Friday, February 14, 2014

How we met (let the cheese begin) + a WINNER!


Today, I am also writing over at Showered with Design. I'm answering questions about our engagement and wedding day and sharing advice where I can. Swing by and check out the post and Lisa's awesome blog here!

And if you missed the last two posts about our journey to pregnancy, you can check them out here and here. I can't thank you all enough for your responses to these posts. Writing is a kind of therapy for me, but knowing that our story can maybe encourage someone else makes it that much sweeter to share. So thank you for your thoughts and words!


The older I get, the more embarrassing this story becomes. Matt and I met our sophomore year of high school. Every Valentine's Day, our school ran a fundraiser called Matchmaker. Basically everyone in the school (our class alone had over 700 people) completed a survey about themselves and then that survey was calculated somehow with a computer program that paired you with the top 10 people who would be most compatible with you, and the top 10 people you would be most compatible with (it sounds like it should have been the same list, but somehow, there were two lists of ten). No one actually took these seriously, of course, but it was always fun to see who you were paired with.

So when I got mine back, this guy Matt Nelsen, who I had never met, showed up as the #1 person on both sides of my Matchmaker list (cue cheesy music here).

For me, I'm hearing "On the Wings of Love" from Jake's season of the Bachelor. But anything as ridiculous will do.
I, being the slightly over-the-top bubbly personality that I was, decided I should meet this guy and laugh over the coincidence that we would be matched up on BOTH SIDES (emphasis added for effect) out of so many people in our class!

Ohhh, what maturity does for a person. I laugh just remembering my genuine naiveness.

It gets worse.


Since I went to private school for nine years before entering this huge public high school, I didn't really know that many people and had just naturally made friends with people who were a year older than me. So I asked some girls in my grade if they knew who Matt Nelsen was, and they pointed him out to me in the halls.

Fast forward a few days- I was running an errand for a teacher (gah the cheese is just killing me!) when low and behold, who did I run right into in the hallways, but Matt Nelsen himself.

And wouldn't you know I opened with,
"Hey, are you Matt Nelsen?! You were the #1 person on both sides of my Matchmaker list!"

...crawl into a hole for me, you know you want to...

Thankfully, this Matt Nelsen guy was the nicest guy EVER, and just laughed and said, "That's awesome!"

And that was it for then.


And then I started noticing him everywhere.

He went to FCA every Friday, just like I did; he played Varsity Basketball and I cheered; I was assigned to him as his personal cheerleader (less sketchy than it sounds- haha... we made banners and goodies on game day, people); we were both asked onto FCA leadership towards the end of our sophomore years, which meant I got to see him at our weekly leadership meetings AND at practice when the basketball players and cheerleaders were both in the gym.

It didn't take me long to realize I kinda liked this guy, and I thought maybe he liked me too.


We "officially" became girlfriend and boyfriend our junior year when our math teacher asked us in the hall if we were dating, and we looked at each other and kinda shrugged our shoulders (come on, you knew this had to have a finish like this).

Thanks, Coach Z, for sparking that DTR.

 This past December we celebrated 12 years.

Crazy.

I know I can't possibly be the only one with a story that ridiculous! (or can I?)

I wanna hear yours! Leave me a comment or shoot me an email. And don't hold back the cheese. You'll make me feel better.

Looking for something to make for your sweetie tonight? How about trying one of these:

recipe here

recipe here

Creamy Sage and Portabella Fettuccine- recipe here

recipe here

recipe here

Or check out other recipe ideas here.

Happy Valentine's Day, friends!


And the winner of the Valentine's Day product giveaway is:


Congratulations, Veronica! You have 14 amazing products coming your way!


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12 comments:

  1. HOW did I either not know this story or not remember it?!? Ha, this is awesome. Happy valentines day! :)

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  2. oh my goodness Heather, I had never heard that part of the story either! Hysterical, and I'm so glad it worked out for y'all!

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  3. Found your blog through your guest post on Showered with Design! Excited to start following your blog! Congrats on all of your exciting news, doll! What a happy valentine's day filled with lots of love! Xx.

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  4. Yay so glad to have you featured on my blog :)
    Isn't it fun to look back at old photos?! So cute ! IT's fun to see how much you change in time!

    xo Showered With Design

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  5. So sweet! I met my boyfriend at freshman orientation in front of Tillman Hall at Clemson back in 2008! and we've been together ever since haha.

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  6. You guys look like babies!! Great photos.

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  7. Such a sweet story! Mine isn't as good: I had known of my husband since first year of high school but he was a bit odd, big glasses, spikey hair, liked trains...! In our final year we ended up sitting next to each other in Physics and we became great friends then eventually he (got rid of the spikey early 90's hair and huge glasses) asked me out, that was 16 years ago so later this year I will have been with him for more than half of my life! A x

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  8. So theses pictures are amazing! I hope you had a wonderful Valentines day! And ah! Thanks a bajillion times more!

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  9. Not embarassing! It's pretty funny...though I do find it odd that a high school allowed that type of deal.

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  10. This is adorable and cheesy in a good way. ;) We had those matchmaker things at our school. It was interesting, but I ended up finding my sweetie in college. Maybe I'll share our cheesy story one day.:)

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  11. I met my husband to be when I was 15 and he was 14 in 1997. We were both in marching band at our high school. He played the drums and I was a pom pom girl. We knew each other but really didn't hang out. Fast forward to the winter of 2010, I was washing my car in the driveway of where I was living at that time, and he walked his dog passed. Turns out he bought a house near by to where I was living. He stopped to ask if I remembered him, of course I did! We became friends on Facebook, and started playing words with friends on our phones together. That's sort of where it began! We messaged each other via the game and eventually hung out one day... The rest is history - he proposed on the beach 2 years after we began dating and we are getting married in September this year!

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