First Time at Church

Our pediatrician advised us to keep Andrew out of public for the first 8 weeks. She said quick trips to places where he would not be around many people were fine, but church, daycare, anywhere where a lot of people would want to hold him were not good ideas. So, we followed that advice. He turned 8 weeks today, and we were so excited to get to take him to church!

Joey got him squeaky clean for his First Wesleyan debut:
Ready and waiting:

On the day that Joey and I found out that we were having a boy (2/25/10), we went to Target and bought two outfits. This is one of them, so I thought it would be special to wear on his first Sunday.

Here we are after the service. We sat in the "cry room" during the service. He was really good, though so we may try the sanctuary soon. He will eventually go to the nursery, but I am not quite ready for that.

There are some very special places in our church to our family. The first one is the student center stage where Joey proposed to me. On September 21, 2007, Joey decorated the entire student center with rose petals and candles. We went to the student center after dinner at my favorite restaurant (The Globe) to pick up chairs for tailgating--lie! When I walked in the student center, I saw the very first picture that we had ever taken together surrounded by candles, rose petals, and the first stanza of a poem that Joey had written. I had to follow a trail of candles and rose petals to get the next stanza, and continued the trail until I came to the stage. On the stage, there was a wedding cake with a G on it. Joey read the final stanza of the poem, got on one knee, and proposed! Then, we went back to my house and our family was there for a surprise party.

Here I am with my little man in the spot where his daddy proposed to his mommy! :)

The reason that Joey picked the student center for the proposal is because he is standing with Andrew in the spot where we met for the first time in the following picture.

Joey and I met in either April or May of 2005. I can't believe that I don't remember! I went on a mission trip with Andy in March 2005 to Mexico. I remember that Andy bought a HUGE sombrero (which now sits in our closet) for his roomate. I did not know who he was talking about, so I know that I did not know Joey at that point. My roomate (Amy Ridgeway) saw Joey at a softball practice, and we nicknamed him "Hot Guy #2."

Anyway, Joey denies the following story. I am POSITIVE :) that it is true!

After the "20 Something" service on a Monday night in either April or May of 2005, everyone was standing in front of the student center. Joey was with a group of boys on the sidewalk where he is in the picture, and I was talking with a group of girls. By this point, I knew who Joey was and that I wanted to meet him, but I was scared. I saw Andy walk up to the group with Joey and decided to go over to them because I felt comfortable knowing that Andy was there. When I walked up to the group of boys, Joey said..."Hey, you're a girl."
Of course, I laughed and said yes. He then said, "What would you think about seeing the movie Hitch for a date?" He was not asking in a way that made me think that he was asking ME out, but more so just asking for information. The guys in the group filled me in that he had a date with a beautiful girl and was trying to figure out what to do on the date. I told him that I thought that would be a good idea and introduced myself. After that, I didn't think much more about Joey...at least for several more months.

He ended up taking the other girl out, and I ended up dating someone else for a couple of months. Even during those months, I always thought that Joey was such a nice guy. We ended up going on our first date in August 2005.

Here is our family standing where we met: