I want to hold your hand...

i could totally make this into a long drawn-out story, but i'll just cut to the chase.

my family moved to Phx in 04. I had briefly been introduced to Mr. Ramen, whose family goes to the church that my dad currently pastors in Phx a few months prior to then. we were NOT into each other when we first met. but we somehow became friends anyways. after i graduated from UCI (goooo anteaters!), i moved to Phx since i had no plans for the future. mr. ramen and i started hanging out on a regular basis, and were both involved with a christian campus ministry at ASU. i was never really interested in him, since he IS younger than me... but we just clicked! and at some point, we both started getting mixed signals from each other. we both confided in a mutual friend (one of mr. ramen's groomsmen, D) who decided to try to mastermind us together.

---> funny tangent!: mr. ramen and i had played a practical joke on this same friend, D about a year before we started dating. we were both on AIM, chatting with him at the same time (i think we were actually sitting next to each other, giggling) and telling him that we liked each other and didn't know what to do. he was freaking out completely! funny how the tables turned and this scenario actually became reality!<---

after a month of agonizing wondering, one thing led to another, and i found myself having dinner at a random middle eastern restaurant with mr. ramen, who was acting funny. we DTR'd that night... and the rest is history! we've been inseparable ever since.

around the time when mr. ramen finally said those magical 3 words to me!

early on in our relationship, we decided that that particular 4-letter word was used too easily and frequently to really mean anything if there wasn't any real commitment to back it up. we didn't want to just throw "iloveyous" around and have them eventually mean nothing. i had seen so many girl friends hurt by guys who told them that they loved them but then left them, and i didn't want to allow myself to get too attached to mr. ramen if he wasn't going to be there for me in the long run. and thankfully, he felt the same way - although he really wanted to say it to me waaaay before the proposal! we actually had originally planned on saving our first kiss for that moment too.... but uhhhhhhhh. we were reallly close, but we like each other too much (and i was moving out of state for opto school). haha. and let's just say we are REALLY looking forward to the wedding night!

when did you and your mr first say "i love you"? how do you keep those words meaningful?