Meeting

I met Matt a week or two before the last Lord of the Rings came out, at a Lord of the Rings party. We were watching all of the other Lord of the Rings movies (extended version, very long). It was a fun day! To be perfectly honest I really don’t remember that much about Matt. He was the brother of the guy who owned the house we were at and set up all equipment. He was quiet and I don’t think we said hardly anything to each other, other then maybe a hello and good-bye. He seemed nice from what I saw, but I wasn’t looking. :-) I did not see him again until Forth of July at another friend’s house and there, I think I may have said hello and noticed him doing things with people and spending time with his family. That was when they started coming to our church as well and then I noticed him more. He seemed to be a quiet kind of person. He spent time with his family, especially one of his sisters (Heather), they were very close. I also noticed that he loved his family. He spent time with some of the young men in the church and seemed to enjoy their conversations and company. I was impressed with his choice of friends. We really didn’t get to know one another till the following year when our churches went through a split and his family went to the same church that we went to. Our families started getting to know one another and his sisters and I got to know each other a lot better. They were great young ladies and I enjoyed them throroughly. He came over a lot for after church fellowship, which my family has at their house. We invite a bunch of people and play games, sing songs, read out loud, talk and just have great fellowship. Matt being a bachelor and not having anything else he wanted to do, always came if there was an open invite, or Dad mentioned having some people over. I got to know him some that way. I got to know his sister Heather better at this time. She is a lot like me, (though younger) and we enjoy a lot of the same things. I really remember getting to know Matt when his sister and my brothers decided to go to a movie, after our families got together one night. All of us thought it would be fun to go and see a children’s movie. We had a marvelous time! We went to the movie in my car a little four door , with 5 seats. We had five people going to the movie and it was a little crowded. I sat in the back with one of my brothers and Heather, while Matt was in front with one of my other brothers. Half way to the movie , they realized that I am very ticklish. My two back seat partners thought it would be fun to tickle me when ever we stopped suddenly or turned quickly (basically whenever there was an opportunity to tickle me). We laughed a great deal and got to know each other and some of families likes and dislikes. I found out that our families had a lot in common and Matt and Heather had a lot of the same likes that I did. It was so refreshing knowing that there were people in our circle of friends, that are like me and my family. The movie was fun as well and we all enjoyed watching something silly and just plain fun. :) Not too long after that we had a barn dance and were all out very late and had a grand time dancing and visiting. Heather and I spent some time together. This was their families first barn dance and I think know they enjoyed it a great deal. Afterward my brother decided that he wanted to have Matt over to watch a movie. He and Matt had been spending some time together talking about programming and computer stuff. He knew that Matt liked to stay up late and thought it would exciting to go stay up even later then 1am and watch a movie. My parents had already left with the little ones and Austin and I were the oldest still at the dance. Austin had told Aric to ask me and that he didn’t know if it would be ok. So Aric asked me, if an eligible young man, around my age could come spend the night at our house. My parents love having people over and I know that they have invited Matt to stay the night a few time when he had stayed late talking, as well as other young people and families. So, I said that I did not see that it would be a problem and that they just needed to decide what they were doing. Matt had to bring his sister and mother back to their house, which was the other direction and then he was going to come to our home. I got home told Mom who was still up and then Dad who came down to say good night. They as I thought were fine with that and said that they would be in the other room if we needed anything. I think they told Matt where the food and drink were and made sure he had all that he would need. the guys picked out a movie and I sat in the living room with them for a little while watching Chariot of Fire. I finally got too sleepy and said good night and crashed. The next morning Dad decided that he was macking Biscuits and Gravy for b-fast. So I helped him get the stuff out and started, I then made coffee and sat on the kitchen cabinet talking to him and whoever else came into the kitchen. Matt came in not too long after we started getting things together and we all chatted. He made his first point with Dad during b-fast. He split his biscuit in half before he put gravy on it. Now you may not think this is a very big deal, but to my Dad, there is a right way to eat biscuits and gravy, just like there is a right way to make Iced Tea, and eat a hot dog. :-) Dad told him thank you for showing a good example to his children, that do not eat their biscuits the right way. Later that day Austin thought it would be fun to go see an improv group in Springfield. We had been a few times before and liked it. So we invited Matt and Heather. Unknown to us Matt was going to a families house over 2 hours away that afternoon to fix their computer and he was bringing Heather. We knew he was doing somehthig with Heather somewhere else, but did not know the details till later. He said that he thought that would be great, he was goign to talk to Heather and give us a call if it looked like they would make it. They did and we all once again rode in my car that is small and perfect for tickling. I was smarter this time drove…Heather and I sat up front and we put all the guys in the back seat. Which was almost as much fun, since they are not small guys. :-) We made it on time and enjoyed the show. Afterwards we went to Starbucks and sat around talking, drinking coffee (or for those that don’t care for coffee, chocolate frapps), and laughing at the music. I suggested a drink to Matt and low and behold he took my advise and got it as his second drink. Side note on Matt’s side. Matt had read my blog from beginning to end and knew which Starbuck specialty drink was my favorite, so he had that to begin with and then had my other suggested coffee after that. :-) We all went back to my parents house and said our good byes. Then if I am not mistaken I crashed. I was so tired. We had been going for over two days if you think about the prep for a barn dance. The next day was Sunday and after church Matt’s parents were having a bunch of us over to their house. My family went and I played games with the kids, until I noticed my mom, Matt, his mom, and a good friend of mine’s mom talking about books. I looked at my good friend (Anna) and we both wanted to work our way out of the game so we could join in on the talk. We love books!!! When we got done with the game they had moved on and were reading some of the books Matt had brought and chatting about them. Anna and I picked up a book to look at…

Matt writing…
Ashley and Anna sat down and started discussing the books, and I think the Mom’s ended up getting up to go attend to something else while we were talking. A discussion came up about computer because Anna was interested in taking some computer courses, everyone was asking me lots of questions about computers and I was explaining various details of how things worked, or answering specific questions. I apparently was paying a lot of attention to Ashley, most likely because she was asking lots of questions. After everyone left my parents house my parents pulled me aside and wanted to know if something was going on with me and Ashley or Anna because I ended up talking for quite a while to the two of them that afternoon, and I had been spending a lot of time with Ashley’s family in the past couple days. That was the first moment that I actually stopped and thought about what had gone on, and realized that I really liked Ashley. My parents cautioned me that I probably needed to cool it a little with how much time I was spending around Ashley until I talked to her Dad about courting her. That was the moment that I actually noticed Ashley and came to the realization that I wanted to marry her. I took about a month to pray about things, and make sure my heart was right to follow the Lord’s direction, and waited for an opportunity that he would present to allow me to talk to her dad without her knowing. I missed a couple Sunday’s at church because I got sick during the month, and I wasn’t all that social because of being sick so Ashley didn’t really see much of me since that crazy weekend at the end of November.