Early Pets & Romance

 I was once the proud owner of a Mexican Redhead Parrot?

I thought I needed this for my 17th birthday. Boy was I wrong. Be careful what you wish for, occasionally it squawks loudly.

I was once 17 and a senior in High School when this something happened in a grocery store...

During the next week I thought about Cody a lot. Several of us that hung out together had thought about going to a basketball game of a friend in "the city" (Oklahoma City for those of you outside of this odd little state) Cody would be going. I rolled my blue 1992 Oldsmobile Cutless Supreme into the Mini Mall, a full service gas station where Cody worked. "Hey, (big smiles) what's up?" Mind you I have never gone to the "Mini Mall" before, it was always more expensive than the other stations. But there was a Vince Gill (with Tom Cruise hair) looking single guy there that I was slightly interested in. And I needed to find out important information about this basketball game. Not that I had ever gone before or was even interested in basketball but I needed to know when were going. Turned out he had to work and wouldn't be going. Oh. Ok. Well ok, filler up then. Sadly I drove out, people were waiting to get there windshield's washed and tanks filled.

Days before the Homeland Experience I had checked my current "friend" that was a boy off my list of prospective husbands. I never wanted a boyfriend, I wanted a husband and always thought I'd marry nearly all I dated for more than a month. Oh Lord help me... this is why I am for arranged marriages. I'd been dating Mr. Prospective for over a month and while things were moving slowly I really like him. We'd been together a lot. He'd even tasted my mom's work of art pot roast. I'd made him cookies when he went on a hunting trip the week before. But when he returned I called his house SHE answered. She was his ex and they'd had a long history. I wasn't into competing so I check him off and started looking around.

So another week past and we were leaving church on a Sunday night and Cody looked down from the balcony at me, "Hey, what are you doing?"

"Me? You talking to me? Nothing? What are YOU doing"

He came down from the balcony and approached me. Awkward city. I didn't know him very well. We'd had the Homeland Experience.Beyond that I'd only seen him throw a fit over a snowboard the year before on the church ski trip and he had called me SB the first Sunday I was at Immanuel ,Nov. 1992, 2 years before. I'll share about that later. At that time he was in college, I was a HS sophomore thrown like a twister into a strange state with even stranger people. And there was no mall within 30 min. I was in shock to say the least.

"You want to go make a pumpkin pie?"

"Sure"

Mind you I had never had pumpkin pie. Pumpkin bread, I'd mastered but pumpkin pie looked nasty. And so we went back to Homeland bought the goods, went to my house and made a pumpkin pie, with the recipe on the back of a Libby's can. But I didn't even taste it. I didn't need to he described it's gloriousness well. And I just admired him. And that twangy Oklahoma accent...wow. He was unlike anyone I'd ever dated or even known.

Two weeks later we were in the kitchen again, we made an apple pie for a church social. This time we took a picture.



6 weeks later after spending many Wednesday afternoons together and a few weekend "hangouts" (we didn't really go out anywhere, I don't know why),I was ready to define the relationship. Right at Christmas time too. I bought him a CD for Christmas from Lifeway Bookstore- Gaither Vocal Band's Southern Classics. He loved it. It was a risky move, we hadn't talked about gifts and I didn't want him to feel like he had to get me something. He did- a wallet- and I still have it!

I have to say, I wasn't very patient when waiting on that first kiss. Just ask Ben Smith, he can tell you all about that. I still wasn't very patient. We'd been "hanging out" for 6 weeks & defined the relationship, so where was my kiss? ( Oh please don't ask Ben, he's probably been trying to forget me for 18 years)

Bad Breath? No one had told me. My family wasn't the kind that yelled in your face what was wrong with you though so maybe I couldn't trust them.

I came up with some more irrational scenarios then finally I just asked. Something about a cold, I don't know. What I came to realize is that kissing leads to more kissing so he was really wise in waiting- we had a lifetime to kiss. And curiosity kills the cat, or so I'd heard. Again reason #5 for arranged marriages for my babies.

So under a tree saying goodbye one night in December I got my first kiss from Cody. Fireworks went off and the symphony came in. It wasn't the last time fireworks would go off under that tree :)

My uncle Larry was there with us that Christmas, the last I'd spend with him. He gave us a really hard time about taking 90 min to say good night. We were talking.

Talking about my new fish. Not sure when that bird left but it wasn't soon enough. Beware of pets that have previous owners. The truly good pets never get "sold" or "given" away. I'd moved on to a fish. I worked at a decorating store and thought I could decorate. The fish was cool bathroom decor. I placed him on the back of the toilet. So Cody named him- "Terrible Terry Tinkle the Toilet Topper" . Our first attempt at naming something. Oh, he kept me laughing!

No really we talked a lot about theology. Crazy stuff. And our relationship could be summed up in Prov. 27: 16 As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. We were good for each other. He helped me through some rough times those first few months.

By February we were singing Don Williams, "I believe in Love" , saying I love you and kissing some more...lots more fireworks. Then Valentines Rolled around and he gave me the most unique gift that I'll never forget.

stay tuned, I'm posting that story tomorrow...