Love Stories with Gloria and John

Today we have our last story teller of the Love Stories series, Gloria from Little White Whale. I fell in love with her blog right when I stumbled upon it. And not only because whales are one of my favorite animals, but she has some serious talent for finding awesome things on the web. I am so happy to have her here sharing her story with John. 

"I was never a big believer in fate until a convoluted series of twists and turns led me to my husband, John. Now I can't help but believe that you can't get away from the one you're meant to be with, try as you might :-)

Strange fact #1: I went on an interview at a social networking company in Manhattan as a web developer and, due to some technical issues (not my fault, I swear), I completely bombed the coding test I was given. Luckily I was still hired!

Strange fact #2: John had already been at the company for several years at that point, and he managed a team of developers like myself, albeit in a different department on the other side of the building. For months on end, we completely and utterly ignored each other aside from mumbling hello in the hallways. Eventually I was transferred to John's department with plans to integrate into his team. My desk was moved next to his, and if we were in a romantic comedy, this is the point where our eyes would meet across the sea of computers and sparks would fly! But in real life? I unexpectedly received another job offer and left the company. Seriously.

Strange fact #3: After several months, an ex-coworker I had never hung out with inside OR outside of work randomly invited me out for drinks. It was there at that bar that I ran into a web designer friend, who asked me to swing by his housewarming party the following weekend. I already had plans that night, so I didn't think much of it until...

Strange fact #4: Halfway through my friend's birthday bash that fateful night, I was suddenly struck with a strong impulse to go to the housewarming party. I left all of my friends and hailed a cab to go somewhere where I knew, umm, all of one person. To say this was COMPLETELY out of my character would be the understatement of the century.

Strange fact #5: Walking into the apartment, I immediately spotted a familiar face in the crowd - John's! We struck up our first real conversation since meeting over a year ago, and I'm pretty sure a heart-shaped light bulb popped up over our heads as we laughed and chatted for hours. I met my very best friend that night, and I can't imagine how different my life would be if I had decided not to jump into that cab! Love works in mysterious ways, people."

Thanks again Gloria! Make sure you stop by her blog for daily awesomeness. 

See the past Love Stories with

Alli and Q

Kate and Brian

Sara and Camden

Love Stories with Sara and Camden

Oh love stories, how they tug on my heart strings! It makes me so happy to hear other's stories and learn different perspectives on love. With that said, I am excited to have our next Love Stories guest, Sara from Chalk White Arrow, here to share her story. 

"One lesson, among the many that this little thing called "being married" has taught me is just how different two people can be and will be for that matter. Moreover, excepting the other for who they are, truly are, realizing our differences will always be our differences and loving one another for each others faults no matter what those might be. It's painless to fall hopelessly into perpetual love with the good traits of our significant others, the ones that are easy to love. - But loving the faults, the nitty gritty, in other words is what truly defines love. This is to me at least.

One true example of this, being different I mean, is how Camden and I will describe and share our day with each other. Camden's version of his day will go something like: "well, I woke up around 9:00 because I really needed the sleep and I got up and watched about seventy-five percent of a Top Gear (UK). It was the one where Jeremy makes the really long red limo out of a Fiat Panda. Then I played with Kramer, but he didn't want to play very long. He mostly just wanted belly rubs and snuggles so that is what we did. You should have seen him when the dogs started barking on Top Gear. He wouldn't stop barking at the t.v. it was crazy. Then I made myself some breakfast . . . . " You get the picture."

"He will tell me every detail of almost everything that happened in his day down to just about every last thing he ate and well, didn't eat for that matter. He will tell me people he's met, things he's said, what he saw and heard and smelled. He will tell me detail by detail sometimes lasting thirty minutes or so. I could write a novel just based on the things Camden has done in one day making it full and riveting down to every last tiny minuscule detail.

When it comes to my turn, rather when Camden finally turns and asks "how was your day?", you could usually expect some sort of answer like "good." or "it was ok.". He will usually follow up with something like "well what did you do?" and he can usually expect some sort of reply along the lines of "I don't know, the usual". This here shows an extreme example of my "quiet listening nature", maybe too obviously stated here, but not always in it's entirety, good. However, to me, this describes exactly what love is. If marriage has taught me anything it's that love isn't necessarily some grand adventure that ends in matrimony or some hyped up fairy tale gushing with magic wands and gold dust. Love is more than this. Moreover, excepting the differences that exist within us, learning to love the less attractive things that each of us hold inside, to me this defines love, a more realistic love, a true love." 

So glad to have you here, Sara, thank you! Check out her lovely blog and say hi! (she has the cutest home and dog by the way)

Love Stories with Kate and Brian

I hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day! But let's not let love stop there. Today, I'm so excited to share another sweet love story from our next story teller Kate, who is a graphic designer and shares great bloggy tips on her blog.

"Brian and I met my freshman year of high school.  That year we happened to do all the same sports- cross country in the fall, swimming in the winter, and track in the spring.  We continued to become friends during swim team over the summer.  We finally went out on our first date on August 17th, about a year after we met.  We got frozen custard and from then on we were pretty inseparable."

"We were always one of those annoying couples who celebrated their monthly anniversary.  Brian was very intense about getting me something once a month- whether it was flowers or chocolate or a card.  Valentine's Day was always special because our 6 month anniversary was 3 days later, so we usually combined the two into a kind of super date.  I remember one year Brian pulled out all the stops and made me this delicious home cooked meal- he even got my mom to help walk him through making one of the dishes.  It was so fun!"

"Four days before the 7 year anniversary of our first date, we got married.  We'd been through 4 years of long distance while I was at college, and it was really amazing to finally reach this milestone that we'd been looking forward to for so long.

Last year our 6 month wedding anniversary fell the day before Valentine's Day, so we went out for dinner and celebrated on the 13th.  We did the same thing this year, and I definitely see it becoming a tradition."

Thank you so much, Kate! Be sure to check out her blog and say hi. Happy weekend!

Wedding and engagement photos by JMK Photos.

Love Stories with Alli and Q

As promised last week, throughout this month, I’ll be sharing with you guys some romantic stories from a few of my favorite bloggers. You know, in the spirit of the month of love. I’m so happy to share with you today our first storyteller, Alli from Hooray.

"My husband, Q, and I got married when we were practically babies. Seriously, we were so young (still in college!), but we didn't feel so young of course. We just knew we shared the same faith and values, and couldn't imagine life without one another. Oh, and one thing may have helped us realize this even sooner: while dating, Q got called to serve on his first deployment overseas with his Air Force unit. It's surreal how far your heart can sink to the bottom of your stomach, on hearing news you'll be apart from someone you love for the better part of a year. Adding to that, the emotions of being a dating couple...seeing each other mostly on weekends when a certain guy would drive from his college across the state border to visit his girlfriend (me) in Ann Arbor. :) But as scared and overwhelmed as we were for that first deployment, I'll always be grateful for the role the military has played in our story."

"If Q hadn't felt compelled to enlist during his first year of college, taken a semester off for training, and come home to work for his dad before classes resumed, he might not have met the "new girl" about to graduate at his sister's high school, and seen her at all of the sports games. And ask to take her to the movies. And nearly a year later, just before his first deployment overseas, tuck a ring inside her birthday gift and ask her to marry him when he returned."

Thank's so much, Alli, for sharing your’s and Q’s sweet, sweet love story! Be sure to pop over to her blog to say hi and check out her fabulous shop!