How It All Began...

Today Dennis and I are celebrating our 17th wedding anniversary!  I can't believe it has been 17 years.  Let me show you how it all began...

 First I must take you way back, much further than 17 years, way back to 1989.  I was 17 then, and had no idea who Dennis VanBuskirk was, or that he was working hard serving on his mission in Mexico.  But I did know "he" was out there somewhere, just didn't know exactly who "he" was.  I also knew, or at lest I hoped I knew what "he" was like.  In one of my young women classes, I filled out a list of the qualities I wanted in my spouse.  Here it is, in no particular order:

Qualities I want in My Spouse Forever:

1. Ambitious

2. Attractive

3. Family Centered

4. Fun

5. Honest

6. Kind

7. Loving

8. Positive

9. Self-Esteem

10. Spiritual

I just found this list the other day, and was amazed at what I had written so long ago, because it IS Dennis.  If I were to write a list of Dennis' ten best qualities today, it would be that very same list!  I couldn't change a thing.

But I am getting ahead of myself.

So I had this list.  Now all I had to do was find him.

I did, pretty easily.

I was 18 and a freshman at UCSD.  I was home on winter break and my best friend Alicia and I went to young adult family home evening.  He was giving the lesson, well, at least he was attempting to.  You see, he had recently returned from his mission, and he was speaking about his mission experiences, but his Spanglish was so bad that I couldn't understand half of what he was saying.  Poor guy.  But I couldn't hear him anyway, not above the sound of my heart pounding!  He was SO cute!!!

I worked up the courage to talk to him, and he wrote my name in his little black book that looked like it hadn't bee cracked open in two years.  He was SO cute, even cuter up close!

When I walked in the door that night I told my mom "I met a really neat guy tonight," as I floated past her.  She took one look at me and her jaw dropped.  Then she turned to my dad and said "Dear, Shelly just met the man she is going to marry."  No kidding.  Sight unseen - my mom knew!  She has always been very open to inspiration that way. (I brushed it off, but secretly hoped she was right!  Did I mention he was SO cute?)

But he didn't call to ask me out.  New years came and went, and it was time to head back to school.  But classes started on a Friday, and I decided to skip the first day of classes (which is not usually my practice) and stayed home for the weekend.  He called that day - the day I should have been back at school in SD, and we went out that night.  Oh what a night!

Our date?  Edward Scissorhands and Subway- the very same subway that is right next to our taekwando school today.  Oh the memories!

Oh ya, and he kissed me, by the way.  Let me make it clear, since his version is different.  HE kissed ME.  (I'm not that kind of girl!)  

He asked me out to go up to YV to see his family the next day.  I found out later that he had already had asked another girl.  He called and told her he wasn't going, and took me instead.  Poor girl.  She'll never know what she missed.

I'm sure glad I didn't miss.  Cutting classes proved a good thing in this instance.  And the decision to skip class might just have changed my life.

It sure was hard to say goodbye sunday when I had to head back to campus. He wouldn't let me leave without my promising him I wouldn't date anyone else (I had been in SD a whole semester and hadn't had a single date, so I knew it wouldn't be a problem.)  I had a boyfriend - and he was WAY cuter than any of my girlfriends' boys!

We did the long distance romance thing for a while, and Dennis got a few speeding tickets to prove it.  He just  couldn't stay away, what can I say.

It sure was fun! We were talking about marriage within weeks, but he didn't actually ask me until June when I got out of school.  He came to pick me up from school, and instead of driving home, he surprised me by driving to LA where we caught a boat to Catalina Island.  

This is us on the day he proposed.  It is a long and really funny story that has something to do with a imaginary "little cactus", a swarm of gnats, and a sudden need to pee in the bushes.  Like I said, you need to hear the whole story.  Maybe I'll blog about it at #18.

This picture was taken just moments before he asked me to marry him.  Come on.  Look at him.  I told you he was SO cute.   I just couldn't say "no" to this face.  Who could?

And so it was.  These were our wedding announcement photos.

And then, and whole year later (TOO LONG!) and 17 years ago today we were married in the LA temple.

That was a happy day! And that's how it all began, this adventure that has become the VanBuskirk clan.  I knew I had done good, and I've never looked back.

This picture was taken on our Honeymoon.  We travelled up the coast, camping in Big Sur, staying in a Victorian B&B in Santa Barbara, then Monterey and San Fran, then home again.  I couldn't believe how lucky I was to wake up and have breakfast with this guy every morning, who was just SO cute!

Looking back, I can't believe how lucky I was to wind up with him.  He is ALL that I wanted him to be, and so much more.  Every one of those ten qualities that I wanted he has, and my life, and the lives of my children are blessed by each of them every single day!  

These 17 years have gone by in a flash.  They have been so very good.

I remember on the day we married, we said that we wanted to grow old together.  Now that we are starting to creep into that bit by bit, I remember that that is exactly what I always wanted - to grow old with HIM.  HE is what I always wanted, even before I knew him.

I love you, Dennis!  I truly do.

P.S.  You are still SO cute!  And you still make my heart pound (even though your English has gotten much better)!