A trip down memory lane

We went to Kirksville this weekend to see Mat and Marbree and to celebrate P's birthday (another post on that later).  They live in Kirksville where Mat is a doctor.  It is kind of fun to visit them so we can go back to Truman, our alma mater. 

We took the boys on Sunday morning to campus (we just didn't get up in time for church, plus the boys were snotty, plus 4 boys in a different church...not a good combination).  Can I just say how fun it was? 

Here is some background on us and Truman....
Nate and I met the first day of college.  His SA (or RA? whatever they were called) became a friend of ours who still goes to church with us.  He introduced Nate to me and said they were going over to a CCF event, did I want to go over with them?  I was planning on going anyway, but it sure was nice to have someone to go with.

We were good friends that first year.  I called him my "brother", and he thought I talked too much.  We both kind of dated other people, and there were no romantic feelings between us at all.  If you had told me I would marry him, I would have laughed!  He was the first person I went to when my grandpa died, though, and he had family in town (his aunt and uncle and their baby boy...now 14!).  We would hang out with them, and I think I even went down to his house for a weekend at some point.  There were a few of us who all hung out, not just me and Nate, but our roomies as well.  And for a laugh, here is one of the first pics taken of me and Nate, fall of 1996.  The second is over our spring break mission trip our freshman year (1997). 

By sophomore year we were still friends, but there was a bit more to it than that, but not...kind of that weird middle ground.  After our sophomore year we drove together to North Carolina to see his aunt and uncle and baby boy, who had moved.  That is when our relationship changed, and we were officially dating by the middle of that summer. 
We dated for a year, then he proposed at Thousand Hills State Park at the beginning of our senior year.  We got married a week after graduation. 
Since Nate was on a five year plan and I had one more year of my master's, we lived in Kirksville for our first year together.  Oh, the stories I could tell you about the slanted shanty, our first house.  That is a whole different post though! 

Kirksville has such fun, fun memories for me.  Not just me and Nate, although that is a good chunk of it. 
I had several AWESOME roommates.  In fact, I was blessed enough to have two sets of roomies.  I lived with one set of girls my first 2 years, then another set of girls my second two years.  Of the first group, I still regularly see 2 of them, since we all live in town and have boys all very close in age, and we love to hang out.  Of the second group, none live in town, but we have a yearly hangout (with or without the ridiculous number of kids we all now have). 

I loved being involved in SAB...the planning of concerts, movies, and events that came to campus.  I learned so much about planning and organizing and being a leader, and got to do so much stuff! 
I loved CCF, the Christian group I was a part of.  It was amazing for me to grow and learn and worship with a huge group of  people...something I hadn't really experienced fully until then.  One of the campus ministers from CCF came to St. Louis and began the church that we now attend.  I taught several Bible studies there, discipled several girls, and learned from strong, Godly women (and men). 
And I just loved college!  I mean, what is not to love?  All your friends close by, no parents, doing your own thing, but not really in the real world and worrying about life? 

I loved walking through campus the other day...seeing the library and remembering where I would study, and how Nate and I would meet there.  I loved seeing my first dorm room, and remembering the cafeteria where we ate, and the ice cream and golden grahams treat I would eat so often!  I loved looking at the banners for clubs, and the sidewalk chalk advertising stuff.  I loved seeing places and having memories flood over me...doing whatever, with them, that year.  College was good for me :) 
I loved just seeing the students.  We saw a couple walking across campus holding hands and I just wanted to say, "HEY!  Ten years from now and this is where you'll be...ENJOY it now!!!!"  (Not like now is bad, though, just very different).

Anyway, enough of the trip down memory lane...as fun as it was for me! 

We let the boys run around the quad (oh, the memories there!) and played hide and seek with Z.  We made them walk around with us and I showed Z all the fun stuff on campus.  He even got to use a bathroom! 

I really didn't get many pictures, but here are a few...
The boys playing on chairs in the middle of the quad.

Love this because it says Truman on the back.