How it all started

I have been asked to tell the story of how Shawn and I met and fell in love. I love to tell it even though it's not all that exciting...but when you're telling your story, it's always special to remember those moments when love was new. Before I tell the story, I have to say I got a really sweet present for our 8th anniversary. Shawn brought me a beautiful bouquet of flowers that he had had made. What was special about this bouquet is that he asked the florist to make it look like my wedding bouquet. It was so special when he brought it home. As soon as I saw it, I knew exactly what he had done. I had wanted to replica of my bouquet for years and it meant a lot that he did that for me :)

Okay so on to the story of how that all began. I went to ACU to get my MRS degree. After my freshman year, I came back to Tyler for the summer. At the first church college class I went to back in Tyler, I met Shawn and his roommate. His roommates younger brother and I had been friends in High School so that was the common ground. Both of them were talking a lot to me and I actually thought Shawn's roommate was flirting more than Shawn. We talked much of the evening and they gave me their phone number and told me to call them. As we all walked outside, I spotted the coolest truck in the world! I immediately blurted out "Who's truck is that!?!?" It was Shawn's :) I'm sure that that made him feel SO good! I really didn't know that it was his but I was definitely impressed with it. (It was an extended cab Toyota, jacked up a little--so cute!) So, the college group was headed to the lake days later. Where they were all meeting I was unfamiliar with so in talking to Shawn on the phone he agreed to pick me up--how convenient! At the lake that day, we flirted and spent most of the time with each other. Later that evening, we had our first kiss! Don't lecture me on how it was too soon...I like to kiss!

Sparks flew and for the rest of the summer we spent almost every day together. Early one maybe before we even went to the lake, Shawn and his roommate invited me over to their new apartment for a housewarming party....turns out I was the only one invited. Thought that was funny.

So in July less than a month after we started dating, Shawn told me he loved me. I wasn't ready to say that yet. I always believed saying "I love you" was so so so sacred and I just didn't feel ready to say it back. I left in August to start my sophomore year at ACU. One day after I returned, I told him I loved him too. My entire sophomore year was a waste. We did the long distance thing for the whole year and we were both miserable. Lots of tears and lots of phone calls and emails. I decided that if I wanted to continue in this relationship, we needed to live in the same town. I moved back to Tyler to go to UT Tyler. I remember walking into the first day of one of my classes in August and everyone was suppose to introduce themselves and say something about themselves and I said "My name is Emma Lanier and before this class is over I WILL be engaged." It got a lot of laughs, but everyone thought I was kidding. Well, one month later, in September, I was engaged. Shawn came over to my apartment one morning and was going to bring me breakfast (a ring) in bed but I said I wasn't hungry---why can't I ever just play along! So, he dropped down on one knee at the end of my bed and asked me to marry him! How exciting!!! I was 20 and he was 21. We planned our wedding for almost 9 months later, in May. One year and eleven months after that fateful day at the lake, we were married. After getting married, we stayed in Tyler one more year to allow me to finish school. Now it's eight years later, and ten years since we started dating, and we have 2 wonderful children and a lifetime of craziness ahead of us! Hope you enjoyed an abbreviated (yes, that's actually the abbreviated version) story of Shawn and Emma.