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------- part one -------
So this one time I got my first kiss at efy -- I'm totally kidding. But as cliché as it sounds, I did meet Mark at my first efy when I was 16 years old. But hold up. Let's take a step back really quick.
My best friend Katy and I had signed up for the Calgary Especially For Youth Program and were hoping to make it into Week 2, which was always the best week with the most kids. We also applied for Week 3 just in case. We got an email telling us that we didn't make it into Week 2, but that we did get accepted for Week 3. So with mixed emotions, we decided to go for it because Week 3 of efy was better than no efy. The exact same thing happened to Mark. Coincidence? I don't believe in coincidence. Heavenly Father had His hand in my life more than I ever knew at the time. In hindsight, I can't believe I didn't notice His influence more!
Anywho, back to the story. I did meet Mark at efy and yes, I thought he was smokin'! But apparently so did a lot of other girls so my time to hang out with him was more limited than I had hoped. I secretly called those girls 'the plastics' (but don't worry, you wouldn't know them, nor are you one of them!) and guys, I kid you not, they never looked bad one moment during that whole week! Even when we were all getting our groove on out on the dance floor and everybody was drenched in sweat, they still looked amazing! We all know those girls that make sweat look good. Trust me, I'm not one of them. But they were, and anybody who can always look that perfect intimidates the heck outta me.
Ergo, I stayed away from those girls, which meant I stayed away from Mark ... most of the time. But before you take me completely out of the equation, I was gladly keeping an eye on him. After all, he was easy on the eyes. We played pepper back and forth a couple times. I also hit him smack in the face on one of my spikes. Ya, you could say we really "hit" it off. (baha. okay, that was a lame joke. but I couldn't resist)
When I was in high school I used to look at the floor when I walked. This week wasn't an exception. It was crazy though because every time I did happen to look up, I would somehow catch his glance and we would make eye contact for a second and then look away. It got my heart racing ...
every. My best friend Katy and I had signed up for the Calgary Especially For Youth Program and were hoping to make it into Week 2, which was always the best week with the most kids. We also applied for Week 3 just in case. We got an email telling us that we didn't make it into Week 2, but that we did get accepted for Week 3. So with mixed emotions, we decided to go for it because Week 3 of efy was better than no efy. The exact same thing happened to Mark. Coincidence? I don't believe in coincidence. Heavenly Father had His hand in my life more than I ever knew at the time. In hindsight, I can't believe I didn't notice His influence more!
Anywho, back to the story. I did meet Mark at efy and yes, I thought he was smokin'! But apparently so did a lot of other girls so my time to hang out with him was more limited than I had hoped. I secretly called those girls 'the plastics' (but don't worry, you wouldn't know them, nor are you one of them!) and guys, I kid you not, they never looked bad one moment during that whole week! Even when we were all getting our groove on out on the dance floor and everybody was drenched in sweat, they still looked amazing! We all know those girls that make sweat look good. Trust me, I'm not one of them. But they were, and anybody who can always look that perfect intimidates the heck outta me.
Ergo, I stayed away from those girls, which meant I stayed away from Mark ... most of the time. But before you take me completely out of the equation, I was gladly keeping an eye on him. After all, he was easy on the eyes. We played pepper back and forth a couple times. I also hit him smack in the face on one of my spikes. Ya, you could say we really "hit" it off. (baha. okay, that was a lame joke. but I couldn't resist)
When I was in high school I used to look at the floor when I walked. This week wasn't an exception. It was crazy though because every time I did happen to look up, I would somehow catch his glance and we would make eye contact for a second and then look away. It got my heart racing ...
single.
time.
I was only 16 after all.
I'll always have one of those moments fresh in my mind. It was the day where everybody got all dressed up cute in their dresses and the boys in their suits and we take pictures with everybody and have a huge banquet/dance. Mark wasn't in the same group as me, but that night at the banquet our designated tables were right next to each other.
I was getting up from the table to go get a second glass of chocolate milk. (efy was pretty elegant.) As i got up to go get some, i had to walk right past him to go get it.
I know what you're thinking: oh, she was just doing that just so she could walk past him and get his attention. Fair assumption. But honestly, i was just getting some chocolate milk. It was my fav.
As I was walking back i could feel his gaze at me. Actually, i wasn't sure if it it was him. but i could feel somebody staring at me and i was just too curious to not look. I couldn't help it. I looked up.
I was right. He was staring at me. But this time he didn't look away. I tried to, and finally I did, but those seconds honestly felt like forever. I hadn't ever felt like that. I can still remember the feeling so clearly.
As romantic as it sounds, I was honestly confused by it all. It wasn't a pitter-patter feeling. It wasn't fire works or the butterflies. It didn't make my heart race like the other times we did this. I didn't get a shot of adrenaline. Whatever it was, I hadn't ever felt it before, but I quickly forgot about it while bustin a move later on that night.
I was getting up from the table to go get a second glass of chocolate milk. (efy was pretty elegant.) As i got up to go get some, i had to walk right past him to go get it.
I know what you're thinking: oh, she was just doing that just so she could walk past him and get his attention. Fair assumption. But honestly, i was just getting some chocolate milk. It was my fav.
As I was walking back i could feel his gaze at me. Actually, i wasn't sure if it it was him. but i could feel somebody staring at me and i was just too curious to not look. I couldn't help it. I looked up.
I was right. He was staring at me. But this time he didn't look away. I tried to, and finally I did, but those seconds honestly felt like forever. I hadn't ever felt like that. I can still remember the feeling so clearly.
As romantic as it sounds, I was honestly confused by it all. It wasn't a pitter-patter feeling. It wasn't fire works or the butterflies. It didn't make my heart race like the other times we did this. I didn't get a shot of adrenaline. Whatever it was, I hadn't ever felt it before, but I quickly forgot about it while bustin a move later on that night.
Little did I know that that same feeling would come back again and again.
Little did I know I had just met the man I was going to marry.
------- part two -------
The summer ended and Mark and I didn't ever talk again after EFY was over, and even though we had gone our separate ways, I hadn't totally forgotten about him. Afterall, he was only a 25-minute drive away so I wondered if I would see him sometime in the near future and that "near future" was sooner than I thought. One of my very first volleyball tournaments was the pre-season tourny held at LCC. It was one of my favourites because there were 4 different vball games going on at any given moment. It was total chaos, the gym was so loud you could hardly hear your own voice, and tons of teams were there -- including boys ... Yep, you guessed it, Mark's team was there.
I remember walking into the gym and lo and behold, Mark's team was right in front of our faces. Here is a pic to give you a visual. (I draw pictures a lot in my journal because sometimes words just don't cut it.)
I remember walking into the gym and lo and behold, Mark's team was right in front of our faces. Here is a pic to give you a visual. (I draw pictures a lot in my journal because sometimes words just don't cut it.)
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Okay, so in the picture the grey line is the outer gym wall, the black solid lines with the numbers on them are showing each different vball court in the gym, the dotted black lines show where a vball net is, and the red lines are the doors to get into the gym. I'm the blue 'x' and Mark is the green 'x'. There was one court where there were two games going on at once (as you can tell from the diagram) and that's where Mark's team was playing. They just happened to be on the exact same side that was closest to the door that my team decided to walk through.
So now that you've got more details than you even need, I'll continue on with the story:
So there I am, squirming away as I see Mark killing some vball spikes in his warm up before the game. He was a really good vball player and his hops were unreal. His spikes were so hard that the ball would make it about half way up the wall after bouncing on the floor on the other side of the net!Our team watched them warm up for a little while because other players on his team could do the same thing! (at this point we were still standing right where the blue 'x' is.) In our group of girls I was near the outside of the pack, and I remember wondering and telling myself to not get my hopes up -- of course he wouldn't remember who I was! Then he looked over and made eye contact with me. He did a huge smile and waved. Me, being the idiot that I am most of the time, actually didn't wave back and looked around to see who the lucky girl could be. After I finally realized that he waved at me, I snuck one in really fast before he looked away. The girl next to me (who is drop-dead gorgeous!) looked at me and asked,
So now that you've got more details than you even need, I'll continue on with the story:
So there I am, squirming away as I see Mark killing some vball spikes in his warm up before the game. He was a really good vball player and his hops were unreal. His spikes were so hard that the ball would make it about half way up the wall after bouncing on the floor on the other side of the net!Our team watched them warm up for a little while because other players on his team could do the same thing! (at this point we were still standing right where the blue 'x' is.) In our group of girls I was near the outside of the pack, and I remember wondering and telling myself to not get my hopes up -- of course he wouldn't remember who I was! Then he looked over and made eye contact with me. He did a huge smile and waved. Me, being the idiot that I am most of the time, actually didn't wave back and looked around to see who the lucky girl could be. After I finally realized that he waved at me, I snuck one in really fast before he looked away. The girl next to me (who is drop-dead gorgeous!) looked at me and asked,
You know Mark Olsen?
Ya, I met him at EFY this past summer.
Oh, you're so lucky. He is so gorgeous!
My team then left for our court, which happened to be the other horizontal court right next to theirs. Needless to say I played the worst game of my life. After my games were over that day I left for home. A few of the girls on my team decided to stay. Later on that night I found out that the drop-dead gorgeous girl (who asked about him earlier) and Mark had held hands and were now practically dating.
Well, I thought, that's the end of that. ------- part three -------
I hung out with Mark and his girlfriend quite a bit while they dated. Don't worry, I never third-wheeled it. We were in the same group of friends and so it just ended up that way. One of those times we all decided to go out to eat and go bowling. Eating out was always fun, but the bowling that night was wayyy more fun. Mark and I were on separate bowling lanes, but without any planning on my part we always ended up having to bowl at the exact same time. I don't know how it ended up like that but for the whole 10 turns it was like that. Obviously I respected the fact that he had a girlfriend (and I know she's probably reading this right now because she's still one of my closest friends ... haha) but I couldn't help but keep my eye on him and I found myself talking to him quite a lot that night.
They ended up breaking up a couple weeks later. It was mutual and there were no hard feelings between them at all. I knew this opened up the door for us, but I wasn't sure if I actually wanted to step through it or if Mark did either. We ended up hanging out almost every weekend after that bowling weekend. Him and his friends got along quite well my mine. In fact, one of his best friends was dating another one of my good friends too.
One night the four of us decided to go for a walk around Magrath. It was the beginning of December up here in the Great North, and for all you foreigners that means it was dang cold! But we wanted to get out of the house, and so out of the house we went. There was a slight snowfall coming down during twilight when we decided to go out, and it left the trees looking magical. Of course we ended up splitting off. Mark and I fell behind while they kept walking. We talked while walking the whole time -- conversation always came so easy for us. Then I pulled a scene straight out of the Notebook. I ran into the middle of the closest intersection and laid down. I know, I know -- I'm a rebel. Small town traffic really is so dangerous. But Mark played his role well and told me to get up because he didn't want anyone to get hurt. What a man and protector he was! hahaha ...
But after some convincing he finally laid down next to me on the cold asphalt. We looked up at the snow falling for a while and talked some more. The connection we had was so strong even though we didn't ever hold hands or even lie close to each other at all. Finally a car came and so we had to move. I could've stayed there until dawn. While laying in my bed that night I actually remember that I felt like I missed him and longed to be back with him. I can honestly say that up to that point I had never missed a boy after saying goodbye (even though I dated others before him.) I knew this was the start of something great ... and the start of something more serious than I even knew.
The plan was to go mini-golfing, eat some pizza, and then see a movie. They're all in the same place so it's really convenient. Mini-golfing is so fun -- it's even more fun in the black light and we were lucky enough to have it on that night. I wish I could remember who won, but I can't. Mark is obviously better at that kind of stuff, but sometimes I get streaky/fluky so I could've won too. who knows! But I definitely remember what happened in the movie ... ha.
So we went in and sat down. It went (from left to right) me, Mark, Austin, and his gf. We were going to watch the Prestige, and I was excited about that. I came into that night knowing that I already liked Mark, I just wasn't sure if I wanted to be his girlfriend or not, and I heard that he didn't want a girlfriend either so I was keeping that in mind as well. I may have been keeping that in mind... but my body didn't care. Soon I unfolded my arms, next thing I knew my right hand was out on my leg, about half way through the movie my hand ended up on the arm rest. Oh golly, I was for sure looking desperate now.
What in the world are you doing? Snap yourself out of this right now! He doesn't want a girlfriend and you don't want a boyfriend! Besides, you're acting foolish. And isn't the boy supposed to make the first move?They ended up breaking up a couple weeks later. It was mutual and there were no hard feelings between them at all. I knew this opened up the door for us, but I wasn't sure if I actually wanted to step through it or if Mark did either. We ended up hanging out almost every weekend after that bowling weekend. Him and his friends got along quite well my mine. In fact, one of his best friends was dating another one of my good friends too.
One night the four of us decided to go for a walk around Magrath. It was the beginning of December up here in the Great North, and for all you foreigners that means it was dang cold! But we wanted to get out of the house, and so out of the house we went. There was a slight snowfall coming down during twilight when we decided to go out, and it left the trees looking magical. Of course we ended up splitting off. Mark and I fell behind while they kept walking. We talked while walking the whole time -- conversation always came so easy for us. Then I pulled a scene straight out of the Notebook. I ran into the middle of the closest intersection and laid down. I know, I know -- I'm a rebel. Small town traffic really is so dangerous. But Mark played his role well and told me to get up because he didn't want anyone to get hurt. What a man and protector he was! hahaha ...
But after some convincing he finally laid down next to me on the cold asphalt. We looked up at the snow falling for a while and talked some more. The connection we had was so strong even though we didn't ever hold hands or even lie close to each other at all. Finally a car came and so we had to move. I could've stayed there until dawn. While laying in my bed that night I actually remember that I felt like I missed him and longed to be back with him. I can honestly say that up to that point I had never missed a boy after saying goodbye (even though I dated others before him.) I knew this was the start of something great ... and the start of something more serious than I even knew.
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Christmas season was upon us, and for both Mark and I that meant some serious family party time. Both of our families are quite big and have a lot going on, but I was still hoping that I would see him at least once during the holiday season. Austin (who was dating one of my friends like I mentioned in part 3) was chatting with me on msn on boxing day and said that he and mark were planning a double date and Mark wanted to take me! #fistpump. Mark never really did officially ask me out on his own, but whatever. I was going on my first real date! and to say I was nervous was an extreme understatement. Not only was going on my first real date, I was going on a date with a smokin' hot senior from a different town! I mean, are you kidding me?! My 16-year-old heart was about to jump out of its chest.
It was a snowy evening on December 28, 2006. I got all dolled up and was getting so nervous. I was pacing around everywhere and my hands were so sweaty! (actually, they're always sweaty. and now that I'm writing about sweat they are sweaty again. greeaaat) Anywho, I finally heard the doorbell ring and my mother going to get it. I could hear mark's infectious laugh and my mom making some smart-alec remarks like she always does.(& I love her for that!) I made my way up our spiral staircase and boy, was Mark lookin good. I always knew he was handsome, but that night was hand-some! mm-mm-mmm. (I know, I know, I can calm down now) We said our goodbyes and my mom gave "the talk" and he walked me back to the car, opened the door for me like a true gentleman, and we were off to Leth.The plan was to go mini-golfing, eat some pizza, and then see a movie. They're all in the same place so it's really convenient. Mini-golfing is so fun -- it's even more fun in the black light and we were lucky enough to have it on that night. I wish I could remember who won, but I can't. Mark is obviously better at that kind of stuff, but sometimes I get streaky/fluky so I could've won too. who knows! But I definitely remember what happened in the movie ... ha.
So we went in and sat down. It went (from left to right) me, Mark, Austin, and his gf. We were going to watch the Prestige, and I was excited about that. I came into that night knowing that I already liked Mark, I just wasn't sure if I wanted to be his girlfriend or not, and I heard that he didn't want a girlfriend either so I was keeping that in mind as well. I may have been keeping that in mind... but my body didn't care. Soon I unfolded my arms, next thing I knew my right hand was out on my leg, about half way through the movie my hand ended up on the arm rest. Oh golly, I was for sure looking desperate now.
My hand didn't listen. On the arm rest it stayed.
Yes, on the arm rest it stayed for a while longer, and to my dismay, Mark's arms remained folded. Okay, I was starting to let reality sink in into my young little mind. It was time to retreat the armies and pull out. Just as I was about to do exactly that, I felt his warm hand wrap around my sweaty little fingers. Butterflies flew from my toes all the way up my body and out of my head. Surely he could see my heart pounding, and if he couldn't see it, he would've had to have heard it!
holy crap -- is this really happening? did he actually just grab my hand?
I almost slapped myself to make sure I wasn't dreaming, but I decided against it since I had already acted crazy enough for one night. We held hands for the rest of the movie, despite how awkward it was and despite the fact that my wrist was in serious pain. He gave me the best hug ever at my door step at the end of our date and we said good-bye. I was on cloud 9! Later on that night I found the golf ball I used for mini golf. (I still have it to this day)
I didn't hear from him for 2 weeks after that.
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I didn't hear from him for 2 weeks after that.
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oh this is so so good. I can't wait for more! I'm loving your blog!
ReplyDeleteThis is fun finding out your love story. I am so intrigued and can't wait for part 3!
ReplyDelete