Us

We celebrated our one year anniversary on January 12! One whole year - in a way, it feels like it has been much longer (in a good way) and then again, it feels like yesterday. I'm all sentimental about us and our little love story - just because I think it is a really good one! So indulge me as - this might be my first real post, but I won't write this much every time - I promise...

Mark and I had finance class together at JSU - my first semester there and his second year there... He was tall and dark and handsome and wore a navy shirty with sorority/fraternity shirt the first day I noticed him ( I didn't notice it was from Auburn, but thought he might be a frat boy - and mom had warned me about them!). I was a naive, scared girl with short blond hair. I can still remember the room and the places we were sitting (a couple of years ago, we went back to that same room in the Merrill Building) - I was close to the front (yes, I've always been a dork) and he sat down behind me. He said - "You have the prettiest eyes I've ever seen." This SCARED ME TO DEATH!!!!! I knew he was a bit older and he was handsome and I certainly thought he was HOT - but to this small town girl, I probably just muttered "thank you" and turned around instead of batting my eyes at him and flirting a little... Well, my best friend in college was sitting beside me and I told him from now on that he was to sit behind me in finance class!!!

That semester rocked on and I gained a little bit of confidence and we talked. Mark eventually came over to eat lunches that I made after we were finished with morning classes. These lunches were usually Chicken Helper - with extra mushrooms - because I knew he liked mushrooms! My roommate - Holly - at the time just laughed at how "cool" I was in front of him but then would FREAK OUT when he left - he was never just "Mark" he was always "Mark Casey" He had a girlfriend and I had a boyfriend and we flirted a lot, but that was about all. Even then, I knew that there was just something about him - Momma even told me that "one day I would marry that boy, or he was a serial killer" - what she meant was - she just had a feeling about him... We didn't have any classes together in the spring of 2001 and he graduated. We didn't talk for two years - he was always in the back of my mind. There was just something about him.

On the last day of February 2003 I received an email from Mark Casey - it said something along the lines - "Are you the Allison Jones that graduated from JSU and majored in Marketing - I've been looking for you for a while" My heart dropped - I can still remember it being my first day on a new job, I snuck to check my email and then I had the biggest surprise of my life! From that point on we were friends... We talked every day via email - even if it was questions like - "what are you having for lunch?" We still talk everyday via email and we still ask questions like that (even though we watch each other pack lunches!).

He was dating whoever and I was in a relationship. We spent the next year and and a half emailing - Feb. 2003 - Sept. 2004. I gave suggestions on where he should take girls for dinner or what he should make them for his date. I listened to when he didn't know what to do. I celebrated his parents moving back to Gadsden. He listened to me try to make my relationship work. He listened to me when I was heartbroken about my relationship ending, my brother having to have heart surgery AND my grandmother passing in ONE month. We were friends - that was all. He was still "Mark Casey" and there was still something about him.

He lived in Montgomery in the Fall of 2004 and I had training down there for a week each month for six months. Some months we would see each other, and others we would not. He did take me to the Montgomery Fair (which he thought was very stupid!) BUT we had the best fun - we ate corn dogs and funnel cakes and watched the pig race. Christmas night of 04, I ate dinner with his family - whom I had never met and we went to the movies. It was fun. We were friends.

On January 19, 2005, he called to ask me out on a date - We went to Albertville to Mike's going away party... in the back of a tahoe - the very back. I didn't mind... He called me the day Allan had heart surgery to check on me - he was in Florida with his "friend" - his old girlfriend. I was sitting in the waiting room with my "friend" But there was just something about him.

He had promised me that he would take me somewhere after Allan's surgery and everything settled down - so in the early spring - he took me to the beach. We had a wonderful time. Learned so much about each other and just enjoyed each other. I couldn't believe how stress free it was OR the fact that I WENT TO THE BEACH WITH MARK CASEY... but again, I played it SO cool... in front of him.

We saw each other only a few times that spring. We went on with our lives - him dating, me learning to date again... still friends that discussed lunch every single day.

In June I got a job in Tuscaloosa. We were in the U-Haul (me and Daddy) just past the McCalla exit on I-59, when Mark called asking me how the move was going and if I was taking notes. I told him it was going well - why? His response "because I'm moving to Birmingham in a few weeks, I got a job at corporate." My heart stopped - I said a prayer to thank God right there. My friend was moving an hour from me - he would be the closest person I knew to me. God has the best timing.

He moved, football season started, we spent almost every weekend together... still dating other people during the week (Has anyone ever tried to date on Mon., Tues., Wed., nights?? (Thursdays were reserved for packing of cleaning - depending on whether Alabama played at home or not) it is difficult - no one wants to date on these days and I was not available for the weekend - sorry-) I was spending the weekend with that guy that just had something about him. Our weekends consisted of going out on Friday night, football games on Saturday and eating TCBY and sleeping on Sundays.

Throughout the rest of 2005 and 2006 we continued to date others as well as each other. Funny thing is, God never put anyone in my life or his... no matter how much we looked around, searched around - there was just no one... We were still friends. We were more than friends - even though at times we didn't want to admit it because admitting it might mean that the other might leave or it wouldn't work out.

In the Fall of 2006, things got serious - we decided that we would see only each other and see where that took us. We discussed getting married in Feb. 2007 and on May 2, 2007 Mark proposed. in Tuscaloosa. on the quad. while sitting at a bench that we can always walk past and say "that was the place" There was just something about him. I applied for jobs in Birmingham in the Fall of 2007 - thinking that it might take me a while to find something that I liked and wanted. The first interview I went on, I got the job - again, God's timing is perfect.

We planned the wedding of our dreams with the help of so many family and friends. We shared the days leading up to it talking about our 11am wedding - we are such morning people and our trip to Jackson Hole, WY. We were both marrying our best friend. We knew each other better than we thought we did. There have been tough spots - quite a few along the way - but they have made us stronger. Mom was right - we did get married. Holly called to tell me that I was getting married to"Mark Casey" We were united in a beautiful ceremony at 11am on January 12, 2008. There was "something about him" and there still is...