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Unexpected Love Story Part 3 – New Home, New Future

I’ve known Bruce for almost 12 months now, yet it seems like much longer. There are so many reasons we fell in love. I want to backtrack a little bit and tell you some of the things I love about Bruce and about our story.

Bruce treats me like a queen. He always opens the car door for me, even if I’m the one driving! And he tells me I’m beautiful every day.

Our favorite thing to do is anything we do together. It doesn’t need to be anything fancy. We genuinely enjoy spending time together! And Bruce loves his children, which is another reason I love him! When we first started dating he pulled out a picture of he and his girls at one of the Freedom Elementary father-daughter dances. I pulled up a picture of Patrick and my girls at the same dance! Denny was also there with his girls! Such a small world!

In early February we visited our first model home. As I mentioned in my last post, we went there to get ideas for my remodel. Bruce took me to the Granville models to show me one of his favorite models, the “Bella”. We looked at all of their models and as we walked around we discussed the things we both wanted in our next home. We originally wanted a one story home, with at least 4 bedrooms, a walk-in pantry, 3-car garage, a makeup vanity for me, and of course, lots of space to have family over. I always thought I would downsize and we both thought we were a little ridiculous for looking at bigger houses. In the end we decided we wanted space for the kids, even if they’re not here much. And we wanted a great house for having family get togethers in. So we bought a large Wathen Castanos “spec” home. It was still being built but close to being done. We didn’t get to pick any finishes but we loved everything about it!

The last 6 months have been a whirlwind of activity and that’s why I haven’t blogged much. Getting my house ready for paint and flooring and putting both houses on the market took a ton of time. I’ll write more about the whole process but I wanted to catch you up on everything!

Bruce’s house sold first and he was waiting for that to happen in order to make a particular purchase. He was out of town when it closed. When he got back in town we went to look at rings and we were both impatient so he bought it on June 30th. I still consider our first model home visit the true proposal! When we got in the car I asked him to put the ring on my finger. Then we FaceTimed my dad so he could officially ask his permission. The camera was on Bruce and when my dad said “of course” I turned it to me and said, “Good answer!” as I waved my ring at him! Two weeks later we got the keys to our new home and moved in that Saturday. On Monday, July 15th I started my counseling practicum. Who knew so many wonderful things could happen at the same time? We haven’t really begun planning…once I get more settled in at work and unpacked at home we can work on wedding plans…and maybe take a nap!

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Unexpected Love Story – Part 2 – Meet the Family

I am the first to admit that dating me is a lot! Bruce is an only child and only grandchild so it was somewhat of a culture shock when he met my family. He actually met the teNyenhuis side first! I tried to introduce him to small groups at a time but that is a challenge when we spend so much time together. After a month of dating he met all of my siblings and helped us move into the beach house. I introduced him and he was immediately put to work carrying furniture up stairs and putting things together. We still had things to buy so I left him with the guys while Dawan and I went shopping for a few hours. He likes to say I left him for 10 hours but don’t believe him!

Everyone seemed to like him and that made me very happy! But I knew things were going well when I overheard Tom talking to my Dad the next morning. The conversation was something like this, “We we’re trying to do … then Bruce said… we did this… Bruce thought we could… Bruce suggested…”. You get the picture, he fit so seamlessly into the family!

Then he met more family. Then I took him to the Boyles family reunion, then Ravioli Day. He was proud when he could remember a few names and then I would introduce him to more. We spent Christmas Eve and morning with my family and then I took him to Prandini Christmas. After each big event I gave hm space to decompress. And then he was always ready to meet more people!

Boyles Family Reunion!

In September I had a small flood at my house and it was in a state of disrepair for months. I couldn’t decide what to do. Should I have it repaired? Should I have additional work done? I thought about doing a kitchen remodel and Bruce suggested I get ideas from model homes. He told me he enjoyed visiting the models and there were a few he really liked. We had a blast looking at the models and I found myself imagining what the future might hold. Then he asked if I might like to buy a house together. I’m sure I had a big grin on my face when I told him that I would love that! Then he added that of course he would want to marry me! My grin got even bigger!

We started looking at more houses and I decided not to remodel my kitchen. Instead I started getting it ready to sell.

Even before the conversation at the model home we had talked hypothetically about moving in together. Bruce’s house was nice but it had limited parking and that would not work for family get-togethers! My house made more sense but I worried that it would be hard for Bruce to feel like it was his home. We decided it would be better to move to a house that was ours together.

Next step, find our new home. I’ll tell you all about it in my next post!

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Unexpected Love Story Part 1 – We Meet

A year after Patrick died I wrote about my experience so far. In One Year Later I described what it felt like to be going on a familiar path and then having everything change in the blink of an eye. I tried to describe how, in the midst of so much sadness, there were still moments of unexpected happiness.

As I entered the second year I started thinking about dating. I have to say that I probably had the idea that I would find someone I was comfortable with, who would be a good companion. They might have faults but I would put up with them because I hated being alone. I didn’t even dare to hope that I would actually find someone I could truly love!

Bruce and I met on OK Cupid last August. I don’t remember who contacted the other first but we not swiped right and started talking on Monday, August 13th (Happy Birthday Shayna Danell 😉). Here is one of his profile pics. I love that it says we like each other!

I seem to remember that we switched to phone calls early on, which I really enjoyed. His profile said he lived in Clovis so I asked him what part of town and he told me his cross streets were Ashlan and Locan and those also happen to be my cross streets! 👀 👀 I think I might have actually looked out the window at that point. 😂 Fortunately he wasn’t a stalker and had lived just across Locan from me for the last 4 years. In fact we have lived less than a mile from each other for the last 16 years. Our kids were in different grades but went to all the same schools together! We made plans to go to dinner that Saturday night but as that got closer I suggested that we meet for coffee on Friday. I met him at Starbucks and we were so comfortable that he suggested we go to dinner. He gave me the option of taking separate cars but of course I wanted to ride in his cute little convertible!

The next night he picked me up for the dinner date we had originally planned. Once again, we were enjoying each other’s company so much that we decided to extend the date and go see a movie (Crazy Rich Asians). From that point on we talked multiple times per day and saw each other almost daily, sometimes walking the short distance between our houses. Usually we would meet in the middle.

I want to get this story right so I decided to divide it up into several parts. I will post more tomorrow!