Day 3: Your idea of the perfect first date

Read forward if you dare. I have lots of words saved up for this one.

I've only had one first date and it seemed pretty perfect to me. Before I met James I had three boys in my life and wasn't really interested in any of the human nature. There was Rio, the appy I was showing for experience; Jet, the pinto I was leasing; and Justin, the only horse I actually owned who was only a yearling at the time.

I was set up with James when I went to his mom to get a showmanship outfit made for an appy show I was doing with Rio. As my trainer Kathy and I were leaving my first fitting, James' mom mentioned to Kathy, "you know James is single." Kathy pushed me back into the house and I was shown pictures of James. He was so gorgeous I knew I had no chance. She asked if she could give James my number and I said sure. Not really thinking anything would come of it.

Me, Rio and the showmanship outfit

My second fitting was rescheduled so me and James would get to meet. With much coaxing from his dad he finally came down to say hi, shook my hand then headed off into the garage. He was more stunning in person. My perfect example of tall, dark and handsome. At that time he was lifting and was 6'5" and 270lbs. I was sure I'd never see him again.

A couple weeks later while working at Cookies By Design I got a call from Kathy. She was all excited and told me to be prepared for a call from James. Within 5 minutes I had another call from my now mother-in-law asking me if it would be okay for James to call me later that night. That night he did call and asked me if I could go out that night. First we went bowling. We both sucked but the conversation was effortless. It was like we'd known each other for years. After bowling we went to Red Robin for dinner. Still not tired of each other we went to a movie. We saw American Pie 2. 

After the second date (to the Puyallup Fair) we fell pretty hard for each other. This September that first date will have been 10 years ago. I still can't believe how lucky I am.