Committed: The Ties that Bond
with Angella Dykstra
I'm a mom of three, a professional accountant, and an amateur photographer and writer. I am not a marriage expert. But my husband and I take "Til death do us part" seriously, and here I'll be sharing how we keep our marriage strong while we both do that insane work-life juggle.
Check out my Work It, Mom! profile and my blog, Dutch Blitz.
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My husband and I are mere days (DAYS) away from our tenth anniversary (and corresponding first! trip! ever! to Las Vegas) and we’ve been reminiscing about how it all started.
We both attended a large church and had chatted a few times at the weekly College & Career evening. I couldn’t find the friends I was supposed to sit with, he showed up with his sister and I asked if I could join them. Harmless flirting led to a phone call that afternoon (by me) which ended with me leaving the lamest voice mail message ever to occur on planet Earth.
He returned my call minutes later (After calling both his Mom and sister) and before the day was out I had been to his house for a lovely dinner of homemade lasagna and we had three dates booked in the coming weeks. One month to the day after that first date, we were engaged and five months after that, we were married.
Back to the beginning of the story - how/where did you meet your beloved? I’d love to hear it.
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Ah, drunk at a mutual friends’ party. Pure romance! Actually, it was quite sweet. We talked for hours about future plans, and, magically, they all matched up. Engaged 6 months later, married 10 days after that, grand wedding forthcoming in 3 weeks.
Molly | May 18th, 2010 at 8:36 am
We both volunteered in the Pediatric in-patient unit at a local cancer hospital, but on different shifts. The hospital hosted a Career Day for the pedi patients and we were both there representing our respective careers. Less than a month later, we had our first date, and within a week we both knew we’d be married. This summer marks our 9th wedding anniversary and our 11th year together.
elz | May 18th, 2010 at 9:21 am
Biology class followed by a mutual appearance at a Halloween party several years later that marked the beginning of our romance.
Dan | May 18th, 2010 at 10:15 am
At work. How boring
Kerri | May 18th, 2010 at 10:26 am
Also at church!
Stephanie Parnell | May 18th, 2010 at 10:37 am
He moved in across the street from me the summer before 11th grade. I spent the whole summer mooning out the front window over this obviously “older” guy who actually turned out to be only a month older than me. On the first day of school I made a fool out of myself in my attempts to meet him, but obviously he noticed because we spent the rest of September sitting on the school bus listening to cheesy love songs (one ear bud from the Walkman each!)(our knees touching of course)and sitting on our front steps talking. He asked me out officially at the Fall dance and we’ve been together for 22 years.
Procrastamom | May 18th, 2010 at 11:02 am
drunk at a bar. classy, I know.
hillary | May 18th, 2010 at 11:33 am
At work. The local newspaper where he was a graphic designer and I was temping as an ad delivery driver. I totally took up smoking so I could hang out with him in the smoke hole. About two months into the work friendship he asked me out on a date and soon after the temp position ended. Which was good because he wouldn’t kiss me and I didn’t know why. It was because he didn’t want to dip his pen in company ink so to speak. So we started dating and I quit smoking and that was eleven years ago. Our 4th wedding anniversary is just around the corner.
Carrisa | May 18th, 2010 at 12:25 pm
Craigslist! I was recently out of a 4 year relationship and wanted to get my feet wet dating again before I moved 3,000 miles away for grad school (4 months later). My now husband responded to my post because I said I liked the show Scrubs. 8 months later he moved to NY to be with me and go to nursing school, and we just celebrated 2 years of marriage.
Tia | May 18th, 2010 at 1:37 pm
At the local gym, we exchanged numbers despite the fact that I was actually there that day with my on-again, off-again high school sweetheart. He told me later that he had been eyeing me for weeks and had been trying to get the courage to talk to me for just as long. I told him that was both sweet and creepy. Happily, we will have been together for 10 years and married for 2 this summer.
Melissa | May 18th, 2010 at 2:49 pm
College - we worked together, attended the same Bible Study, and ended up majoring in the same thing. We were good friends by the time graduation rolled around, and he finally got up the nerve to ask me out later that summer.
Teri | May 18th, 2010 at 8:44 pm
my friend met him first when they were both starting a new year at our local bible college. she told me she met the man for me, but I didn’t want to hear it. a few weeks later i met an incredible guy who showed up as an extra volunteer at the youth group i was already volunteering with. i was smitten. i went home and called my friend to tell her all about him … same guy. 10 years (after meeting), here we are married with 3 kids! she likes to take the credit.
rachel joy | May 19th, 2010 at 2:20 am
At a mutual friend’s cabin. I get car sick so I managed to grab the front seat of his car for the ride home. About 30 mins from home our friend’s car caught on fire. I spent the rest of the evening keeping him company as we towed the fire-car the rest of the way (hey, we were 18, no need for a tow truck!)
We’ve been together ever since… 13 yrs, married for 9!
Hope you love Vegas
Jennifer | May 19th, 2010 at 11:55 am
Wow - you guys were FAST. Awesome.
Us? Two words: Burger. King.
Danica Grunert | May 19th, 2010 at 3:09 pm
We both worked in a recording studio. What was hilarious was that when I was hired I was the only girl so after I left (I was hired on the spot and told to come in the next day) my boss pulled the three guys into one room and said “NO ONE goes after Sherry” because he didn’t want any drama. He was actually worried about the other two guys most of all, but it’s always the quiet ones you have to watch out for…
When we first met I had a boyfriend and he had a girlfriend but neither relationship was working out. Shortly after we each broke up with our respective significant (or not so significant) other - for completely unrelated reasons - we both realized that we had a lot in common, enjoyed each other’s company, and could spend hours talking.
He was working on a new song and asked me to write some song lyrics since he’d heard I was a writer. I figured he’d never be interested since he was 12 years old than me, but I wrote a song that laid it all out for him (it was titled “Why Can’t It Be Me”, can’t get more blatant than that) and well, here we are 11+ years later.
Sherry | May 19th, 2010 at 3:22 pm
We were both working at the University for the summer. He was teaching ESL and I was working with the French program. A mutual friend introduced us and I thought nothing of it. Then one day, he came to my office and gave me a note, written in French. It was meant to ask me out, but I thought he had been given the note and needed me to translate for him! He was rather embarrassed to have to clue me into the fact that he was asking me out! I think I responded with ‘Me?!?, Really?’ Oui!
While we are very happy and have future plans, we have yet make our future official.
Heather | May 20th, 2010 at 10:32 pm