Fourteen Years Later

I always get a kick out of wedding pictures. Especially old ones. Like mine.  After about a dozen or so years you start to look drastically different than you did in those beloved pictures.  I look at mine and I seriously giggle a bit.    After rolling my eyes at my hair being poofy beyond control, and Mike's hair being, well, present, I can't help but notice how young we look. I thought I was actually "older" when we tied the knot because I was 2 months shy of my 23rd birthday.   Mike was a mere toddler of 21.    I really get a kick out of listening to my kids as they look at our wedding photos. "Wow!  Mom!  You look different!"  And my all time favorite: "Mom!  Why are you getting married to Uncle Tony?" (Mike + hair = Uncle Tony, Mike's brother)

 

There are many of you who know how and where I met my sweetie, Mike.  I'm one of "those" sister missionaries who married an elder from her mission.  Gasp!  Shock!  SCANDLE!  I first laid eyes on Elder Allred back in November of 1993 in a Spanish speaking ward in San Antonio, Texas.  My companion and I were being good missionaries, sitting in church, watching for our investigators (who never came...), when I happened to notice someone new sitting there in the chapel whom I did not recognize. The thought did not even cross my mind that he was an elder, since he had no companion sitting next to him. (Who I later found sitting up front to pass the sacrament)  Anyway...I had two very distinct thoughts as I looked at this person for the first time: 

1-"What on earth is a white boy doing here in this ward?!"

2-"Holy frijoles!!! He's a kinda cutie white boy!"  (He smiled at me. What was I supposed to think?)

And then I saw it.  The unmistakable black name tag.  Yes, this new white boy was none other than Elder Allred, my new Zone Leader.  (Big sigh...)

Long story short, Elder Allred and I became great friends while serving together.  He was, by far, my favorite elder. I simply could not shake his hand enough! ;) (For the record, Elders Bohne, Strong, and Monroe were close seconds, but I wasn't looking. Really.)   We served in the same zone for a couple of months and then served the rest of our missions in completely different areas with minimal contact. (Another big sigh...) But as fate would have it, our release date was the same day, and we were actual travel companions on the way home, sitting next to each other on the plane from Texas to Utah.  

I used to cringe when people would ask where we met.  I felt like I could see wheels turning in their heads as they formulated some great mission scandal between elder and sister which resulted in both of us being sent home... yada yada yada...blah blah blah...   Mike, of course, always though it funny to add fuel to the fire by happily telling people, "Yeah, we got sent home together..."   (Thank you for that, My Dear.)   I felt like I always had to justify us meeting by saying something like, "But I wasn't looking for a husband.  I even had a boyfriend back home!"  (Who also just happened to be named Mike.  I had a thing for Mikes, apparently. I think I dated 4 or 5 of them.)   But it doesn't bother me now to tell people how we met.  I kinda get a kick out it. Let them think what they may.  He's my Mike now. No longer Elder Allred.  And I am hopelessly and passionately in love with him.  Fourteen years later.

p.s.  Thank you, Jacob and Wendy, for making my hair not poofy anymore.  I owe you.  Big time.