Today is the day! We remember love, we celebrate passion, we honor those we cherish most... then again,hopefully we are doing that on a daily basis!
I first of all want to thank everyone who participated in our Love Story Contest! This has been so much fun, and something I hope to do again next year. I had a great time reading through the stories that were submitted. They all were unique and touching in their own ways. It just goes to show that no story is a mundane story. We all have something special to offer.
Because I loved reading the stories so much.. I had SUCH a hard time figuring out which were my two favorite... soooo... I brought in a recruit. I took names out, and printed the stories for another to read to help me decide ( because if it were left to me... we would have no winner.. or everyone would be a winner!) Even my recruit had a hard time with this one! However, between us, we did choose four stories to feature here on the blog for the general public to vote on!.
Voting: We are choosing a first and second place winner. Each story will be numbered. In order to vote you must leave a comment down below with the number of your favorite story! I will leave this up for the remainder of the week, and I will announce the winner on Saturday! Good luck to everyone!
#1 Ed and I had first met in 1999 on a shooting range. We were apart of a Junior Rifle Team that competed throughout California and it was my first year on the team. Not long after we met it was no secret that I had the biggest crush on him. Well, to everyone it was just a crush that they said would eventually pass but to me it was more than that. Even though I was so young (I was 13 and he was 17) I just had that feeling that he was the one. However, it wasn't the same for him. To Ed I was just a 13 year old girl who had a crush and there was no way he was even going to entertain the idea. (Not that I blame him! lol ) Plus, he had a girlfriend his age! So, I knew there was no way it was going to work but I had hoped that maybe if I got old enough he'd still be around.
At the end of '99 Ed quit shooting and went his own way, we were never close friends so we never really stayed in contact. We passed a few emails back and forth every now and then but that was it. He was always in the back of my mind but I knew it probably wasn't the same for him.
A few years later, I had heard that Ed was engaged and my heart sunk because then I really knew that I would never have a chance. I still had feelings for him but he was happy and so I tried my best to be happy for him.
Another year went by and I had found out through Ed's mom that he was no longer engaged and that he was back in Sonora. Yes, I'll admit it, I was thrilled! I thought, maybe now I'd have a chance!!
So the next time that I saw him...it was on the shooting range. :) He started to get back into shooting again and eventually we became good friends. I was 17 at the time and he was 21 so age was still an issue, Ed admits now that he was scared of my dad because my dad worked for the prison, so he kept his distance from me! hahaha So we remained close friends and would meet up at shooting matches on the weekends. My parents eventually allowed me to date him and 10 months after that, and after getting my parents approval of course, Ed proposed to me in front of the Yosemite Chapel, which was also the same church we were married in. :)
We've been married now for 7 years, have two children together, and on occasion, we still go and shoot together.
#2 Where do I start? Ron and I have known each other for about 16 years. We were always friends and would say "hi" in passing but that was about it. Our life roads finally brought us together about 7 months ago! Facebook!! We became friends on facebook shortly before he finally asked me out! I'd check out his page and see what he was up to but he didn't seem to be on it too much. Finally one day he commented on one of my posts and that was my in! LOL! I then sent him a message and asked how he was doing. He responded and quickly said we should get together for a drink to catch up. I eagerly accepted!! We exchanged numbers and planned the get together for the following Thursday evening. As we texted back and forth that week he offered since it was my birthday that weekend maybe we should also have dinner that Thursday evening.Awesome!! We went out that night and had a wonderful time. He now tells me he went out that night not expecting anything but old friends getting together but about halfway through dinner found himself thinking, "this girl is pretty cool"! We hit it off and continued to get together for lunch and any other chance we could. I never knew love could happen so quickly! We fell truly and completely in love in a matter of weeks. It was amazing and scary at the same time. But we went with it! The next 6 months were like a dream come true for a couple of romantics! A whirlwind of love we'd both only dreamed of. We had definitely talked about getting married and on December 22 Ron proposed to me! It was a perfect moment and I of course said YES!! We planned our wedding for just 3 1/2 months later! We will become man and wife on April 14, 2012!
#3 Month two of the three month subscription to eharmony.com was going nowhere and my $119.85 was heading straight down the drain. I was soooo disappointed! After going through loser after loser who just wanted to hook up, I was angry. So what better thing to do than act like a rational, mature adult and sign in to my old hotornot.com account and "rate" people. Lucky for everyone that day, the first person to appear on the screen was this hunky, tall, dark and handsome guy who said that he was a "nice guy", a Christian AND just so happened to live less than 20 minutes away from me. I think I almost broke the mouse trying to click the "meet me" button-because it just wasn't working fast enough! I had to wait a whole day just to find out he clicked "meet me" too. Excited, yes-did it get me anywhere fast, no. But thank goodness HON has a generic "letter" to send the other person for free! So I let him know that I thought we could be friends and that I thought the gentleman should pay to talk to me. Tick tock tick tock, two days go by (very slowly) and I receive a message on Facebook from a guy named Todd Johnson. I should clarify: it wasn't a message, it was a novel and at the very end he wrote, "If I haven't scared you away, please write back". Heck, after all he told me, I wasn't scared-I was interested in knowing more and I felt really comfortable telling him about myself-so he got a novel as well! We emailed and talked on the phone for 11 days when he asked me out saying he "would be honored to take me out on a date.". We decided on a picnic at New Melones Reservoir-we met up at Rite Aid in Sonora and he was waiting for me with flowers (my first flowers ever)! It was love at first sight and we spent the fastest 7 hours together talking and laughing. After date number 2 (which was the next day) I met his WHOLE family-all six siblings and his parents!
Fast forward 1 month: We had spent almost every day together. On June 12 (Todd's mom's birthday) we had made plans to go to Big Trees National Park with one of Todd's sisters. That morning I felt so sick-I really didn't want to go and I tried to back out of it. Todd insisted that we go (something he NEVER does) saying we couldn't let his sister down. So I'm sick, I borrow this horrible shirt from my mom, my hair is purple and brown and desperately needs a color touch up, no makeup and I don't think I could have looked worse! But what the heck, we were only going on a picnic, right?! The joke was on me! We arrived, ate lunch, everything seemed "normal" we started walking around and ended up on top of the big cut down tree stump. There were tourists all around and all of a sudden Todd is down on one knee and shaking to death! He had tears in his eyes, this huge grin on his face and the next thing I know he was asking me to marry him! I said yes through laughter and tears and wore the biggest cheesy grin for the rest of the day-because I was GETTING MARRIED!
#4 Both my husband and I came from families that were very involved with skiing and winter sports. Before my husband met me, he was at a friend’s house and saw a picture of someone snowboarding off a 18’ rock at Sierra at Tahoe. Since he grew up skiing that resort, he immediately recognized the rock and said, “I know this rock! Who is this guy??” His friend said, “that guy is a GIRL and her name is Marsie Sweetland!” A few months later we met and one of the things we’ve always shared together is our love of the snow.
One day he and I were skiing/snowboarding at Sierra at Tahoe together in a blizzard. It was an amazing powder day and we were just finishing up an epic day. We were skiing through the trees and he suggested we take a break right above the ice falls. He started talking to me about long term life plans and his desire to spend the rest of his life with me and I wasn’t really tracking with what he was talking about, and then finally I came to my senses and said “are you proposing to me??” He said “Yes! Can’t you see I’m on my knee?” I actually could NOT see he was on his knee because there was so much powder! I told him this and gave a huge YES and we hugged and laughed and bonked goggles in the snow : )
We have been together for 12 years, and married since Oct 2004.
