A successful marriage requires falling in love many times, always with the same person

     I have spent a lot of time focusing on Braydon and the kids in this blog, so today I will focus on Shawn and I.  Those that are close to us know most of our stories, however I am captivating a new audience with my blog so I thought I would tell old stories this week, particularly about the man I fall in love with almost every single day.  I said almost.....Im not that blinded by love there are some days I'm ready to kill him!!!!

     It is the summer of 1999 and I was being forced to get a job.  I had failed a few classes in high school mostly for doing things I shouldn't like skipping school every chance I got and they were allowing me a work study program that would allow me to make up those classes.  SO the first place I walk into they offer me an interview without filling out the application and after the interview asked me to be there at 3 the next day.  WOW....was I that cute or were they that desperate?  Let's go with cute getting a big head is never my thing!!  I was now a green shirt, khaki pants, and visor wearing subway employee....YAY <--------enter sarcasm, in high school that uniform did NOTHING for me!  It was horrible!! 

     SO on my first day of work I go in scared to death.  I walk into a very skinny boy on the back of a girl.  I was ready to puke when the girl looked at me and said " Hi I'm Kim I work here too and this is MY boyfriend Shawn".   Shawn then looks at me and says he will be training me tonight and all I can think is OH LORD.  I will tell you though it was NOT love at first sight.  Not sure if the fact that his girlfriend also worked with us was part of that or what but I had no immediate feelings.  His girlfriend leaves and I realize there is another employee there, Johnathan.  Johnathan was also a new employee and Shawn was being stuck training 2 brand new employees on a Friday night our busiest nights!!

     Needless to say Shawn was a little annoyed and had very little patience in the training department.  He kept sending me in the back to get things and of course I had no idea where it was.  The night went on forever and I had noticed that Johnathan a time or two would follow me into the back and intentionally trap me in awkward positions.  One time I almost had to climb over the ice machine to get away from him.  So it was raining when it was time to leave and Johnathan tells me his mom hates to drive in the rain, could I take him home and of course I say yes.  We get in his drive way, he tells me he saw how I was looking at him all night and pushes me against the driver door and attempts to stick his hand down my shirt.  I called him a few choice words advised him to get his hand out of my shirt and told him to get out of my car.  WORSE first day EVER!!!!!!!

    I cried the whole way home and begged my dad to quit and he said only if you can still graduate without the job and I couldn't so I didn't quit.  The weeks flew by and Shawn and I became really good friends.  I loved working with him, he always made me laugh.  One day his mom came in and she though Shawn was working and he wasn't and we were NOT busy and she asked if I wanted to eat with her.  So I made our subs and sat down.  She asked me if I thought Kim was right for Shawn and before I could think twice about it I told her "No, I'm going to marry him someday".  I could not believe I had said that she probably thought I was a LONEY TOON!!!  Not long after that Shawn and Kim broke up and that begins our "love story".

     I can remember one night late at night swimming in the pool with my step mother.  She was asking if I "liked" anyone and I said Shawn.  He was UNLIKE any other boy I had wanted to date and to be honest very dorky!!  But I just liked him, nothing could explain why or what made him so attractive to me.  So we continue to work together and I notice he seems more and more annoyed with me.  Putting his hand on my back and kinda pushing me out of the way while we were working together, I was getting very very annoyed.  I spent weekends that I was not working with my mom.  SO one weekend he kept sending me pages (yes this is when beepers were cool).  Well I didn't call him back he was being funny around me and I didn't care to talk to him.  That next week at work he kept asking why I didn't call him back and I told him I was busy.  I had a date while I was ignoring his phone calls and I told him I went out with someone.  Let the 20 questions begin......

     "what is his name?  Why do you like him?  When are you going out again?"  OMG it hits me He likes me....SCORE!!!!  SO the following weekend I get someone to cover my shift and I plan to go out of town with my Dad.  We were going to go camping, he loved to camp.  The boy I was dating at the time won me a fish at the county fair and I asked Shawn if he would "fish sit" while I was camping.  He said yes I and got him the fish on Thursday and on Friday I woke up with a fever and a horrible cough.  I had an upper respiratory infection.  We did not go out of town and spent the next two days half dead on the couch.  Sunday morning I called him to tell him I never went of town I was sick and asked him if he could bring me the fish.  He had killed my fish.............    He says that the fish choked on a rock........  not really sure how the fish died but convenient that it was a present from another boy and now it was dead!LOL!!
      He started to panic when he heard how upset I was.   He asked if he could come and pick me up and take me to buy me a new one.  I asked my dad who was not all that thrilled because I had been so sick but after a little begging he agreed.  A little while later he picks me up and we go to a pet store.  I pick out a beautiful Betta fish and we go home.  We get it home he walks me in and goes to leave and just walks right out the door.  No hug, no kiss, NOTHING!!  I follow him to the car and we talk, after a few minutes he says he has to go so I pinned him against the car and kissed him.  If he was not going to make the first move I was!!!!!

      We went out a few times after that but we were not "boyfriend Girlfriend" and I wanted to be so I asked him if we were "exclusive" and his answer was " I think we should keep our options open".  Talk about ready to kill someone, I thought I was going to punch him square in the nose.  So I started dating other people that was much better than physical violence!!:P  One night while he was working and I was off, one of my dates and I stopped in Subway for dinner.  I realize that was a shady move but hey it worked!!  He pulled me to the side asked me why I was on a date now we were supposed to be going out after he got off work and I calmly said "I'm keeping my options open".  Needless to say he shut down ALL options!!!LOL!! 

      For the record I killed the fish Shawn bought me to replace the one that he killed!!  We have never done things the "right" way but we continue to do things our way.  I love him and I hope that we continue to make memories......I could write a book with all our memories now!!