We celebrated our 10 year anniversary at the beginning of this month so I decided to write out our love story. Perfect timing for Valentine’s Day coming up as well.
Instagram saw it first. 😉
Ever heard that song “Check Yes or No” by George Strait? It’s basically our love story and was also our first dance song. We met in 1st grade at our local Catholic school at the same church we attend today, Queen of Angels in Dickinson, Texas.
Well actually I was in 1st grade and he was in 2nd but we were in the same classroom since classes were combined. I vividly remember him being the weird one in 2nd grade who was always braiding the ribbons in his missal and I was jealous because I didn’t know how to do that. 🤣
The next year, I skipped part of 2nd and 3rd grade and we ended up officially being in the same grade. See picture of us in our 3rd grade class: (I’m seated in the middle and he is standing on the far left.)
We ended up being in the same classroom for the next few years since 3rd, 4th, and 5th were usually combined. For whatever reason whatever grade we were in only ever had like 3 or 4 students max.
I vividly remember one day he wrote on a piece of paper at the back of class “Do you love me?” and had YES or NO for me to circle my choice. I was disgusted to say the least. After all I was only like 7. But now I look back and I’m like awww, how cute. 😅😆
The next couple of years people teased me all the time about being in love with Matthew. Of course I was like no way! But I did use it to my advantage and got him to do whatever I wanted including getting his annoying brother to stop bothering me at recess when I was just trying to swing in peace. 😆
Little did I know on my last day in 5th grade and my last day in that Catholic school before being pulled out and homeschooled, our teacher told Matthew that we were meant for each other…
Years passed, we saw each other occasionally at church. And by occasionally I mean like every Sunday and holyday.
People were always teasing me about loving Matthew and by people I mean siblings of course. Eventually it started to be true.
In HS, although I was homeschooled, I took Spanish classes at the school after regular classdays with one of the teachers who spoke Spanish. I would look forward to catching glimpses of Matthew while he was in PE class. Sometimes I would leave notes with his sister who I was also at the school to give to Matthew.
He had this cool sunset western shirt he sometimes wore to church. One day in the church bookstore I remember telling him I liked his shirt. And of course my sister was like no, she likes the guy WEARING the shirt…more teasing. I also remember that day and the reason he was in the bookstore was because he looking for his younger sister who was missing. #thethingsIremember
One weekend he knew I was going to the county fair and of course he made it a point to go as well so I ended up seeing him there. I don’t even remember if we really said much but he got a huge Scooby-Doo stuffed animal for me. I refused to take it home because it was too big to hide from my parents. He said he threw it away because I didn’t want it but I think he actually kept it for years. He also got a huge new obnoxious belt buckle there. I think he still has it. He still has to have the biggest and best things.
I also joined our church choir where Matthew’s sister was a member. We started passing letters through her there too. One day he even gave me a necklace, which apparently he had been wanting to give me for years.
But eventually my parents found out. And they did not approve. They didn’t want me associating with him at all. Which is a whole other story. But I mean I was also like 15.
(Throwing it back with some old pictures, the best I can find at the moment & I have no clue how old I was in that picture where I am actually at the county fair.)
Where were we?
Ahhhh that’s right, the necklace…like I said the parents didn’t approve at all. I can’t remember if they wanted him to wait until I was 16 to give me the necklace or what but I do know I gave it back and told him that they didn’t approve.
At this point we lost contact. Around the same time, he ended up moving to New York for boarding school for the remainder of his high school years.
As a result we rarely saw each other, he moved on and found some girls to be friends with in New York.
I may or may not have been jealous he was talking to other girls. I still kept tabs on him as much as I was able to without facebook or a phone to text him with.
During these years, he went on adventures with his class and was even able to visit Italy. Meanwhile, I was having a fantastic time at Catholic girls camp during the summer and summer Fish(freshman) camp for college (see pictures).
One of these years, I remember praying the St. Andrew Christmas novena specifically that I would get to marry him one day even though at the time it seemed like that would be impossible.
Time went by, we graduated high school the same year in 2010. He was happy to leave New York and move back home.
I was accepted into Texas A&M University and moved 2.5 hours away from home to start my freshman year there. I vividly remember on one of my few trips back home (maybe it was Christmas break), I went to Mass and picked a pew near the front of the church. I was there quite early and got to watch the servers set up the altar.
Can you guess who the MC was? Well duh, of course it would be him. So yes, I watched him get the altar ready for Mass, how he went about every task with such respect and reverence…and I was in awe. And I told myself I wanted to marry someone like that one day.
During that summer before I started college, I met a friend named Kelly at @tamufishcamp . She knew I was Catholic and she had a necklace with all the saint medals, like literally so many of them, probably 25 medals on her chain.
At some point she got to talking about Facebook which at the time was new to everyone. I mentioned how I loathed it and didn’t want anything to do with it but she mentioned how it could be used for evangelizing and sharing the Faith with others. So after much convincing, I created a Facebook page shortly after I started college that freshman year.
A few months later, guess who I found on Facebook and requested to be friends with? Well you can guess, the one and only Matthew.
After he accepted my friend request, one of the first things he messaged me was, “you know I think it could’ve worked out between us.”
That one comment led to much messaging back and forth, which led to much texting back and forth. This was in January of 2011. A few months later, we officially considered ourselves a couple.
And after much convincing of my parents, we went on our first date on my 18th birthday in June when I was home from school.
Of course he showed up late for our first date because he had to bring his brother Benny somewhere. And his old gray and red Ford F-150 truck had no AC so it was hot. I also remember him shifting without using the clutch which of course I had no clue that you could do even though I also drove a manual. But he was probably doing that to show off. We went to Chabuca’s restaurant in Webster and had shrimp and steak and it was delicious.
We continued visiting each other, going to movies, etc the rest of the summer, usually with a sibling or two in tow. I went back to school in the fall. We would Skype often and even watched his favorite movie Tangled together this way.
He would drive up and visit when he could. He even got to attend a few @tamu football games. I remember one time I gave him a tour of the business school, that day he had shown up looking like a redneck, in very ripped and holy jeans. #trueTexan I still have to throw away his ripped jeans or he will keep wearing them.
I remember one time, we were going to visit my grandparents who lived out in the middle of nowhere. He was going to meet me there since he worked about an hour away and had to wait until he got off of work. I made sure to tell him beforehand the basics of where they lived and the address of course so he could put it in his GPS.
Of course, on the dirt roads, almost to my grandparents, his phone(and GPS) lost service. Somehow he managed to turn on the correct road in the mazes of country roads and found his way without having any directions or talking to anyone. My grandparents had no clue how he was able to manage this because their place is not an easy one to find especially if you have never been there before. He just said he followed his heart. ❤️
After many rejections due to not having a fantastic job and after many prayers and novenas, Matthew finally received my parents’ blessing to propose in July of 2013.
One day, we were driving somewhere and he had some grand idea to try to make the car look like it was smoking. That didn’t happen, thank goodness but instead he just pulled over in a field and proposed. I made sure to tell him that he knelt on the wrong knee though because FYI kneeling on your right knee is only reserved for God. #Catholicproblems
I was only 20 at the time and according to our pastor since I was under 21, we had to get my parents to sign the paperwork to be sent off to district. They were very hesitant to do so but after many more prayers and even discussions with former HS principles & pastors finally agreed.
There were many family members who, when they saw all the fiasco we went through to just get engaged, wondered why we didn’t just elope. I’m sure the thought crossed our mind a few times and it would have made things ten times easier but we wanted to do things the right way and follow what the Church recommended. After all, our Faith was the most important thing to us and we didn’t want to push my family away either for going against their wishes. We knew that God would provide.
We had our formal betrothal ceremony in the Catholic church at the end of July and started planning an early 2014 wedding!
I specifically did extra classes in order to graduate early in December 2013 (in 3.5 years instead of 4)with my bachelor’s in accounting from @tamu so that we wouldn’t have to wait even longer. Graduation was a requirement to get married so I just moved it up sooner. I’m kinda a stubborn and determined person if you haven’t figured that out by now.
Matthew had already gotten his automotive certification and had moved to a better paying job in the months following our engagement. Alot more things happened in the next few months including finding him an apartment, me finishing up my classes and graduating with honors (Whoop! but only possible because of many novenas to St. Joseph Cupertino who helped me get the EXACT grades I needed to graduate with honors!), interviewing for accounting jobs, all 2.5 hours away while also finding a wedding dress, venue, etc and planning all the wedding things! Good thing I had already had most of it planned out many months before we actually got engaged.
I interviewed for an accounting job in downtown Houston and the funny part is the person that ended up hiring me also graduated early so she could get married earlier.
I started that job as a financial accountant on Epiphany Day 2014 and we got married on February 1st.
It was a wonderful wedding(duh!), complete with Latin High Mass in the same church that both of our parents had also gotten married in. We are one of the few couples that are actually able to say that! Of course on the same grounds as the place we met all those years ago in 1st grade. ❤️
And now it’s been 10 years and we have 6 kids who have all been baptized in the same church as well. What a blessing indeed!
The End…but really 10 years means we are just getting started.
I hope you enjoyed our story…feel free to share.
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