My husband did what?

One night Derek came home from work carrying these:

I thought to myself, "Did he really bring flowers for no reason at all?" and the answer was no, but it was even better - the first words out of his mouth were,

"Happy September 15th!"

I had forgotten our "anniversary". Since our wedding anniversary is in December and often gets over looked with the festivities of Christmas, we've taken to commemorating out first date which was September 15, 1999. Derek had not only remembered the date, but then acted on it and kept it a surprise - all very impressive things for a husband, don't you think! Well - I was impressed. So in memory of that day 9 years ago, I'd like to share what happened that fateful evening.

Picture it, Provo 1999. Derek actually didn't ask me out on our first date, his roommate asked us, on the spot, to double with him for dinner that night (it was a Wednesday). Neither one of us wanted to put ourselves out there too much incase the other was repulsed by the idea, so we hummed and hawed and said things like, "I'm OK going if you'd like to go." And finally we decided to go, along with another one of Derek's roommates. But before we left I had to do one very important thing -

change my shoes.

We drove in my car and followed his roommate. We were supposed to go to Frontier Pies, but then his date changed her mind and we drove to some Mexican place, but she didn't want to go there either, so then we went to some buffet, and that wasn't good either, so we went to Chili's and - you guessed it - not there either. Finally, we ended up at ... Frontier Pies. Shockingly this was the only date these two went on. So we get seated and ordered and we all have a really fun time. Most of you know me pretty well and know that I like to eat. In college I believed that if some guy wanted to pay for my dinner, who was I to stop him. At Frontier Pies they bring out cornbread at the beginning of your meal and it's pretty yummy, then I ordered a chicken salad - which was pretty good size, then this roommate decided he felt bad for making us drive all over so he offered to buy us pie. For those of you who've never been to Frontier Pies, they make a mean Jumble Berry Pie, and once again - if some guy wanted to fill my belly, I'd let him. So I had pie (and ice cream, I think). Derek told me later he'd never had a date eat so much and he had to decide whether he liked it or not. I didn't think anything of it honestly. So then we went back to my apartment and we start talking in my living room. Well, it was like Grand Central Station in there and Derek asked, "Do you want to go for a walk or something?", which sounded pretty good to me. When I went in my room to

change my shoes, again,

and my roommate Niki was in there. She said, "How's it going?" and all I said was, "We're going for a walk." and she grabbed my arm and said, "Sheri, this is serious." Looking back I've found that reaction to be very funny and like a bit of foreshadowing for my life! So we went walking on the paths behind the RB and on Maeser Hill and, for those of you who know both us, you can imagine how we just talked and talked and talked. It was a really fun first date - a lot of food and 3 pairs of shoes later I was home. And honestly, it was smooth sailing from there (other than me deserting him to go to Israel for a semester) and we got married 1 year, 3 months and 1 day later. Derek wooed me while we were dating. I'd find notes on my computer keyboard, flowers on my doorstep, my car mysteriously washed and vacuumed, and lots of other sweet things. But after we got married these things have naturally decreased in frequency, which made the flowers he brought home on the 15th that much better. It's been 9 years, 7 moves, multiple jobs and 2 children later - but those flowers reminded me of how it all started.

Good times, good times!