6 Years Ago Yesterday

Zach made the biggest "settle" of his life by marrying this ole' gal. And I'm laughin' all the way to the marriage bank.

When I was 13 years old I was on an AAU basketball team. My team (from Des Moines) went to a tournament in Burlington, IA and stayed at the Best Western Hotel. After checking in and getting the okay from our parents to run around a bit before game time, my friend and I moseyed on over to the front lobby. There, checking in, was a beautiful boy with a big head, braces and a red jersey with, who we were assuming was his father. The father (if I remember correctly) had a red shirt and hat, pants giving him a front AND back wedgie and sausages for fingers. My friend and I commented on this particular boys good looks (I'm sure I mentioned his specific great ASSets) and continued to our game.

When we got back from our game, most of the girls team met in a room. We hear a knock on the door only to find a pizza box when we opened the door. Inside the pizza box was a note, "Meet us by the pool, the good looking ones are 15, x, x," (I don't remember the other numbers except for one in particular, and that's because it was also my jersey number). So by the pool we went. Who did we find by the pool? Well that check-in boy with a bunch of his good looking 13-year-old friends. What luck! So by the pool we chatted in all of our 8th grade glory. Their team from Davenport, IA (where I was sure all the gangsta's lived) and ours from a town called Altoona, that the boys just loved. After that night of a couple hours of talking around the pool, we left the hotel never to see them again.

Throughout the years my friends and I would reference "The Davenport Boys" a number of times to talk about funny things they said and strange behaviors our friends did with the male eye watching. The year after we met them, in a moment of sheer genius, I wrote "Zach and Tesi" in the Australian sand.

You see where this is going...my sophomore year in college I had just transfered from The University of South Dakota to University of Iowa where I was staying in a dorm. The second night there one of my suitemates invited a girl from across the hall over. Low and behold she was from Davenport. I started telling her about "THe Davenport Boys" and how I only remembered two of their names, Zach and Brian. She said she went to school with boys with that name (imagine that!) who both played basketball and one of them (Brian) was going to Iowa! So she called him to come over that night and as he walked down the hall I saw the same Davenport Boy from 6 years before.

Then Liz (my davenport girl-friend) said she knew Zach's screen name. So I tried it. He was in Muscatine at the time playing baseball and after awhile we realized we both had plans to hit the bar scene the next night. Skip ahead 24 hours. WAAAAY to late/early and too much beer for this little lady left me closing down the bars with my friends and not enough beers for him and waaay too much dancing left him doing the same. In a stroke of genius, Zach yells out "Tesi" in the middle of downtown Iowa City at 2am. Who was standing in front of him but a less-than-sober me. After giving this relative stranger a hug, we parted ways with promises of talking to each other. In true Zach form, he takes one last look at my ASSets, which my friend witnesses. The rest is, as they say, history. We went on a date the next night and I've been in love with that man since.

After dating just a few weeks we were saying "I love you" and planning our future together. A few months later Trysten was en utero (oops!) and we were planning a wedding. We got through a baby and college in 4 years and since, have wrestled our fair share of marital demons.

But he is honestly the most perfect mate. I can't believe it's been 6 years ago when I literally almost sprinted down the aisle to the man with the long eyelashes and ridiculous amounts of love and patience. But here we are. I'm more in love with him every day. We often talk about how we're the perfect couple and feel bad for everyone else (I know, that's ridiculous) but we can't imagine being happier than we are together so that just makes sense.

We may not be perfect (or might be!) but we are perfect for each other which is why I just can't wait to spend the rest of my life with this dude I get to call husband. Happy Anniversary love machine!