Shall we begin?

Every good love story has to start somewhere, right? For me (and Mr. Buttons), it began at the beach.

It was September of 2008. I was living in with my parents in Florida at the time. I don't have many friends in that area, so I had made it a custom to take my Morkie (maltese-yorkie) Theodore to the pet beach with me every weekend. He's pretty much my best bud, and we always had a fun time amazing all of the onlookers with his swimming skills. This little dude is 10 lbs and he is fearless in the water; he swims with the big dogs!

There are always regulars at the pet beach, and you know who they are. So, it was no surprise that one week I spotted a newbie. Camped up away from the water was a guy with a makeshift tent made out of an umbrella, with an 8 week old Australian Shepherd puppy sitting underneath. Chick magnet, right? I parked myself down by the water with Theo, hoping that he'd bring the puppy out from under the shade. But alas, it was not meant to be that day.

Fast forward to the following week. Mr. Buttons was there again, and Daddy Buttons ended up talking to him/meeting the pup. I was slightly jealous that I did not happen to run into him, but left the beach hoping that our paths would cross again.

Finally, the 3rd week, our luck decided to change. As Theo and I made our sandy trek to the shore, at the end of the trail, who happened to be walking by at the exact time we make our entrance??? You guessed it...Mr. Buttons! Of course, I made an effort to start talking to him, and we made our way down the beach together. This conversation turned into about 3-4 hours of talking, and it soon came time for us to leave.

In my head I'm thinking, "awesome! This guy is so nice...he's totally going to ask for my phone number." Yeah, I was pretty confident with my awesomeness at that point...

But alas, after an awkward few minutes in the parking lot, we ended up parting ways. Mr. Buttons said that hopefully we would run into each other again in 2 weeks when he returned to the beach. I have to admit, my ego was a bit deflated, but I was still intrigued. ***However, he since has informed me that he was kicking himself for not getting my number that day...I win!***

So, 2 weeks later, guess where I was? Clearly, the beach. And guess what, so was Mr. B (although, on a side note...he was almost bullied out of going! His then-roommate had heard the story of "the girl at the beach" 2 weeks prior, and was convinced that I would not be returning. Instead, he suggested that Mr. Buttons attend a football game that they had tickets for. But, thankfully, he was certain that I would be there, and was determined to have the chance to see me again)! Once again, we spent a few hours on the beach with the pups...and then, with a little bit of suggestion from myself, we decided to meet at this awesome little Italian restaurant in town for dinner that night. I was overjoyed! Of course, I hemmed and hawed over what I was going to wear (achieving the "I'm extremely well dressed, but I'm not trying hard" look sometimes takes skill). We had dinner that night and ended up staying at the restaurant for over 4 hours; I'm pretty sure that the owners wanted to kick us out, as we had eaten dinner at 6:30pm. I was amazed at how easy it was to talk to him...this one was a keeper!

And little did I know at that point that he was indeed QUITE the keeper...and that our first date was only the first of many to come...

How did you meet your SO? Is there anyone else out there that had a chance encounter turn into a full-blown romance?