this is us.

 taken from here.

1. tell us about you & your husband.

this is my blog so you already know me.
evan is my husband. the love of my life. we have some really exciting opportunities coming up this spring and i am currently soaking up every second of together time, since we will be seeing much less of each other come may. he loves africa and orphans and our two puppies and anything sports. he is very tall and he always tells me i am beautiful. he is a keeper.

2. how did you meet? tell us about your first date.

we met through my then-boyfriend who took me putt-putt golfing with a bunch of his friends. i drug along my two best friends because i didn't like to speak to people i didn't know and i needed comfort people. evan was there and he was SO annoying. being such a boy and being so loud. i ignored him the entire time and refused to even look in his general direction. a few weeks later then-boyfriend made me go to evan's house (again, brought along the besty) and watch a movie (saw) and we finally spoke. we found out we'd been going to the same church since forever, and we hung around the same group of people. and had never met. i decided he was an ok individual and he took this to mean that he should crash EVERY. SINGLE. DATE. my then-boyfriend and i had. i am not even kidding. he would not give up.

eventually then-boyfriend and i broke up and i was broken hearted and "ready to give up on love" (ohhhh 17-year-old larissa. you were so cute and naive) when evan swooped in. our first date was probably......watching dick and jane. or when he asked me to go make out with him. i'm telling you, he's a smooth criminal.

3. what was your opinion of relationships, love and marriage before meeting your husband?

i always wanted to get married and i always wanted him to be the sweetest, kindest, most loving human on this planet. i wanted him to have super curly hair (see above photo, he has since chopped it off), and i wanted him to look kind of ridiculous in a tux so that we could be super casual on our wedding day. i wanted him to be a singer and i wanted him to love my Lord and love to worship as much as i do. i know that if i would have made a check list of the things my husband HAD to be, evan would have checked off each and every box. every cheesy little thing, every huge, most important thing. check, check and check.

4. at what point in your relationship did you know you were in love?

i am a year older than evan so i was starting my freshman year of collage as he finished his senior year of high school. i had planned on going to a school two hours away and changed my mind literally 24 hours before orientation that summer. i was in denver at my cousin's wedding, sitting by the pool, chatting with him on instant messenger (oh, the glory days of AIM & MSN) and he was telling me he would love me no matter which school i chose (2 hours away school or school in town) and that he could see himself spending the rest of his life with me. at 17. i think my heart skipped a beat or maybe even stopped right then and there.

5. tell us about your engagement. (was elaborate, simple or have a special meaning?)

we had been talking about getting engaged for a while. we'd swoon over rings, fall in love all over again and continue dating. he bought my ring after i'd found "the one" and kept making excuses as to why he hadn't bought the ring. the night he bought my ring i was working as a server in a restaurant and he sat in my section and stared at me for a good 15 before my boss made him leave. he was acting super strange but i didn't think anything of it.

the night he asked my parents' permission i was babysitting. we had been texting back and forth and i said, "what are you doing? asking my parents' permission?" AS A JOKE. and guess what? he was! (PSYCHIC.) he told me later he thought that i had driven by and seen his car and freaked his freak a little bit.

weeks later he asked me to go on a walk with him to a little park we frequented that had the most gorgeous view of our city. i had to work that night and i wanted to say no, but i had been wanting to go forever, so i agreed. we walked to the edge and i told him i had to leave soon to get ready for work. we stood there for a while just being quiet and being together when he started to pull something out of his pocket. i totally acted like i didn't see it, mostly because i didn't want to be disappointed if it wasn't a ring.

it wasn't.

it was a ring pop. you have to know something about me: i hate suckers. hard candy. ring pops. but. when evan asked me to be his girlfriend (in that exact same spot) he gave me a ring pop. so he said something about how he wanted to marry me, and even though he couldn't buy my ring right now, he would and this was just a little promise of his love for me.

i was like, great, thanksbye, when he said, "why don't you open it? it's a new flavor." (for the record: it was cotton candy. sick.) i didn't want to be rude so i tried to open it and couldn't (i can't open anything. ever.) so he took it from me and ripped it open and i saw this little blue ribbon. i thought i had won something! (RING POPS 4 LYFE!) when all of the sudden he's down on one knee professing his love and asking me those four beautiful words. i didn't believe him (who would after that dirty trick?!) and he had a pretty rough time convincing me.

6. tell us about your wedding!

it was perfect. my best friend helped plan the entire thing with me, and my mom was my voice of reason and my DID YOU BUY YOUR CANDY FOR YOUR CANDY TABLE YET energizer bunny reminder. our venue was absolutely perfect and gorgeous. it accommodated our 500, yes FIVE HUNDRED guests. INSANE. it rained.  my bridesmaids were the most beautiful best friends i could ask for. evan DID not wear a tux, he wore a suit. my flower girl was the cutest flower girl you've ever seen. she stood up with us the entire time and did not smile once.  we danced and partied all night. we felt so much love from all our family and friends, it makes me teary-eyed to think about how much love they showered us with. we took communion as a married couple and flies mated on our bread. gross. our friend michael sang "beautiful" by shawn mcdonald and i told evan to "shut up" mid prayer (he was praying over us) so i could listen to our song. michael and his sister also played the cello and violin as our in and out songs. most beautiful music i've ever heard.

7. what song did you dance to for your first dance?

then by brad paisley. i love country, what can i say?

8. do you have any goals as a married couple?

about a million, approximately. we want to adopt. we want to travel the world. we want to be a role model for our friends and their relationships.

but for me? my goal is to never utter an angry word about evan to anyone. it is so easy to get caught up in gossip and it can so easily turn ugly. i have made it my priority to not speak ill of him. especially to my family, to his family, to our friends and in the future, to our children. i once heard someone say, "i never heard my mom say anything bad about my dad." and i thought that was the sweetest testament of love. and i promised myself, evan and those future bebe's that that would be me.

9. any advice for newly engaged or newly wed couples?

don't ever stop dating. just because you're married, or almost married doesn't mean your love ends. don't let it grow stale. make time for each other and include each other in your lives. do sweet, unexpected things for each other CONSTANTLY. forgive and allow yourself to be forgiven.

10. has your opinion of love changed since your relationship started?

very much. this isn't just some high school relationship. this is for keeps. we always treated our relationship like it was destined for marriage; not because we're some high and mighty couple expecting love to fall into our laps, but because we wanted it to last. i know that the love we have is completely different than the relationships i had with my high school boyfriends. i know that treating a relationship like it's end result is marriage will get your far more with your significant other, than just having fun because you're lonely.

11. where do you see yourselves in 10 years individually and as a married couple?
as a couple: we'll have lots of bebe's (our own + adopted. LOTS.).  we'll be 100 times more in love and we'll look back on today, when i didn't think i could love him any more and we'll laugh. i have no goals for my professional life or our location. we'll be where He wants us to be.

individually: mama. wife. lover. friend.