10 Years Going Strong (April 6th 2011)

Ten years ago I started dating the love of my life. I just got out of an emotional 2 year relationship a couple months before, so I really wasn't looking for anything serious. The break-up was pretty hard on me and I remember crying myself to sleep night after night for God to give me the strength to get through this and to give me a sign that I'm not supposed remain engaged to this other person. Then BAM!!! just like that! I found my soulmate. :)))

The story of how we met... I met this guy through my friend who wanted me to come watch him play hockey then get something to eat afterwards, so I told him I would as long as my friend could come also. He agreed and said that he actually has someone that my friend may be interested in and maybe we could double after the game. Ok.....

Well, as soon as the game was over and he introduced this person....(Matt) to my friend and I, I just had this good feeling about him.  We went to Eat N Park after the game. I loved how Matt chose to eat his chocolate pie before his super burger and teased him about it. It was cute.

After dinner, which may I add was hysterical, because Matt and I just continued to pick on one another about anything we could. Anyways, I just knew that it wasn't Matt's friend that I was interested in, but Matt. Oh and he bought all of our dinners! What a gentleman ;)

I kept my distance to see if my friend liked him first and she said he was sweet and that was about it, so I still wasn't sure if I should make a move or not. Before we left Matt asked for our contact info, including our aol screen names.  I thought it was odd that he asked for mine to knowing that he was there for my friend, but I thought, what the heck. I'm so glad that I did, because that night when I got on AOL, Matt messaged me and we talked for hours. He told me that he wasn't interested in my friend and I told him I felt the same way about his friend. The rest is history. ;)

Our first date was at Ghost Riders in Butler. I went there often to line dance with my friends and found out that Matt went all the time with his friends to, so we met up. I kinda did my own thing while he did his, because we were both shy at first. I got my friend to ask him to dance to one of the slow songs and we did.

I couldn't even look up at him, because I felt weak in the knees and didn't want to be so obvious lol! If you know my husband, then you know how hard it is to know what he's thinking, so I wasn't sure if he was really interested in me or not. Once the song was done we went back to our group of friends and glanced over at eachother here and there with a smile and that was it.

Then towards the end he came over and told me that he and his buddies were getting ready to leave for camp and invited me to go with them. I just met him and had my sister with me and didn't want to leave her with my friends, so I told him I would have to pass this time and there he went :(

I was pretty sad that he had to go, but tried to keep my mind off it by dancing with my sister and friends. We all decided to get off when the slow song began, {"The One" by Gary Allan) because most of us came there single. It's a horrible feeling when you have to sit there while all the other couples are dancing, but not this time. ;)

As soon as I sat down, someone tapped my shoulder and asked me to dance. My sister said that my jaw dropped when I turned around to see my prince charming standing there. From that moment on I knew I was going to spend the rest of my life with this man. 10 years later and he still gives me those butterflies. My dad was so right by calling him my gaurdian angel. (His birthday is on April 19th, the same day my mom had her car accident.)

Anyways, this is how he said it happened. While getting gas at the gas station to head up camp and eating his cupcake, he told his friend that he didn't want to go up camp anymore. Matt said that his friend Ken didn't care to go to camp either and told him that he would return to Ghost Riders with him. Matt then threw his cupcake, (how I got my nickname cupcake :) changed his shirt and paid again to get in. I really don't understand the shirt changing part but he said that it would be harder for me to spot his return if he had a black shirt on rather the white one LOL!

After the night was over we gave eachother a long hug and he promised to call me the following day. I remember getting in my friend's car with the biggest smile and my sister saying that she has never seen me this happy in such a short period of time, even with my other 2 year relationship.  I told her that for some reason I just know he's "The One". Just like the slow song we danced to. It amazes me when I look back at that moment and here I am now, a wife and a mother of two with this man. The best 10 years of my life!

This is what I came home to. My hubby took the cranky kids into Giant Eagle while I was babysitting and made me a delicious dinner decorated by a beautiful flower bouquet. Love how he added the dressing choices on the buffet and got sparkling grape juice for the girls lol! He's so good to me. <3

Matt isn't only a wonderful husband or an awesome dad, but my best friend. Happy 10 Years Matthew! I love you so much!

Forever yours, Ashley

Summer of 2001