The Moving Truck That Changed My Life

Having just moved to a new area where people don't know me and questions are being asked, I have had the opportunity to reflect on various aspects of my past.  Especially the highlights like how Andrew and I met, the stories of our engagement and wedding.  The births of our children etc.  And you know, I never really thought of it like this, but I actually met my husband on a moving truck!  Isn't that totally random?

My sister and I were walking home from school one day - middle school.  She was in 7th grade, I was in 9th.  Just a few doors down from us, and on our path towards home, it looked like we had some new neighbors moving in.  I remember seeing the boys, who looked to be about our ages, disapear into the moving truck.  We must have called out to them, because I am pretty sure we were summoned up into the truck.  And that is where we met them.

The taller one, who I also thought was cuter, turned out to be the same age as my sister.  I remember grumbling to myself how it just figured that Katy would "get" the cute one.  In a way, though, it was nice.  Because I became fast friends with Tim, the brother who was my age, and never did have a moment of romantic interest to get in the way of or confuse our friendship.

Andrew and I spent our teenaged years around each other as I was friends with his brother and he with my sister.  In fact, he and my sister actually went out on a few friendly dates.  (Something that took him a while to live down as, in the first years of our marriage, I would occassionally remind him that he had taken my sister to a Jazz game so why not me?)

He tells me that when he turned sixteen he actually did ask me out.  According to him, I laughed in his face.  Now, I don't remember this, although after years of hearing his story I have either begun to remember, or just plain made up a memory to go along with his story.  But before you feel too bad for him, this was not a story of a young crush quelched by the mean insensitive girl.  This was a boy who turned sixteen before most of the girls in his grade.  He was eager to get active in the dating scene and simply turned to the "older" girls in the ward.  I was just one of many on a list.  And at the time, I had a boyfriend so really, what was I going to do but get a good chuckle out of the idea of dating this "younger" boy.

Years later, I ran into Andrew at a Halloween party.  I had just gone through a hard breakup and was reeling from being told by the boy I had dated that he had never loved me.  I was such a romantic who felt like every kiss between he and I had been bursting with love and devotion.  I had been enamored and was devestated that my kisses, which had felt so genuinely packed with emotion to me, had been so easily disgarded.  So here I was, feeling angry and scorned and wanting to prove that I, too, could kiss a meaningless kiss.  And here was that cute little Shadel boy, flirty and fun and having a good time with me at the party.  I think we had actually both leaned in for the kiss in the middle of the party when I suddenly realized, "Wait.  This is Tim Shadel's little brother.  I can't do this to Tim Shadel's little brother."  And so the kiss never happened.

The following summer I ran into him at another party - this "boy down the street's little brother".  He was within a few days of leaving on his mission to Baton Rouge, LA.  He told me of the woes of leaving behind a new romantic interest of just a few weeks.  He looked forward to his opportunity to be a missionary.  We sat, for hours in the dark, outside of the home where the party was being held, and talked and talked like best friends might.  And I wished him well as I watched him drive away into the night, ready to enter this new and unknown phase of his life.

To be continued in Neighbors Again

To be continued...