The Story of Us

Our story begins in 2006, in 8th grade at Thomas Jefferson Junior High School. Michael and I had 4 classes together that year. In math class is where I really started to notice him and think to myself..."Oh, he's quite funny and pretty cute." So I started to do what every girl that liked a boy would do, I took his stuff so he would notice me. Haha. I "borrowed" his Utah Utes backpack for a couple days and I guess that did the trick. I, Ashlee Snider, had successfully gotten his, Mike Raines, attention!

This is Mike in 8th grade. This is the kid that I fell in love with :)

After weeks and weeks of flirting with each other, he finally got the nerve to ask me out. But he did not ask me out in person, he asked me out over the phone. Haha. After I said yes, there was the longest pause on the phone. Neither of us said a word, we were just completely nervous out of our minds. Then he finally says that he has to go because his family was going to his grandparents house. Wanna know the funny part about what he told me? And keep in mind that I did not find out about this until about 1-2 years ago?? He totally lied about that. He did not have to go to his grandparents house that day. When he told me I just laughed my head off and said, "So our whole entire relationship is based off of a lie?" He said, "Yup, pretty much ;)". Anyways, we dated for only a week and then I broke up with him. A month or so later, we tried it again. This time we dated for a whole month. Wow! Haha. He broke up with me that time. A little while later we tried it one last time, which only lasted another week until I broke up with him. I liked Mike, but I wasn't ready to have a boyfriend. 3 days after we broke up, he started dating another girl...that killed me inside. Throughout the rest of our Junior High lives I still had feelings for Mike, always. We didn't talk much except for small talk in the classes we had with each other. I did like other boys but Michael was always there in the back of my mind.

Once we started high school in August of 2008 at Kearns High School, we started getting close again because we sat next to each other in an English class. I had not dated any other guys since Mike. Mike and his girlfriend had been dating off and on for about three years. He started to really open up to me and told me the problems that they'd been having in their relationship and how unhappy he was. I helped him the best that I could since dating was not my area of expertise. He finally sorted out his feelings and he broke up with his girlfriend. We started hanging out after school with our group of friends. On my birthday (Oct. 7) he told me that he liked me, I didn't tell him I liked him too because it caught me completely off guard. A couple days later at the homecoming game, we sat by each other and cuddled underneath a blanket. I was really starting to get feelings for this kid and I was planning on telling him how I felt. But at half time he ditched me and went and sat by his EX-girlfriend... :( I was devastated...a couple days later he got back together with her. He apologized to me for leading me on but he still had feelings for his ex-girlfriend. Well heck! I didn't care if he did have feeling for her, he totally crushed my feelings! I seriously hated Mike for doing that to me. It's sad, but I have never hated someone as much as him. Well after being in that relationship for a couple more weeks, he realized that he was not happy and it was not working out. He asked me help him "get out of her spell" (as he put it). I reluctantly helped him, even though I was super afraid of getting pulled back in and getting hurt again. Well so the story goes, Ashlee did get pulled back in and so did Mike.

We started hanging out again almost everyday for a month. One Saturday in November, I was home alone watching a movie when I get a phone call from Mike. I answered it and he asked me out :) Of course I said yes! Sadly, we don't remember the exact day that all of this happened so we decided on November 15, 2008. Our relationship didn't start like most peoples. We took it super slow and enjoyed just being with each other. We didn't need to be physical to know that we cared for each other. I mean, it took us 5 months JUST to have our first kiss. I love how our relationship went. I wouldn't change how any of it went. He's been my first everything. First boyfriend, first kiss, and first love. He's actually been my only of all of these as well. He's been there for me through the ups and downs and I appreciate everything that he is in my life. I can't imagine life without him and I never want to find out what it would be like.

In November of 2011, Michael decided that he was going to serve an LDS mission which was definitely not in my list of plans. At first when he told me of his decision I was livid, I couldn't imagine how he could do this to me and "throw away" our relationship but after thinking and praying for a couple weeks, I realized that this is what should be happening in our lives. (Wanna know the funny part? A couple months earlier Mike had talked about marriage and I said that I wanted to wait a year or so. I don't know where we would be if I had said that I were ready for marriage right then). On February 8, 2012, Mike received his mission call to serve an LDS mission for two years in the Warsaw, Poland mission. His departure date would be April 18, 2012 which meant that I would only have 2 months and 10 days to be with my best friend/love of my life. Can I just tell you that that was the worst part of the whole wait because I knew that every day was just bringing me one day closer to having to say "see you later". Eventually April 18th came and my two year wait began. (If you want to read my blog while Mike was on his mission go to mylifeasamissionarysgirlfriend.blogspot.com). I waited two years for that guy and happy to say that I did not date even one other guy while he was gone. I knew what I wanted, I just had to wait a little longer than most people to have it ;) On May 29, 2014 Mike returned home with honor from his mission two weeks earlier than planned due to a stomach issue, which ended up being a form of IBS. He is home and life is just grand :)