Pumped About Sharing our Firsts!

Hello lovelies! I'm so excited this morning, because today is finally the day mine and Hallie's link-up starts! We've been talking about it since the middle of December or so, and I've been pumped ever since then! So here's the deal - and it's an easy deal, so don't be worried: every Tuesday for a couple of weeks or so, we're going to do a First Things First link-up!

We'll do different "firsts" every week, and we want y'all to write posts about that week's "firsts", and then link-up with us, obviously! (Your links will appear on both of our blogs.) All we ask is that you follow both of our blogs, add our button to your post or blog somewhere, and visit some other blogs from the link-up to share some love! We're looking forward to meeting new friends and reading y'alls posts. This should be fun!

This week is: First Job, First Car and First Date!

First Job!

 I worked for one summer at a craft store that was going out of business, and it sucked. It was called Ben Franklin crafts, and was like a medium-sized Michael's. The managers  were rude and the other employees were mean, and the job just sucked. I mean, think about all the crazy amounts of tiny things at a craft store. Well, if people brought them to the register but didn't want to buy them, I had to put those away at the end of the day. Horribly tedious and horribly boring.

Then one day I called in to get my schedule for the next week, and they were just like, "Oh, we won't be needing you anymore." And I was like, "Thank goodness!" It did keep me busy for a couple of months that one summer before my junior year of high school, but it pretty much sucked. And since then, I've avoided retail work of any kind, at all costs. I think those couple months at the craft store gave me more than my fill of retail work for life!

First Car! 

1996 Chrysler Sebring Convertible, Sabrina, who I absolutely adored! And here's the story... my birthday is the end of January (as most of you know since I've been blabbing about my goals of 25 Before 25 for quite some time now), but I didn't get this car for my birthday. When I turned 16, I was graciously given my Grandmother's old Chrysler Concorde to drive for however long it took my parents to find me a car. You see, I had wanted this specific car since I was at least 12, and I wanted it bad. I don't even know what it was about it that I loved so much, but I really did.

So I drove my Grandmother's car for almost three months, and then I was stupid and got my first speeding ticket. I was going 45 in a 30 on my way to school one morning. I got pulled over, I was sobbing like an idiot, and my 13-year-old little sister calmly hands me the registration as for real I'm freaking out. So after the ticket, I got my driving privileges taken away, and my mom was like, "I'm definitely not buying you a car after that! You're not responsible enough and you haven't shown me you can handle it!"

So I was of course devastated - for about a week or so.

But then not even two weeks later, I came home one Wednesday night after youth (I was allowed to drive to church only), and the garage door was closed. I couldn't get it open with my remote, so I called my parents from the driveway. Then all of a sudden the door went up, and inside sat this little beauty! I literally freaked out, jumped out of the Grannymobile and ran down the driveway crying and in full freak-out mode! My sister and I immediately hopped in, and we took it for a spin around the block, with the balloons still flying behind us. It was incredible. :) I still wasn't allowed to actually drive it for a couple of weeks since I was still on restrictions and all, but once it was finally time - I was in love with this car! I drove it until right before my sophomore year of college, at which time she was too old to be reliable anymore, and sadly I had to trade her in.

The day I got my car! I came home and they opened the garage door to this, and I started crying I was so happy!

The last day I owned the Sebring, and her final goodbye kiss...

First Date!

I don't actually have many "first date" stories, because Jeff is actually the only "real" boyfriend I've had. So, I'm just going to share my first date story with him! Most of y'all may not know because most of y'all are fairly  new around here, and probably missed my post about us back in August for our one year dating anniversary, but Jeff and I met through an online dating site! We both rated each other with high stars, and he sent me a message just five days after I first signed up! We first messaged and emailed a lot for about a week. Then we moved to phone calls and texts for a week, and then we decided it was finally time go on a date. So he invited me to a super romantic, work-day lunch at Zaxby's on a random Tuesday. Haha, but he did at least pay! ;) 

I had been pretty nervous driving across town to meet him, but then once we sat down and started talking, it just came so easy! I don't want to sound cliche, or like I'm writing my own commercial for online dating success, but it really was great! We already knew so much about each other because of all the questions and "surveys" and stuff we did on the dating site. We had so many things to talk about, and we did just that! We talked about road trips, and food we liked, and movies, and our jobs, and so many other things. When that quick hour was up, I didn't want to leave him yet! We still had so much more to talk about, and I couldn't wait to learn more about him. Plus, I wouldn't mind staring at the cute, freckly face of his for a little while longer! I went back to work and couldn't stop thinking about him. We texted more all that afternoon, and talked later that night. Things went so well, we then had two more lunch dates that week! 

That first lunch date was May 31, 2011. We dated all summer through June and July, and then finally made it "official" boyfriend/girlfriend status on August 10, 2011! And this is our first picture we ever took together, in July of that summer, at the birthday party for his twins - and although I think he looks a bit awkward and I look a bit uncomfortable, I promise we really did like each other at this point :)

Now, go write your own First Things First post! Just grab our button below, and link up with us to be included on both of our blogs!

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