On
April 5, 1993 at Michigan's NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship game with 11
seconds remaining, Chris Webber brought the ball up the court into a half court
trap. Michigan was down 73–71. Webber
attempted to call for a timeout while his team but had none remaining. It resulted in a technical foul that
effectively clinched the game for North Carolina. If you are a Michigan fan you likely still utter a few choice words your
grandmother would cringe at when recalling this incident.
Fast-forward
5 years. In early October 1998 during my
freshman year of college, some friends and I showed up at a party off campus. I
remember walking into that old house and being greeted by a roomful of people
in the living room. Several of the guys
were sitting on couches watching SportsCenter.
I sat down next to a blonde guy wearing glasses and a lime green plaid Ralph
Lauren Polo shirt. Clearly this guy didn’t
plan on meeting his future wife at the party that night or else he might have
toned the look down a bit. But Zach is
lucky I overlooked that!
The
guys were talking about basketball. Someone
mentioned an athlete “pulling a Chris Webber.” I jumped in and recalled the ill-fated
incident. Zach turned his head and
looked at me with disbelief…and then interest.
He was clearly impressed that I knew something about sports. (Well, I had him fooled! It took me 5 years of marriage to remember
that he coaches the Defensive Backs. And I still can’t always remember the
positions of the DBs…safety and corner I think?!) It really was a fluke I even knew about Chris
Webber in the first place.
As
we struck up a conversation that evening and found out we had a lot in common
as we were both born and raised in Boise.
But we didn’t being dating immediately.
In fact I went on a date with 3 other guys from that party before I gave
Zach a chance.
Fast-forward
again 3 months to January 21, 1999. My
dear high school friend Carla (Lewis) Lords and I went to the beer garden
a social function at the fairgrounds with Boone’s wine coolers in hand (ugh,
sorry mom!) For those of who are not
up-to-date on your cheap and disgusting wines, Boone’s is exactly those two
things. And if you are wondering why
there were so many “social beverage functions” it is because there wasn’t much
else to do in small-town LaGrande. Zach
and I reconnected that evening within the confines of the chain link beer
garden. Definitely not romantic. But a
memorable and fun night!
I
wish I could tell my boys I met their dad at church. Or on a white water rafting trip. Or the library. Or pretty much anywhere else other than the Mahon
brother’s house and a beer garden. But
Zach turned out to be a wonderful man in spite of the fact that we met in those
places. He told me early on in our
dating relationship that all he wanted to be one day was a dad. It also didn’t hurt that I wanted to be a
full-time mom to my kids which he fully supported. We didn’t date continuously for the next 6
years but we did eventually reconnect a few years later. He proposed December 31, 2004 and we were
married a few months later on May 27, 2005.
There
are a lot of things I love about Zach.
He is the perfect travel companion—up for exploring and loves to eat his
way through any city we visit just like me.
He is also my Netflix buddy.
We’ve spent countless hours glued to the TV, shaking with anticipation
as we queue up the next episode. I won’t
list all of the fabulous shows we have watched over the years—you might wonder
how we ever got anything else done! I am
blessed that Zach supports our dream for me to be mommy, CFO, culinary director
and Maid Lily for our household. Zach
has worked hard to give us this opportunity.
Zach loves Jesus, has a tender heart and is a fantastic dad.
The
thought of him not being a part of our lives for years to come is almost too
much to bear. So he just has to beat
this stupid cancer. I know he wants the
same thing too.
Zach proposing to me.
Welcome to the family baby Max!
Sweet baby Max born October 16, 2013. He has earned the nickname Mr. Squishy because he is chubby and snuggly!
Sleeping Max.
Oliver dearly loves his little brother Max.
Our lively, sparkly-eyed, BUSY Oliver. Oliver turns 2 on January 23. He loves puppies, the garbage man and throwing away trash. One day he wants to find a job that entails all 3 of those loves.
Crazy about these two!
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