe it's because I had a picture from when we were dating 4 years ago on my timehop yesterday morning, or because last night was bid night and crazzzzzy things happen on EOX bid night - but regardless, here I am looking back to the beginning of when my Judson came into the picture.

The year 2011 wasn't a great year for me. First of all, I was fat and hadn't had a haircut in months so I constantly LOOKED like it wasn't a great year for me (so much for faking it till you make it). But overall, it was just a hard year of hard lessons I needed to learn but it sucked learning them. Therefore I declared 2012 THE YEAR OF ME. I lost some weight, got a cute haircut and some new clothes, and I was ready to finish my junior year of college and start my senior year with a bang! So, since it was THE YEAR OF ME I decided to journal things that happened everyday because everyday was going to be GREAT. Now journaling a sentence or two about what happened that day either makes me really lame or a real genius because now I have this awesome keepsake from a really special time in my life. SO since I journaled I will be cross referencing that with my actual memory. This is my favorite story EVER so sit back and prepare yourself.

Here's where it all started. Junior year of college ended and I had kind of come to terms with the fact I'm not going to meet my future husband at ACU. I talked to God and came to an agreement that it was okay and I needed to stop forcing it to happen. So I ended my junior year with this mindset. The next day pretty much all of ACU went out to a place called Guitars which is basically a bar with lots of country dancing and then to a Josh Abbott concert down the road at another place. Judson was kind of just following me around when we were at Guitars. Whatever group of people I was standing with talking to he just popped up in there. He asked me to dance a couple of times and of course I did. I had known Judson for a couple of years we had classes together and studied together before so he wasn't a stranger to me, but I was like dude what are you doing? I even asked one of our good mutual friends "Why is Judson following me around all night?" (who later I found out he texted this friend the night before and said "You need to help get Elizabeth and I together, she's hot" ROMANTIC)

After that night he was texting me a lot the next day which was graduation day. We both had roommates graduating and we would talk about that. I also learned this day that we actually lived down the street from each other in our college houses. WHO KNEW?! So after Farren's graduation party at our house he and some mutual friends came and picked me up to go to his house for his roommates graduation party, but it was basically all stupid college boys and I was not impressed. So I said something along the lines of "I think I'm just going to walk back home" and clearly disappointed this didn't turn out how he wanted it to, he said "I'll walk you! You don't need to walk alone down the street to your house" I kept on insisting I would be fine but NO this chivalry would not DIE! So he walked me home and we sat outside on the porch swing and talked for a while. Then we decided to walk over to ACU which was like 50 ft away from my house and walk around the Lunsford trail. We talked and talked - nothing flirting or romantic - I was NOT interested in that nor with this crazy, long haired, college boy. In fact I kind of told him that we both suck at relationships because we force things to be there that isn't there (talking about our pasts). So, for me, sparks weren't flying yet. But we continued to walk and talk every night around ACU for the next couple of days.

 Then one night he asked me to walk and I said sorry I can't I have to study for a test tomorrow in summer school and he said something along the lines of, "Well you know, I'm going to be a teacher too so I'm really good at helping people study." HA! So he came over and literally I just made him quiz me with my flash cards - poor guy. After studying for probably an hour and a half or so I gave in and we went on our daily evening walk around ACU. BUT I BROUGHT MY FLASH CARDS. See, I stick to my guns.

On this day he invited me to trespass to an apartment complex pool and swim with a bunch of his guy friends - so of course I forced my friend HP to go with me! I wasn't doing that alone!! I think at this point I started being more drawn to the idea of having a crush on him because I straightened my hair before I went to the pool... and he DUNKED me under water. UGH! Also, the song by Eric Church starting playing "I love your love the most" and he was kind of singing it so I said COMPLETELY JOKING "Is this song about me?" thinking he would laugh and be like NO YOU HILARIOUS PERSON! but instead he said "Not yet." and winked at me. Um.. yeah. I had a crush now. Dang it.
We went on a walk that night like we had every night for a week and this time while I was talking he just reached over and grabbed my hand. AHWIWTYOWIYRUSEHJ!!!!! Oh my gosh. I felt like a junior high girl at the movies all over again! HE HELD MY HAND! AND KEPT HOLDING IT. in my head I kept trying to convince myself "it's fine. friends hold hands. this doesn't mean anything. oh my gosh he's cute. NO. he's not! he's my friend. my good friend. AHHH!!!" So he walked me back home STILL HOLDING MY HAND and we side hugged goodnight and I ran up the stairs to my room as giddy as could be! He also really liked this night because he put this in the notes of his phone after our walk

SWOON.


The next day he texted me in the morning and said "Good morning pretty girl" WHAT!? Now my good friend is calling me PRETTY GIRL!!??! But I like it.. so.. okay. He can call me that. I GUESS. I went about my day business as usual and then he CALLED me, not texted where I could have done a better job of denying him, and he said "Can I take you on a date today? Like in 15 minutes? I'll walk to your house and pick you up. You just need to wear something comfortable, I'm not going to take you on your typical first date." My heart was POUNDING and I said, um.. Sure! Okay. I'll see you in 15 minutes.

I wore Nike shorts, a T-Shirt, and Chacos on that first date and he showed up wearing pretty much the same thing except a boy version of Nike shorts. hehehe. He had on a backpack and said "Alright, are you ready? We're going on a hike!" So off we went to "hike" the backwoods behind one of ACU's dorms. Oh, and he HELD MY HAND while we were walking. There is a tree house back there and we climbed to the top and he had water for us to drink because it was summer in Abilene and I'm sweating like a pig on this "first date". He also brought a sharpie for us to write on the tree house our names.

We sat up there and talked like we had for 100+ hours already lately. I would be talking and looking at him and he would start shaking his head and I would say "WHAT?" and he said "I'm not going to kiss you on our first date. I'm not going to be THAT guy." And I would just completely blow off that he just said anything about kissing me and kept on talking. That same scenario happened 3 or 4 times during that talk. We finally climbed down and started heading home, holding hands and all... we were on this really pretty, tree covered path and he stopped me and looked at me for what felt like 30 minutes without saying anything and then he leaned in to kiss me!!! And I? Well.. I turned my head away hahaha. But he made it happen anyways! And there it was - we had our first kiss. And I think both of us knew that we would never kiss anyone else again for the rest of our lives after it happened but we wouldn't dare say that to each other.

Eventually we took some engagement pictures at that special spot.

Now I get to kiss him anytime I want. :)

Well this beginning story is far from being over, we did NOT just hit the ground running being boyfriend and girlfriend after this moment. To be continued...