When I first met my husband, I wish I could tell you it was love at first site. I did think he was a nice looking guy, but he was also my best friend of ten year’s brother, and that made me incredibly nervous. I thought it could go well, or it could go really bad. And I didn’t want to lose my best friend over a guy.
Little did I know, that she had secretly been working behind the scenes for years to get us together, but we each were in relationships and I was unaware that she had been praying about us meeting for years. When she finally starting hinting to me, I blurted out, “you’re always praying for him!” I thought he must be a real mess for her constant alter time on his behalf. I later found out that she would mention my name to him and his kosher reply was, “you’re always trying to fix me up with her…she must be a real “bow wow.” He has since repented from his poor descriptive terminology and now says his assumption was dead wrong–ha ha.
After a few dates, he invited me to his house to make me one of my favorite dishes. (He’s the cook, I bring the ice). Though my first impressions of him were that he was a very genuine guy, I was still a bit nervous. Having spent almost a decade as a single mom, I had encountered many, M-A-N-Y, dudes who weren’t asking me to their place to make me dinner. I treaded lightly, though believed in my heart he had good intentions.
Sometime after the meal, I noticed an odd pink dancing light through his patio doors that appeared to come from another wing in the house. It appeared to look like butterflies dancing or some type of disco light. A sinking feeling hit my gut as I asked and pointed, “what is that??” He turned and looked oddly and said, “my bedroom?” I thought, “oh no! Here we go…he must have some creepy seductive disco ball going. I am going to KILL LeAnn for setting me up with her creeper brother!” I said, “WHAT are those pink dancing lights coming from your room?” He turned and studied the area I was pointing to and broke out into laughter as he pointed to the living room television. The tv reflection was dancing on the patio doors. Not butterflies. No seducing disco light. I sank in my chair with a blush. My blonde was showing.
As we were finishing dinner, I spied a white ceramic penguin on the counter. I started laughing and asked if he was a penguin collector. He chuckled and said, “No, that’s my salt shaker.” I suddenly got serious about that penguin. “Where is your pepper shaker?” He then told me that it had been broken or lost long ago. I paused before I answered. “You’re not going to believe this, I have the matching pepper shaker.” He looked at me like I was the strange penguin as I told him I had found the penguin pepper shaker at a thrift shop years ago and after being drawn to its quirkiness and being alone, had taken it home to share my singleness. I think we were silent for a moment before we both broke out into laughter.  We laughed and laughed at the night’s events of the butterfly seductress lights and the matching penguin shaker. It was then that I began to think that this guy–my best friend’s brother, might be the one.
A whirlwind romance ensued after the butterfly lights and the penguin. Six months later, our guests chuckled as they made their way through the line for dessert and gazed on our wedding cake topper. Our penguin salt and pepper shakers had found their way home together. Forever at last.
