It all started in the good 'ol Lone Star State. The year was 1998, I was 9 and he was 12. My family had just moved to an Air Force base in Wichita Falls, TX. We weren't super excited about that move {we thought we would be moving back east somewhere}. All anyone had told us about Wichita Falls was that you have to check your shoes and sheets for spiders and scorpions, that is was dreadfully hot in the summer, and there was ABSOLUTELY nothing to do there. Sounds fun, yes?
J's family lived in the same base housing neighborhood that we moved into and were in our ward. His mom was my primary chorister through most of the two years. SIDE NOTE: If any of you don't know, J has a twin, James. Identical. Especially when they were younger. With that being said, my young 9 year old self couldn't tell the difference between the two of them, so I just decided to love them both. From afar of course. What 12 year old boy would pay attention to a 9 year girl? None, hopefully. J&J actually "went out" with a few of my babysitters. Weird?
We lived there for two years, and then my family was moved to Cheyenne, WY, and J's family was moved to Utah a little while later. The next chunk of life was spent apart so I won't bore you with the deets. I will say though, that I always kept the Ruesch twins in the back of my mind, my first loves. Well, actually that was a missionary that I forced to marry me in my living room when I was 4, but that's another story for another time.
Eventually, my family ended up moving to Utah and so did a couple of the other families that were in our ward in Texas, including the Rueschs. When I was in 7th grade we had a big get together with those Texas families. J&J were there...and so were the two of my babysitters that they had dated {plus some others}. HA! They had stayed friends throughout the years. I was just the young one that followed them around that day. Of course, loving and admiring the two of them from afar. I know this sounds convenient, but I really did start taking more of a liking to my J during that reunion. The night ended and the Ruesch's announced that they were being moved to North Carolina, and to say that I was devastated would be the understatement of the year. You see, during this reunion, I had decided that I was going to marry J, and I devised a whole plan in my naive 13 year old mind on how to do it. Obviously, this move would drastically throw wrench into things. So, I left broken hearted. That didn't stop me from writing "Jeremy + Chelsea" or "Chelsea Ruesch" on my lined notebook paper for the next few weeks though. Admit it girls, you ALL did it!
The years passed and I eventually let go of my Mrs. Chelsea Ruesch dreams. I finished up middle school, high school and was about ready to make my way to SLC to attend the University of Utah in 2007. A couple of weeks before I took off to my "big kid" life I went with my mom to a wedding reception of one of the girls we knew from Texas. She asked me if I wanted to go, not really expecting me to say yes {I was in a super selfish stage and just wanted to be with my friends}. Well, I said yes right away. A reason to "coincidentally" run into my long lost love Jeremy Ruesch? Yes please.
We arrived at the reception, greeted the bride and her family, and sat down to visit. The whole time I was scanning for a Ruesch, any Ruesch, but there were none to be found. Disappointing. Then, as my mom and I were refilling our punch {or something} James walked up with his girlfriend {now wife and one of my besties} to say hello and introduce us. Another thing you have to know is that my mom has a big fat mouth. The first thing that she said was "Oh, hi James. Chelsea just had the biggest crush on you growing up. But, looks like you're taken, darn" Okay, not in those exact words, but pretty close and just as embarrassing. So I was stumbling over my words, trying to explain that "no, mom, I had a crush on Jeremy, bla bla bla" It was painful. But then I managed, "Oh speaking of Jeremy, is he here?" James then informed me that J was still on his mission in Paraguay, and wasn't even going to be back until November. Disappointment again. So, I left it at that, very red-faced.
Later that summer, I packed up my room and was off to the U. I was in heaven from the moment I got there. I loved living on my own {as much as you can live on your own in a dorm room}, learning about things I actually liked, and being part of a sorority, which brought many new friends, endless things to do, and NEW boys. I won't lie, that was probably one of my favorite parts. But, you see my friends, I had a paradigm shift from the days of middle school to my days up at the U. Instead of wanting to be Mrs. Chelsea Whoever, I just wanted to date as much and as many as possible. Okay, this next part makes me sound like a jerk, but it is relevant to the story. Anytime I felt like a boy was getting clingy, too serious too fast, or just annoying me I would stop talking to him completely{avoid, ignore calls, texts, etc.}and start dating his friend or something. Obviously this worked out great, especially with the guys that I lived 3 doors down the hall from. NOT. Yes, I was that girl. No, I'm not proud of it. It's embarassing, the things I was able to justify in my 18 year old mind.
This next part is also not my most favorite part of our story, because it involved the notorious Facebook. But it is what it is, right?
Into my second semester of my freshmen year I was sitting on my bed chatting with my roomie, Jessie. I was creeping on facebook, probably looking for fresh man meat {yes, I was creepy} when I noticed that I had a new message waiting. I opened it up and let out probably the highest pitched squeal that had ever surfaced out of my body. It was from J. I was literally walking on cloud 9 telling Jessie our story. J wrote me on March 6th, asked for my number March 8th, asked me on a date March 9th, and then went on our first date March 14th. I'm not going to lie our first date was the second worst date I've ever been on, but I was blinded by love, so I didn't care. My first worst date {1st date ever}involved Hooters {the restaurant, not the chest} and the Exorcism of Emily Rose. Again, another story for another time. Anyway, our date was so bad that I'm pretty sure that there was no way I would ever hear from that boy again. Well, I did, thank goodness.
Our subsequent dates consisted of me telling him that he couldn't kiss me, I didn't want a boyfriend, even if you are THE Jeremy Ruesch, and I wasn't getting married until I was at least 30.
Did you guys know that I got married at 19 and 1/2?
So what did we learn from this story folks? Well, I think it shows that we're both persistent, patient and stubborn little buggers {me in the beginning and him in the end}. I would also like to think that I was flaky to all those guys because they just couldn't measure up to THE Jeremy Ruesch. {that still doesn't excuse my jerkiness, huh?} But most importantly, I learned that we are soul mates, and soul mates always find there way to each other, no matter how long it takes.
All in all, I think we totally beat the odds. I mean, I did wait 10 years for the boy to finally come around and he patiently coaxed my into being his girlfriend, fiance, wife at then ripe old age of 19.
In the words of Barney Stinson, "it was legen...wait for it...dary."
Maybe for our next anniversary I'll write about the proposal. That's a good one too.
Happy 3 years buns!
I'm still so happy that you picked me.
All my love, always.
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