Yes, this page is totally devoted to my honeybunny... er, i mean, my WIFE, Sarah Jane Higgins (formerly Sarah Jane Wildschuetz). She really is the bee's knees and I loaf her very much. = )
Sarah lived on the ninth floor of Towers South her freshman year, while I lived on seven (my junior year). I had quite a few friends who lived there, and every Thurs. night I would join them for ER. Well on the night of the season premiere that year (it was the live show--Sept. 4, 1997), I went up there and there was Sarah. She was staring at me and I had no idea why or even who she was. But I vowed to find out.
So I started talking to her whenever I saw her, going out of my way to come by her room and say hello. Over the course of the next few months, we flirted a lot--I stole her whiteout and painted her hands with it. She stole it back. I covered her door with postcards. She covered my door with Saran Wrap--and things sort of progressed from there. By mid-November I was just head over heels in love with her and found myself faced with a major dilemma.
That dilemma had two names: Whitney and John. Whitney was my girlfriend at the time; she lived back in Centralia and was still only a junior in high school. John was Sarah's boyfriend of two years--or so I was told at the time.
Things seemed hopeless. I pined constantly for Sarah and told all her friends of my awful predicament. Her roommate Christel, who I chatted with constantly (via MUSIC) about my problems, shortly afterwards revealed my secret to Sarah herself. Sarah went shopping with me for the seventh floor's Christmas party a couple of days before finals that year, and I finally admitted to her how I felt. I asked her if she would date me, if she was single and could. Sarah's reply was "Probably." She now claims that this one-word response was a great dedication of her feelings for me.
When we got back from Christmas break, she told me that she and John had broken up. (Seems that two years was more off than on, and he had been living in ALABAMA the whole time!) I was ecstatic. One night I had a dream in which she and I got together. When I told Sarah about it the next day, she said, "Cool." It took me a while to realize what she meant by that, but once I did, my dilemma was really in full swing because of my girlfriend back home. Finally my mom explained to me that if I was having doubts at all about my relationship, then it wasn't meant to be.
So I broke up with Whitney on Feb. 14 and Sarah and I started dating on Feb. 17, 1998. Our first date was to go see the theater dept.'s production of Miss Julie. My rule has always been that if the girl wants to go out with me again, she has to ask me. I was advised that since Sarah is so shy, I should not follow the rule this time around, but I stood my ground. The following Saturday we had our second date, ice skating with her friends from home.
Sarah was a marine biology major while at SEMO and during the summer of 1999 she had to take classes down on the gulf coast in Mississippi as part of her major (studying MARINE biology in landlocked Missouri sort of necessitates a brief trip away from school, somewhere close to... oh I don't know... AN OCEAN, maybe!). She was there for ten whole weeks, and it really sucked because it was the longest time we have ever spent apart. Before then we had never gone more than a week at a time without seeing each other, but when she was down there all we could do was talk every Wed. on her dorm's pay phone (the only phone in the entire dorm!) and occasionally write letters.
I worked at World Color Press for the second year in a row and tried to prepare things so that, when she got back, we could move in together down at school (an act which had the blessing of both her parents and mine). That kept my mind off missing her... most of the time. (I did go visit her for about four days over one long weekend, and it was the best part of the whole summer.)
While she was gone that summer, I was down in Cape one day, taking care of things like our cable installation and phone hook-up, and happened to check out one of the jewelers in the mall. They had this really great 3/4 carat engagement ring there for a really low price, while other 1/2 carats that weren't as clear were going for the same price. I had to go for the bargain, and bought the ring right then and there. (It was good to take advantage of such an incredible bargain, but this chain of jewelers gave me hell for the next two years straight, causing some serious damage to my credit rating. If you wanna know the details, e-mail me but needless to say, I don't recommend shopping at this chain--which I don't want to name for fear of being sued for libel. Let's just say it rhymes with the name of the baseball team in Los Angeles. Again, for more details, e-mail me.)
Anyway, when Sarah came home from Miss., she stopped in to see me in our apaato in Cape before heading on to St. Louis to visit her family for a week or two before the regular school year began. It was that night, Aug. 1, 1999, that I popped the question
I had told Sarah to pick out any restaurant in Cape that she wanted to go to, to celebrate our first night together in months. But by the time we went out, the only place still open was Applebee's. But on our way to Applebee's, I complained to her how I had forgotten the faceplate to my car's CD player so we would have to drive without music. When we got done eating and went for a drive, I again complained about our lack of music.
When we finally stopped somewhere (this scenic overlook in Illinois--Florida, for us--that looks out on the river) I asked her to check the glove compartment to see if the CD player was in there. It wasn't, but a ring box was. I asked her to marry me, and her reply was "OK." It honestly was the cutest thing I have ever seen in my life.
So now the date of our wedding (June 9, 2001!!) has come and gone and she's officially and legally stuck with me forever. The wedding went incredibly well, we had a lot of fun, and the reception (held at the Holiday Inn in Mt. Vernon) was fabulous (by several accounts it was the best reception some had ever been to). For our honeymoon my parents sent us for a week to Jamaica, which was very relaxing. We spent a week sitting on the beach (which you can see in the picture at the left), sitting by the pool, sitting in our room--basically not doing much of anything--and it was great. then we came back and housesat for her folks for two weeks, which was like a second honeymoon. If you want more details on ANY of this, you might try going to the wedding photo section.
Now we've been together for over four years. Sometimes I find it hard to believe it's been such a small amount of time. I feel like I've known her for my whole life. We've recently moved to Olney, and "the honeymoon phase" still hasn't worn off. (Money's good, apartment's nice, jobs are OK--the only thing to fight over is the TV remote!) I'm incredibly happy with the choices I've made, and I honestly cannot envision what my life would be like without Sarah in it. She's my reason for being. She really is the bee's knees.
Sarah likes chicken nuggets, grilled cheese with mayo, tomato soup with milk, tacos, nachos, and pickles. Her favorite drink used to be Dr. Pepper, but she's recently become very partial to Mt. Dew Code Red. She's allergic to oranges. She loves Tigger and glow-in-the-dark stuff. Her favorite colors are green and purple. She falls asleep in the movies all the time, but I don't mind. At least she's nice enough to not mind that I drag her to these movies she doesn't want to see. Her favorite movies are Annie, Curly Sue, Grease, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, and Speed. She also likes the movie Ladybugs, but only 'cause she used to have a crush on Jonathan Brandis. Once when he was in St. Louis doing an appearance to promote SeaQuest, Sarah went and got his autograph. She's recently become a big fan of reality TV: The Mole, Amazing Race, Survivor, Real World, Road Rules, Battle of the Seasons, and (if it counts as "reality TV") the great TLC home improvement show Trading Spaces.
And if you want to find out more about Sarah (or see a few more pictures), why not go right to the source? Here's a link directly to Sarah's "About Me" Page from her website!
