Everything

My life-long friend, Arthur was getting married. Weddings are fun, but the Athens were like our 2nd family so of course a wedding weekend with them was going to be an awesome time. We were thrilled. A few days before we drove down for the wedding Christina, Arthur's older sister, told me their forever-friend who I've always heard stories about, Niki, was going to make it to the wedding. She said she was excited for us to meet because we are two of her favorite people and even though both Nik and I have known the Athens all of our lives, we had never really met each other.
She sent me this video:

 and told me he would be adding to the fun this weekend. After watching this I was curious...

So we get to the hotel, after driving forever from New York to Virginia. I had that grubby "been-inside-a-car-too-long" look going on. Naps along the way were giving my awesome sloppy bun an eccentric hair-do. But we were there for our Athens, so I wasn't worried about what I looked like. We got there and hugs all around, 11 in there fam and 9 in ours, plus in-laws, so lots of hugs went around. We were catching up in the hallway of the hotel when I looked up and saw a guy in a plaid cowboy shirt walking down the hallway. He had very little hair, like an buzz cut that had grown out a little, and a beard that almost matched in length. I looked back at Katherine who was telling me a story and then back up at him, and then it hit me, "oh this is Nik!"
But I wasn't going to make it obvious that I knew him, he didn't know me, so I just pretended to listen to Katherine (sorry Katherine, but I was soooo distracted) until Christina "interrupted" our conversation by introducing Nik to me. Just a quick hello, but I knew right there that Christina was right, Nik was going to make this weekend even more fun.
We all hung out that night, went to some drug stores and then Wal-Mart for some drinks and headed up to Arthur's room where we all just talked and celebrated Arthur's last night as a single man. Nik's sense of humor was the first thing that caught my eye. So sarcastic and quick. He also enjoyed guinness (one of my favorite beers) and though he hadn't had StarCrunches before, as soon as he tried one, after I insisted we buy them to go with our beer, he liked them a lot.
A little crush was starting to form.

The next day we all met downstairs for the free breakfast in the hotel lobby. I walked down in a t-shirt and sweat pants. So again, not looking my best. But not worried about it. I was still just here with "Family" However looking back, Nik got to see the real side of me right away. So we eat and then head upstairs to help the wedding party get all ready. So many funny and great moments that day. When the wedding party was ready and on their way we decided to get ready too. Nik came up to me and asked me if he should wear a tie or a sweater or both. I told him he should probably wear a tie, since it seemed like a fancy wedding, but the sweater might be nice too. (I was so helpful) we agreed that we'd meet up at the lobby, since he was here by himself, and I had my family to go with.

He had a car, so he said he'd follow us, and on the way to the church, we totally lost him. We got there a good 10 mins before him and the whole time I felt awful... so when he walked into the church I walked over and told him how bad I felt. He just laughed (such a good sense of humor) and told me he can take a hint. That if I really didn't want to sit with him, I could have just told him. I shook my head and sat with my fam, and he went and sat with Scott.

The wedding was beautiful and we were all so excited that Arthur had found such a great lady. We all met up again at the reception site, claimed two large tables for our gangs and were enjoying the social hour while we waited for the wedding party to arrive. My brother-in-law Glenn was picking up on Nik giving me a little extra attention and told Leanne (my sister) that he would go up to him and tell Nik to back off if I wasn't interested. Leanne asked me to go to the bathroom with her, girl code for: we need to talk. And told me all of this. I was surprised that anyone could see that he might like me, but remember looking at her through the mirror and said Glenn better not!

The wedding party arrived and then the fun started. Food, drinks, dancing etc. Nik was in Ranger School at the time, where they don't really eat that much, so he was literally scrapping everyone's plates clean. I remember him asking me if I wanted the rest of my cake, and looking like he really wanted it, so I said he could have it. I had no idea he was in Ranger School or what that meant, so I thought he just really liked to eat. Ha.
The starving Ranger got a nice plate of fruit at one point, and it looked good so I went to get mine. He noticed I didn't have any berries on my plate and asked me if I didn't like them.
"They were all gone."
When he heard this he instantly put his last very large blackberry on my plate. "Here. These are really good." I ate it with a smile thinking how cute he was... not knowing he was starving and not knowing how much he ADORES berries. This remains one of my favorite Nik moments.

The evening continued and my fam was ready to leave. I wasn't so I said I would get a ride home to the hotel, assuming Christina's fam would be able to help me with that. Nik overheard and offered to drive me back when we were ready since we were staying at the same hotel. He had offered Nissa (a friend) a ride too, so it was no big deal.
Micheal Buble's Everything started to play:

and all the couples went to the dance floor to dance. The evening was almost over and I hinted like crazy that this was one of my favorite songs... however, instead of Nik picking up that we should dance, he was caught up on the fact that I said I liked Micheal Buble. Arthur and Emily left and then so did we. Nissa sat in the back, and is deaf, so really couldn't partake in the conversation since it was dark and she wasn't able to read our lips. So Nik and I talked. The conversation went from music (and how much I needed to learn) to movies to how stupid girls can be to deeper conversations like faith, the importance of family and both of our desires to have our own some day and then somehow back to my poor taste in music. As we got out of the car, Nik said "Its okay, I will help you learn what good music sounds like." Little did I know he was being serious...

Back at the hotel we didn't want the fun to end, so everyone decided to go to IHOP. I believe it started with us being too loud in the hotel room and me making an announcement that I would like to eat pancakes. So after midnight we all headed to a hysterical meal at IHOP.

In the morning we all met at the pool for "Pool Church." It was Sunday so Mr. Athens asked if we could claim the pool area for a little service. We sang a few songs and he spoke and then my dad prayed. Then it was time for us Gagnon's to hit the road. Another swarm of hugs and goodbyes. Then I turned to Nik, I gave him a hug and said "So I guess we'll find each other on facebook or something?" I didn't want to ask for his number, but definitely liked him at this point. He said "oh yeah, that sounds good. I'm really glad we got to meet this weekend." And moved on to hug other people.

I was crushed. Here I thought we had something, but apparently I was just misreading his friendliness. So I climbed into the car bummed. Dad wanted to show us Quantico, while we were in VA, so we took a little pit stop at his old Marine stopping grounds, and while we were looping through, my phone rang. It was Andrew, the 3rd Athens. He asked me "what did you think of my boy Nik?" I said he was great. "So if I were to give him your number you'd be okay with that?" I asked Andrew what was going on. He told me Nik had asked him if he had my number, but that he wanted to check with me before he handed it out. Good ol' Andrew.  I told him GIVE IT TO HIM, and tried to sound cool and like whatever. But I'm sure Andrew could hear me smiling over the phone.
A few mintues later I got a text... and the entire drive home we texted back and forth. I was beaming.
Over the next 3 days we chatted on instant messenger or skype, till late in the night and when we weren't on the computer we were texting. He told me he was going back to Ranger School and wouldn't have his phone or a computer, but he said we could write letters and that he would call me on the pay phone when he could.
The morning before he left, I got up a little early and called him. I told him I just wanted him to hear me say that I'd be praying for him and that I was looking forward to letters. He was so glad I called. After we chatted a bit, he had to go. His last text to me before he headed out to Ranger School was: "Are you the perfect woman??" :)
So we wrote letters from January to May. And the first weekend of May, that year, Christina and I joined his family to watch him graduate. Another amazing weekend of fun... but this time, when it was time to say goodbye I got to say goodbye to my boyfriend. He shook my hand, I gave him a puzzled look, until I realized he had put a Ranger Tab (what they earn upon completing Ranger School) in my hand and said "You earned this."

Now, almost 5 years later, I get to call him my husband and be married to him every day. He still gets me with his great sense of humor and is constantly making me laugh. Plus now I get to watch him be a rockstar daddy to our Wes. I am extremely blessed with the best life.

So Happy 28th Birthday, Nik!
I love you.