How Olive Garden changed my LIFE

Thursday, Jan 10th 2008 as I was driving in my truck on a cold snowy night I can remember actually saying outloud " Don't get your hopes up, at least you get a free dinner out of it"  I pulled into the Olive Garden parking lot full of anticipation, as I stood inside the door waiting for him to arrive I was nervous, excitied and hopeful, as he walked around the corner and I could acutal see his face, I thought OMG he is really handsome. He gave me a hug, told me I looked beautiful, opened the door and we started our date. As we sat and talked the conversation just flowed no akward moments of silence. We laughed and talked and he was so open with me. Anything I asked him he answered without hestation. His eyes were the bluest I had ever seen, I noticed the way his whole face lite up when he smiled :) I never in a MILLON years would have thought I was sitting across the table from my future husband. I was in total shock when I realized that he had drove his scooter in the snow to come meet me. I thought to myself "is this guy crazy"........he walked me to my truck and kissed me very sweetly, gave me a hug and said "thank you for such a great time" I got in my truck and sat there and watched him go over to his scooter ( it was snowing and freezing mind you) he layered up jacket upon jacket and drive off. I was laughing out loud, thinking "what the hell is wrong with this guy" I got home and told Mom all about him she nick named him "scooter steve" I was not sure what this was gonna turn into, but I sure did have FUN. He sent me a few emails and we went out a few more times, called each other often. Eventually I realized why he had a scooter (to save money) he had a dream and he was putting all his time, money and effort into making his dream become a reality. I was not to thrilled about driving us on every date let me tell ya, but I enjoyed being with him so much that it honestly started to not really matter.
He was with me everyday that he was not working, he would drive that scooter through snow storms, rain, hail anything just to be with me for a few hours. By March he told me he wanted me to be his girlfriend :)  I was pretty damn excitied about that. The first year we went through our rough patches like everyone else, He was still living like a college student with not a care in the world. He told me he loved me and wanted to spend the rest of his life with me but his actions were not showing that, he was not changing anything. In December I had some medical issues come up, and I think it made him realize he did not wanna lose me.
On our 1yr anniversary he got us a hotel suite at Salvatore's and we went for a fancy dinner. During dinner he mentioned getting married, I said well I thought we would get married in Oct 2010, He said yeah I think that sounds like a plan. Within the next two months, Steve enrolled in college classes to become a machinist, used all his savings to buy my engagement ring, told the landlord he was moving out, purposed and bought a car. He said that he loved me more then anything in the world and all he wanted was to be my husband and start a family. God has blessed us ~ Steve has a wonderful job that he started right after our honeymoon as a machinist :)  He turned his whole life around just to be with me......we started a new life together. I asked God to send me someone amazing, that I could love, trust and laugh with. He sent me all of that and soooo much more. He truly is the love of my life and my best friend. I tell him everything, even things I think he would rather I did not lol lol No matter what happens in this life from here on out I know that with Steve by my side its all gonna be alright.
So to all you ladies out there that think true love does not exist and that all the good guys are gone. Try and keep your head up and wait because when the time is right it will be soooo worth that wait. As we are approaching our anniversary I look back and smile on how far we have come. Monday it will be 3 yrs since that nigt at olive garden and I could not be happier. Guess where he is taking me for dinner Monday night ????
and that is how olive garden changed my life :)