December 12, 2003 was my last first date ever. I met Phil some time in November of 2003. We typically saw each other in the cafeteria or the student center, and after a few random meetings and conversations, we started leaving together to go on walks and talk. It didn’t seem like anything too intense, but it was fun and we got along easily and quickly. The 12th of December that year was a Friday, and we had seen each other in the cafeteria each day that week and then went to hang out together after dinner each evening. That Friday, though, when I bumped in to him (I can’t remember if it was for lunch or dinner… perhaps it was lunch?) I asked if he wanted to hang out again that night and he said yeah. I gave him my phone number, since all of our time spent together up to that point had happened only since we had randomly met up with each other. I honestly assumed we would just meet up and walk around together again, but he called me a little while later and said we were going to a movie and then to get coffee with his roommate and another girl (to this day he swears I asked him out on that date, which is fine with me for him to think that seeing as how everything worked out well from then on, but I wasn’t intending to ask him on a “date” date, I thought we would just hang out again). I got super excited, got myself all fixed up, then waited for him to pick me up. He came, smelling like a freshly-showered, freshly-shaved, freshly-cologned super handsome guy. He was waiting for me in the lobby of my dorm when I went down and I remember opening the door and seeing him look at me and smile. He opened my door for me when I got into the car where Beau and this weird girl named Erin were in the backseat. I said hello to everyone, then we headed to the theater. We saw the move “Stuck on You.” It was super random and we haven’t seen it since, but it was as good as any movie for a first date. When we sat down in our seats Phil grabbed my hand and held it through the whole movie, and he holds my hand all the way through movies today. 🙂 So to celebrate 10 beautiful years of dating my Love, I thought I’d share a list of 10 things (plus a few bonuses) that I love about my Phillip. I actually started writing this before the 12th of this month, but then I got busy and we were all so sick the past week or so that I haven’t had time to do anything constructive at all. So now for a super cheesy post that has the potential to make everyone say oh, brother!…and I don’t care! Elf had just come out around the time of our first date and when I got home from our first date I ran into the living room spinning in circles and shouted “I’m in love! I’m in love! and I don’t care who knows it!” And the same is true today, so here goes…
1. I love that he loves God. The life of a believer is an incredible one, and I love that I get to share my spiritual/religious journey with Phil. He is so deeply committed to his belief in God that is astounds me. While some things about faith are so simple and clear, other things are confusing and vague, and I am so grateful that I have my patient, loving, Christian husband to navigate this huge part of life with me.
2. I love watching and/or listening to him play with Asher. While I do not in any way think that a father’s role is more or less important than a mother’s, there really is something magical about the whole “guy” thing that they have going on. Before Phil is even in the door after coming home from work, Asher shouts out “DADA PWAY!!!!” and Phil is always more than happy to oblige. He gives me a quick hug and a kiss and a hello, takes off his shoes and sets down his stuff, then chases after Asher with a growling voice before tossing him around in a way that makes (me nervous) Asher laugh hysterically. Then there are the sweeter, softer moments when I hear Phil reading Asher his Bible, or singing to him, or talking to Asher about “how beautiful Mommy is.”
3. I love that he is a hard worker. When he has extra work to do, he spends his weekends and evenings with me and Asher until we go to bed, then he’ll burn the midnight oil to get caught up on work. He gets up early and gets himself either to his office or to his desk (he works from home some times), which I respect a lot about him. I think I would have a much more difficult time being so disciplined if I set my own working hours. Another thing that I respect is just how much work he is juggling right now. I forget sometimes since he does spend a lot of time either home with me or out with me, but he is communicating with people all over the world on a daily basis for the journal, still practicing German and participating in German conversation groups, doing all kinds of odd jobs for his supervisor and his research agency, all while literally writing a freaking book. He’s pretty amazing, amiright?!
4. I love that he loves books. If I’m being honest I’ll go ahead and say that books have actually been a point of contention in our relationship. They are expensive and they… are… EVERYWHERE. I’m pretty sure Phil keeps Amazon in business. But regardless of how many books pile up in my bedroom, living room, closet, kitchen, etc., I know that Phil collects them because he values them, and that is good enough for me. They are important to him, so *gulp* they are important to me. And for however much I feel like we are drowning in books, it helps to know that reads every single one of them cover to cover.
5. Which brings me to my next point, I love that he is slightly elitist. While this is kiiiind of a negative thing, Phil makes it a good thing because the man has high standards. This makes me feel good about myself, seeing as how I honestly believe that I must be pretty great for him to have chosen to be with me. He has high standards for everything. Don’t confuse “having high standards” with being materialistic, because he is certainly in no way materialistic (except maybe with his Apple products). He has exceptionally high standards for people and for ideas. He is incredibly loving and interested in the well-being of others, but he is slightly impatient with people who do not respect themselves or other people enough to do what is right. His “elitism” also allows him to maintain an interesting balance between being exceptionally open-minded AND exceptionally staunch in his beliefs. He is interested in truth and absolutely cannot be bothered by anyone who is only interested in being popular or edgy.
6. I love that he is hilarious. He has a kooky, dry sense of humor that often catches me off guard as he finds humor in some of the most random places. I feel like his goofiness is one of the last things he typically opens up to people, and I love that he shares it with me… all the time… even at 1 in the morning when I’m trying to sleep and he randomly blurts out something completely out of the blue that he finds funny when I thought he was asleep.
7. I love that he will watch, and even allow himself to enjoy television shows that I KNOW he would otherwise never even know existed and most definitely would never watch if I did not want to watch them. We have had lengthy discussions about shows like Project Runway and Glee and ABC Family movies, not because he is the type of person to be interested in those shows and movies, but because I am and he loves me and thinks I’m cool.
8. I love his friends. Seriously. He doesn’t have a million billion friends, but the friends that he has are truly great people and I love watching him interact with them. When I see him with his friends I like that I can see him being laid back, funny, interesting, and compassionate. And the people with whom he chooses to pursue/maintain friendships are very honestly good people that I feel very blessed to know.
9. I love that he loves his family. His whole family (including me and Asher and his Wood-side of the family), but in particular here I am talking about his first family: His parents, his sister and his brother. He is who he is because of his family and he values them all for the man they have helped him become, and for the people they are both as individuals and as “The Lasaters.”
10. I love that our relationship is important to him. He remembers the most random things about when we first met. He remembers what we wore on our first date. He remembers what I wore random times that he saw me before we knew each other. He remembers silly things that happened when we were just getting to know each other. He remembers things about our wedding and the vows we made. He remembers silly little places we’ve gone and things we’ve done together. He remembers these things because they were/are important to him, and I’m thankful for that. They were/are important to me too!
*Bonus* I love being his friend. Since the very beginning, our relationship has largely been based on conversation. We have always enjoyed sitting and talking with one another about everything from food, to our beliefs, to our favorite Spongebob moments. While I am so incredibly grateful for our desire and ability to talk so openly and often together, I’m also intensely grateful for the time we spend doing “nothing important” like kicking the crap out of each other on wrestling video games and taking turns trying to beat each other’s hula hoop records on Wii Fit together. He can seem pretty smooth in everyday life, but he is NOT graceful on the Wii Fit board and it’s all I can to do keep from passing out from laughter whenever he steps on that thing.
*Bonus* I love that he is super hot. Before I knew him I nicknamed him “Hot Guy” and would tell my roommate about my “Hot Guy” sightings each day. Now, 10+ years later, I still think/know he is the most beautiful man in the universe.
*Bonus* I love that he is committed to me. I don’t care if Gwen Stefani herself propositioned him, I know without a doubt that both his mind and body are wholly committed to only me. (I say Gwen Stefani because shortly after we started dating he told me that he thought she was hot and I got all huffy and puffy about it. Now it’s kind of a joke between us. haha) I also love that he knows I am committed to him. There is not a man alive that could take my eyes, thoughts, or body from Phillip, and I am so grateful that he trusts me. We have a peaceful relationship and home in large part because we trust each other.
This is our first pic together EVER. It’s terrible of me, but I love this pic anyway. We were at a playground with Kristen and Misha (I think that’s who we were with) on Beebee Capps somewhere in Searcy.
This was shortly after we started dating. Again we were with Kristen and Misha and I think someone else this day, because there were 3 of us crammed in the back seat. Anyway, we had been dating a very short time here and we were headed to Sugarloaf Mountain in Arkansas for a hike!
After we had been dating for several months Phil went on a trip with me and my family to Gatlinburg Tennesee. This is how we looked there.
This one is older than the last one, but I don’t know how to switch the order. This was after we had been dating a few short months. We went to Berryhill park and took a ton of pictures this day, and this has always been one of my favorites.
Fast forward a break-up and reunion, after about 3 years of dating, on January 10, 2007, Phillip asked me to marry him and I said YES!
Engagement pic:
I hate that I couldn’t find a wedding photo on my computer. I have them all on discs, so I’ll have to upload some soon or something. Just know that our wedding was absolutely perfect.
Fast forward a little more and we are pregnant! This is the day we found out that our little Love was a baby boy.
We added Asher Michael…
Rough times for me. I may have looked terrible, but my heart was overflowing with love from these two precious ones with me in this picture:
And this was us celebrating our anniversary this year!
Thank you, God, for my Phillip!
