7 year itch?

Not for this couple.

Today Dave and I celebrate 7 years. I cannot believe it's been that long. I feel like we got married a 2 years ago, not 7.

I love this photo, it was an introduction to guests on our special day.

I thought to commemorate this day I should tell the story of how we met. It's filled with lies (by others) and deception (again, by others) but it ends well, obviously.

In September of 2000 I was working for the INN University Ministries. I was in charge of retreats and had chosen the Firs Conference Center for our location of the leadership retreat. This just so happened to be the place Dave was interning for the year and one of his duties was to be a retreat host.

When I arrived there, I had to meet with Dave. We realized that we had a few friends in common, Will and Angela. Later that evening at dinner he sat with my friend Molly and I where Molly proceeded to work her magic to make a connection. Dave and I were clueless.

When the weekend was over, I called my friend Angela in Portland and mentioned that I had met their friend Dave. My words were, "Hey I met your friend Dave. He's cute and really nice". That's it. Remember those words b/c they will be grossly distorted before this whole thing is over.

This small comment peaked Angela's interest and so she went to work. Her husband Will, one of Dave's BFF's called him and asked, "Was there anyone at the retreat you would want to ask out?" To which Dave responded, "It's a college retreat with lots of girls, of course". Will was still trying to beat around the bush without success. Later that day, their friend Jace, who lived with Dave, took Will's words to another level and told Dave, "Hey Kate thinks your cute and totally wants you to ask her out". Hmmm....do those words sound like mine? No.

Over the next few weeks Dave showed up at a few random college events, which he 'just so happened' to come to for food or b/c his friends were there. He even took a big swallow of pride and came to a Freshman 80's dance. He was successful. We ended up talking for 3 hours.

We were able to hang out a few more times before Dave moved back to Portland for 4 months. During our time apart we talked every night for at least 2 hours (I don't think that would happen now) and traveled every other weekend to visit.

A year later he proposed on a very large, ugly boat on the middle of Lake Whatcom. Despite the ugly boat it was a beautiful proposal and we were married 3 1/2 months later.

Happy Anniversary Dave! Love you!