The Tale of Mr Wow

Most of you don't know the old Michele. You really only know the married Michele. Prior to dating Rick, heck even the first few months of dating Rick, Michele dated and she not only dated but she dated a lot. There were weeks where she would go on a date with 3 different guys. Granted there were times in Michele's life where she didn't date. She could go months without a date but when it rained, it poured.
So there was a time when Michele was dating a guy, let's call him Mr Wow because that is what Michele thought at the time and even called him. This guy was smart, seemed down to earth, came from a similar background and heck his family even had money. (He too like Rick when to Cottonwood, just at a different time.) So Michele would hang out with Mr Wow on and off for probably 18 months. A few times here and there. Michele couldn't really figure things out with him so she just did her own thing too. He wasn't ashamed of her, he did take her out in public and introduce her to his friends but he never committed. (Don't worry he wasn't married or anything like that. He just had a commitment problem.)
As time went on Michele got tired of this...even though she still thought he was seriously hot and had great intellectual conversations with him, but seriously, the making out was great. Michele isn't even sure what happened and why they stopped talking but they did. But life went on and fortunately Michele was able to get over him without much heartache. (She also learned at some point that about half the time they were hanging out Mr Wow was high on pot. He admitted to this at some point because he thought of himself being so smart that he "had to smoke pot just to bring himself down to the level of other people. I think this really helped Michele in getting over him.)
Mr Wow had a nephew who happened to be good friends Michele's youngest sister. Michele heard that he had decided to go back to school for his Doctorate in psychology. (We won't even go into the psycho analysis he did of Michele.) She also heard he was getting married. Michele was a bit shocked at this but thought, wow this chick must have something to get him to commit. Good for her. Then Michele forgot all about him.
Years later for some reason Michele happened to have Mr Wow cross her mind. At one point she thought he might be, "the one that got away". One this specific Sunday, Michele was REALLY bored so she decided to google his name. It was ALL over the place. This guy had gone back to school, had taught at this Blue school and had since moved to Florida and was teaching there. Not only did Michele find information from students rating him, which were highly entertaining because people actually mentioned how good looking he was....seriously ~ Who says that their college professor is hot in a public forum? But she also came across his wife's blog which was NOT private. (One more reason to be private, crazy x girlfriends, or boyfriends in my case who want to stalk me.) She had some photos on there as they happened to have had a baby not that long ago. Michele was able to find a photo of Mr Wow on there, but here's the thing...she had to look at more photos just to make sure it was him!
Michele knows that she has gained weight since dating him...like 40 pounds but she also knows she basically looks the same in the face. Not so for him. Mr Wow isn't Mr Wow he's hot any more. He is now Mr Wow has gained a ton of weight and aged! Michele almost felt sorry for him. She thought that maybe he carried all the baby weight for his wife.

The moral of our story...
Stalking can produce great fruits for our labors
Mr Wow isn't always going to be Mr Wow in a good way
Michele's current Mr Wow, has never been Mr Wow, he has always been Mr Perfect for her (And yes he knows about this story and laughed as he know that Michele used to be all over the place)

How Rick and I Met

I was emailing with a friend from high school today who asked how Rick and I met and got together. I thought that would make for a fun blog.
Rick started working at CR England in January 2004. I think it was Jan 12th or 14th...how do I know? I was the one who approved the invoices for the recruiter. I was checking him out when he first started but didn't really think anything more of that. We became friends, like you do with people you work with and that was all good.
In October Rick finally asked me out...I said No. I wasn't going to go out with someone I worked with. He actually had only asked me to go to lunch with him and I still said no. He asked me a second time and by now I had learned his true age. Initially I thought he was about 35. He was really closer to 45 at the time. I told him that I couldn't date guys closer to my mom's age than my own and I offered to set him up with my mom. He didn't like that so much.I know he asked me out a third time and again I told him no. I told him that I didn't date non-LDS guys. Christmas came around and Rick bought these awesome gift baskets from a lady who sold stuff at work. I told him that if he gave me one I would go out with him. He didn't like that either.
So here comes February...The Friday before Valentine's day 2005 I was chatting with Rick. He asked if I was going to get lots of flowers and I told him no I wasn't going to be anyone's Valentine. He told me that he really liked sending flowers to girls. I went back to my desk and emailed him and we decided to be each other's Valentine's. There was a lady who sold flowers, balloons and chocolates there at work for Valentine's. I decided to get him a few balloons and some chocolate covered strawberries. I made it very clear I did not want any of the balloons to say love on them. We also decided to go to lunch together...good ol Chili's by the E-center.

Rick sent to me THE most incredible long stem red roses. Not only were they long stem, there were 2 dozen of them. I was told by many people that day I had the best flowers. (Sorry the photo isn't so great. I didn't have a digital camera by then so I had to use my cell phone camera. Yeah, can you imagine ME without a digital camera?!)

We had a nice lunch and decided to do it again.

Rick and I started talking on the phone every night but I wouldn't let him come to my house. One day in fact I told him that I was going to paint. He offered to come and help. I lied to him and told him that I didn't feel well enough to actually do it that day. I hung up the phone and proceeded to paint. I just wasn't into having a boyfriend and I told him so. In fact the first time he took me out in the evening, I took Marissa with me!
Rick and I continued to go out to lunch together more and more. We would try and go out separately so people wouldn't see us together. Of course some people did cause they had no life and needed something to gossip about but the bosses, they didn't know and that was what mattered.
The first time Rick told me that he loved me we were driving back from lunch at Chili's. I remember I was the one driving and we were driving on the overpass over 215 just north of the E Center. He said, I love you. I said back, I wish I could say that I do, but I don't. He told me that it was ok because he had been thinking about it a lot longer than I had.
By May Rick and I knew we wanted to get married. We became engaged on July 1st 2005 (another story) and here we are...Married on Dec 14 2006 and happy as could be. (our actual wedding is another story too!)So Rick is one of those who you can't get mad at for having cold feet. He was much more ready for things than I was. I thank Heavenly Father every night and every morning that he was so willing to be patient for me and to put up with my crap. I love you Rick! (Not that he will ever see this unless I send it in an email to him hehehe)