The making of a Decade....

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians 13:13


~1993...our senior years.....just 3 short years before we will meet....~

~What a cutie!!~


This month marks a decade of my marriage to my sweet husband Lem. In honor of this monumental occasion, I will be posting a little something about him every day!! (or at least i hope to!)

Every day of this month I want to tell one thing about him that makes him so special. I will do this until the 26Th, which is our anniversary. So, here is today's tidbit...

In the beginning......circa July 1996.

Lem and I had met twice in Athens before we started dating. From the get-go i was enamored with Lem. I thought he was HILARIOUS, and we just had this instant connection. We did not start dating , because I had another boyfriend at the time. However, I remember the very first night that we met. He had come to a party at my friends apartment with some other friends that we had invited to this party. When we first met, I just remember that we were outside talking, and talking, and talking. It was really cold outside, and he held my hands because they were so cold. Looking back, neither one of us wanted to get up to go inside where it was warm, because we were just enjoying each other so much. It was very sweet and innocent, just like we were old friends. He ended up falling asleep on the couch at the apartment in Athens, and went home the next morning. He said that when he woke up, I had my hair up in a pony tail..go figure..and i was vacuuming...go figure again. ;)

We saw each other one more time after that several months later, and again i had a boyfriend(good grief!)...so nothing came of it...until....

{Sidebar.....Before that time circa 1994-1995...I remember so vividly my friend Kim Stone Jaynes telling me that I had to meet this guy named Lem. She thought that we would make the perfect match. Kim knew him from another group of our friends. By some weird chance, we had not met. We both hung out with the same group of friends at times, but for some reason we always missed each other. He had always "just left" when I had arrived somewhere. Funny, how the timing just wasn't quite right....until...}

By a fluke, we all met up in Athens one night to hang out. I had called his roommate, whom I had dated in the past...(but at that point his roommate and I were just friends...thanks goodness!), and asked them if they wanted to hang out with us. So, shortly after, they met us out for a night on the town.

Little did I know that Lem would be coming along! From the moment we met up with them that night, Lem and I were instantly a pair. It was like nobody else was there but the two of us. Alas, I had no boyfriend to get in the way!! The timing was finally right. After a long night out, we were all sitting around laughing and talking at one of the bars downtown...i believe it was Washington Street...and Lem says..

"Hey, Jill. Guess what"

"What?" I say.

"I just won $1,000 in Vegas, and I want to take you anywhere you want to go."

Shocked, i say..."Anywhere?"

"Anywhere, baby." he replied...can't you just hear him saying that????!!!

(sidebar...he really had won a thousand dollars in Las Vegas the month before on his 21st birthday..)

Keep in mind...this is the FIRST time that he asked me out! I started laughing, I thought that was the most adorable line in the world!! Not to mention, he said this in front of ALL of my friends and his friends. The guy had guts. Although, I am sure that the alcohol helped with his confidence! :)

Another thing that won me over was that he had an artist draw a picture of me in that bar the same night. I thought it was the most romantic gesture ever! We still have the picture somewhere..probably in the basement. I will see if i can scrounge it up. Granted, it looks nothing like me, but it was still just the sweetest thing ever!

Well, our "anywhere" date that he had promised ended up being at Country Fest! I LOVED country music, and he did NOT. But he knew that I wanted to go, and he took me! From that point on, we were stuck together like glue.

He was so different from anyone that I had ever dated, because he was just so real. He never played games, he was just himself. He was never shy about telling me how much he liked me either....what girl wouldn't love that?? I remember telling my mom that he was like Brad Pitt and Jim Carrey rolled into one guy. I was in LOVE!! My favorite thing about him was his beautiful blond hair and those blue eyes. Of course, his little country accent was the topping on the cake for me. I was smitten!!!

Okay, enough for now..that was a little more than one thing...but i had to tell the story of how we became "Lem and Jill".

More to come...stay tuned for the next episode.......