Way back when

I met Jim in either 1992 or 1993 (neither of us can remember) My friend Carolyn moved to Moreno Valley and started dating his friend Chris. They were going to go to a "Midnight Bowling" night at the local bowling alley. Carolyn invited me so I could meet Chris' friend Jim. I was only 13 or 14 at the time and wasn't allowed to date yet (I wasn't the most obedient child) I asked my parents if I could go to the Midnight Bowling (The bowling alley would lock everyone in from midnight until about 7 in the morning - if I remember correctly. I didn't do alot of bowling back then - or now for that matter) My parents said No way. So a couple days later I asked if I could spend the night at Carolyn's house. They said I could if we didn't go to the Midnight Bowling thing. So I spent the night at Carolyn's and of course we went to the Midnight Bowling. There I met Jim. He was hilarious. He was the class clown and always made everyone laugh. We "dated" (as much as you can at 13 or 14, living in two different cities, with neither of you having a drivers license) off an on through our sophmore and junior years.

We went to my junior prom together. I can't say I had a good time. We were on the verge of breaking up at that point. I had low self esteem and needed constant attention. He had a sense of humor I didn't appreciate at the time. The combination of those made for a pretty crappy night for me.

We broke up very soon after. Our senior year we didn't have much contact I don't think. He went into the Navy right after High School and I moved to Utah. He wrote me a couple of letters during that time. But I don't think we talked for more than a handful of times from High School through 2000.

Then June 17, 2000 I was driving in Moreno Valley on my way to a friends house. I had my mom's cell phone with me and I was thinking about Jim. Just wondering what happened to him. I called information and gave them his last name. I had no idea if he even still lived in Moreno Valley. I didn't know what his parents names were or anything like that. They said there was one listing for his last name so I went ahead and called it. Of course I got the answering machine and it didn't say any names it just said "You have reached XXX-XXXX please leave a message" Well crap. That didn't help. So I left a message "Hi, I'm looking for Jimmy... My name is Melody... I knew him in high school..." and he picked up the phone. We talked for a few minutes and he invited me to house. (Unknown to me he was actually getting ready to go to his girlfriend's house. Needless to say he got there late) I went over there and we hung out for a couple hours. Then he went to his girlfriends house and I went to my friend's house.

We went out a couple times after that but I wasn't really interested in him. He was awesome to hang out with and we had so much fun but I was dating three other guys at the time and wasn't interested in settling down. At the end of our second date he we to kiss me and I turned my head so he kissed my cheek. He decided if I didn't kiss him by the third date he was gonna find someone else. Thankfully for me, I kissed him on the third date :)

On my 23rd birthday (July 20th) I was still dating Jim and the other 3 guys. (I was mainly dating Jim but I refused to commit lol) I got roses delived to my work from the other three guys. A dozen from one, 23 from another and 24 from the third. I got home and Jim had a bouquet of sun flowers and wild flowers for me. He said "I thought you'd be sick of roses by now" (AWWWW)

In August we went to an amusment park with my brother and his girlfriend. We were still just friends but we were constantly together. He was my best friend and we were pretty much inseperable.

While we were there we were standing in line for the laser tag and I was talking to my brother's girlfriend. The subject of kids came up and I turned to Jim and said "How many kids did we decide we were having? was it 4 or 6?" He said "I believe it was 4" and I went back to talking to her without even batting an eye. Then I stopped and said "Wait, when did we go from just being friends to deciding on kids?" He laughed and said "I don't know, it just happened" and from then on we knew we were getting married.

On August 11th we were going to my friend's mom's house to pick up the engagement ring, (We bought my ring from a pawn shop and her mom had picked it up for us) we were almost there when we rear ended the car in front of us. We totalled the car and Jim broke his arm. Someone called 911 and they had the ambulance come and take us to the hospital. Not before her mom came to the accident site, climbed in the ambulance and handed Jim the ring. He proposed to me there in the ambulance. Both our parent came to the emergency room and thats where they met.

On January 20, 2001 we were married.

We've had our ups and downs since but we are so happy together. I love him so much and I'm so happy that I went to the Midnight Bowling and that I called him. I am so blessed to have him in my life. He is a wonderful husband and father.