And I got to Marry Him!

Ever have a flashback? I'm not sure if I'm unusual, but I have little 'out of body' experiences that are triggered by all sorts of things. It could be a smell, an article of clothing, anything really. For example: A5-35? That's totally basketball season. 

But it's the weirdest feeling. I'll be sitting there, and suddenly it's as if a subconscious of mine from 10, 15, or 20 years ago is watching what is currently taking place. And it's freaking out. I have to admit, it's awesome. I don't usually tell people, because I get looked at a little oddly.

Well, this week I had it again. I was putting away my Christmas lights, and I moved a box over. The box fell down, and its contents spilled out. The box was labelled "Andrea's Stuff", and I had forgotten is existed. This is what was at the top:

 Fun stuff, right? A book our class made in Grade 3/4, when we had the coolest substitute teacher ever. The champagne bottle my parents popped when Colin and I got engaged. A box full of medals, trophies, and awards. (I must say, I wasn't terribly well-rounded in high school. It's all sports.) 

Then I dug a little deeper and found this:

A box FULL of notes that Colin and I wrote back and forth. For those of you who don't know how Colin and I 'met', I'll give you the condensed version:

Where I come from, there are two options as to how you met your spouse. 

a) You both went to the same church, and just eventually noticed each other.

b) You moved to a different area for post-secondary, went to the nearest Can. Ref. Church, and lived happily ever after with the first person you met that wasn't related to you. 

See? Not entirely romantic. Colin and I fit in to Option A. The difference is, we don't actually remember each other. My only memory of Colin in school is watching him play basketball at the annual Credo vs PICS tournament. I was in grade 7, and Colin was this mega basketball star in grade 12. (Interestingly enough, Credo had a basketball star who was also #7, also in grade 12, also named Colin, and who's last name started with a "Veld". Creepy?) 

I do have another memory of a younger Colin, but I'm a little embarrassed to mention it. Let's just say it has something to do with watching him walk into church behind this older couple, and me thinking that it was so kind that this older couple took in their grandson. Which usually led me to wondering just where his parents were. See? A little embarrassing, considering that 'older couple' are now my in-laws.  

So while we knew of each other, we really didn't get to know each other till I was in grade 10, and I joined the basketball team. And the rest is history.

While I don't recommend dating your coach, it worked out well for us. Obviously. We did have to work around some things. We had a "No Dating at Basketball Events" rule, and that explains all our notes. Colin and I would pass notes to each other much like giggling grade 2 kids. 

Needless to say, I pretty much wasted the entire day today reading them again. 

But the greatest treasure I re-found was this:

(And I apologize, because I've spent the last 15 minutes trying to flip the photo, but I can't figure it out. Newbie alert!)

This is a book Colin gave me as a gift when we got engaged. Now Colin is the sweetest man, with an abundance of great qualities. So many in fact, that I am able to easily overlook that he sometimes lacks in the thoughtful gift-giving department. He's not the most sentimental guy, but that just makes two of us! And what makes this gift was so special. 

Long before texts existed, couples wrote letters. Well, we were somewhere in between. Colin saved every single email we ever wrote back and forth. And it begins WELL before we started dating. Here's the first sentence from the first email:

" Hey Coach, here are my practice and workout plans for the summer..."

Yep, we started emailing when I was about to start grade 10. Colin had requested that the team email him their practice plans for the summer so he could keep in touch and see how we were doing. I'm pretty sure that I was the ONLY one who kept it up. 

These emails continued all the way until we got engaged. It's like a play-by-play book of our relationship. My favourite is the email I wrote to Colin at 2am after my sweet sister secretly confided that Colin had hoped to ask me out that evening...only to find out I had just started 'dating' someone else. I won't bore you with the details though..... 

Which brings me back to my out of body experience. Every once and awhile I will look across the room at Colin, and my head will tell me. " Seriously?! You ended up with him?? How did that happen?"  It's like my own head can't fathom how I ended up with someone as fantastic and unbelievable as him. 

It's usually at this point that Colin will look up at me, and question why I'm staring at him so oddly. I just smile. 

And then I tell my brain "Yes. I know. I am the luckiest woman on this planet."