4 Years Together

Yesterday was mine and Casey's FOUR YEAR ANNIVERSARY (since our first date)! We both felt like four years was a long time--especially for me being only 22. For those of you who don't know our "story," I will share it with you :) It will probably be really "gushy" so don't read if you don't want to know!

(For all of you that go to our church and have Paul McDill constantly telling you that we started dating when I was in the 7th grade, here is the real truth!)

Casey was the youth intern the summer after his sophomore and junior years of college. I met him his first summer as intern, but barely talked to him. His second summer of interning was the summer after I graduated high school--my last summer in the youth group. Which still happens to be my favorite summer of all--even without knowing Casey--ha ha. Anyway, that summer youth camp was like the first week in June. I was sitting at the lunch table with my best friend, Lauren Smith (now Stevenson) on the first day of camp. I was just sitting there and complaining/venting about my ex-boyfriend and his new girlfriend when Casey comes and sits by us and just listens to me talk for a second--just eaves-dropping. Eventually he just says rudely/jokingly, "You just need to get over it!" Lauren and I just looked at him like he was crazy. Here he is telling me what to do and he doesn't even know me. It was pretty humorous. From then on he gave me a hard time every time I saw him. Anyway, that week at camp was our first time to really talk much, and I developed a little crush on my college intern. I looked at it as just a crush on my cute and funny intern, but I knew it seemed like a little more than that when I went home and hung out with my future roommate Amanda and told her, "I met the man I want to marry!" I ended up telling my mom the same thing, but I knew it sounded immature so I ended up changing it to, "I met a guy that I want my husband TO BE LIKE."

Later on that summer (in July) we went to mission trip in McAllen, TX. I was on-and-off dating this guy named Corry at that time, and we were kind of "off" during mission trip. We still sat together a little during the van rides, but weren't really getting along. There were several times that I was stuck on the very last row (where you don't want to be after a long time of working outside) right in the middle of Corry and Casey! Boy was it stinky, ha ha! But those were the times that Casey and I got to know each other really well! Some of those van rides back and forth from the work site and where we were staying would be an hour long, so we got to talk about all sorts of stuff. One of our big talks that week was about my breakup that he had been giving me a hard time about ever since youth camp. He shared with me about his really bad breakup after a two year relationship as well, and how long it took him to get over it. It was kind of funny that he was so harsh with me when he went through the same thing. Typical Casey though--not one for compassion or empathy, (unless he's in a serious mood) ha ha. Anyway, by the end of the mission trip, Casey and I had grown quite the friendship! I was still totally crushing on my intern, but really really felt like I was looked at like a little girl (and probably was then).

A couple of weeks later Casey was at church on Sunday handing out little strips of paper to all of the youth kids that wanted his email address and screen name (does anyone IM anymore??) because he was going back to UT. Anyway, I got one of the pieces of paper and emailed Casey as soon as I got home from church (a little overly excited)...to my bewilderment he wrote me back that day. I was so super embarrassed that he knew that I had emailed him so soon. For some reason I was thinking that since his email was his UT email, he couldn't check it 'til he got to school that next week. I was wrong and thoroughly embarrassed. Oh well.

From then on we talked on IM and through email several times a month. In the beginning we only emailed or IMed every now and then and for very short amounts of time. We talked about important things. I actually have most all of the emails that we wrote back and forth. It's fun to look back at! After a couple of months, we got to where we talked on IM almost every night and emailed several times a week (big nerds, I know).

Anyway, one weekend Casey home for the UT/OU weekend at the Cotton Bowl, and we decided to meet at Starbucks that night. Not a date, just catching up on the semester. I was super nervous and even had Amanda at my house waiting for me until I got home to tell her all about it. She also went to church with me the next morning just to meet Casey (Casey didn't know this though, of course)! Anyway, apparently that night Casey had thought about telling me that he had feelings for me or something, but I talked all about how I wasn't over my ex-boyfriend (the same one that I was talking about at youth camp) and ruined it. He went home feeling all discouraged (he later told me all of this).

About a month later, November 5th I believe, Amanda and I went up to Austin to visit some of her family and while we were there, we hung out with Casey and his friends quite a bit. It was a lot of fun! On the way home, I talked all about how discouraged I was with Casey, and how much I liked him, and how he didn't like me back. I went on and on about it--thoroughly convinced that he saw me as a "youth kid" even though I was now in college! Amanda just kept saying that she "thought" he liked me, blah blah blah. I thought she was just saying it all to make me feel better and still do, ha ha.

Two days after we got home, Tuesday the 9th, Casey called me. This had NEVER happened. We NEVER EVER talked on the phone. As soon as I answered I said, "Hey, what's wrong?" I kept asking over and over. He said, "Can't we just make small talk for a second?" I thought that was odd, lol. He finally told me he was coming home for a doctor's appointment on a Thursday (incredibly weird for him because he does not like to miss class/school/work). He asked me if I would like to eat dinner with him on Thursday when he got in town. I said that was cool, and he said he would "pick me up around 9." I thought that was REALLY weird because we had never ever gone anywhere together-we always met at the place we were going to. I got off of the phone ecstatic and confused at the same time. I went into my parent's room and told my mom. I started jumping up and down...I didn't even know if it was a date or not, but I felt like it might be. I was very exciting. The next day I went over to my friend Laura's to borrow clothes for my big "outing." I think I started getting ready around 6 when Casey didn't get there until 9. I just sat and waited. I was extremely nervous.

Casey got to the house around 9 and met my parents. He had briefly met them at church before, but neither of them remembered I don't think. My dad embarrassed me by asking if I wanted him to take our picture. I secretly did, but I was too embarrassed to let him. I would kill to have taken that picture now. Our first date. That would have been a nice picture to have. Anyway, we left and went to Napoli's on Centerville where we both ordered and hardly ate at all. Even Casey had a full plate at the end. We both acted so nervous. Eventually Casey pushed his plate forward and said something like, "I didn't really come in town for a doctor's appointment..." He went on to say how he had feelings for me and couldn't wait until his Thanksgiving break to come home to tell me-he couldn't even wait until the weekend. He talked about how he had felt discouraged at our Starbucks meeting, but later felt like maybe I did like him too, etc. Finally he took a breath and waited for me to say something. I hadn't said anything. I felt like I was in shock, ha ha. I just kind of stuttered, and his face dropped! I realized that he thought I was going to shoot him down, so I just said something like, "I feel the same way!" I hadn't even thought about what I would say back to him. I didn't know what to say. Nothing I could say would match all of the nice things that he had said about me. After that we went to Friday's to get dessert that we didn't eat (again)! We did that just so we could talk some more. It was a great night and the rest is history!

I can't believe that that was all four years and a day ago. Feels like last week. It is crazy how time flies!

Now you know the real story of Casey and Lauren Coats!