The Box

I was in the midst of heavy-duty spring cleaning a few weeks ago. And then, almost as quickly as it came on, all desire to clean and go through boxes completely left me. Lets hope the wave starts up again or else I'm going to find myself very busy when moving time comes.

When I was in the midst of my cleaning frenzy, I dragged out some old boxes to re-determine what I should keep or throw away. That's when I came across one of my favorite boxes to open on an annual basis (at least annually). Nothing gets thrown away from here.

This is where I keep all of Andrew's letters that he sent me while on his mission (and a tape or two...remember making tapes for people!). It also has just about every random note he ever wrote me during our 7-year courtship...

...yes, even the ones written on napkins. It doesn't all fit in the little wood box, it sort of overflows to fill up a bigger box. 7 years of dating equals a WHOLE lot of love notes people. (Andrew will absolutely hate that I called them 'love notes'. he he he). I guess it is fair to say we've never really been the sappy type.

 Here is a postcard he sent from Italy and if you look REALLY close you will see a group of missionaries in the photo. One of them is Andrew. He was pretty excited to send me this postcard.

This is the note he sent me right after he sent me a letter telling me that I should marry someone else (not that we were planning on getting married or anything but I guess he wanted to make sure there was no pressure on our relationship). Andrew had a funny habit of always making the first move after a "break-up". Usually it was some strange peace-offering like this. He sent me a bunch of Swiss chocolate but made sure to mention that he was sending some to 'a lot of people'. I highly doubt anyone else got a package of swiss chocolate. Anyone? Anyone? Oh Stace, it is so good that I could read through your disguised gestures.

Have I told you how after deciding that we wouldn't date anymore (one of the many times we decided not to date anymore) he showed up at my house with goldfish as a 'Christmas present'!?

Another time (post break-up) he called me up and begged me to go to an ice cream shop that had just opened up. Because I just had to try the ice cream with him. It seriously drove me crazy. 

Here are all the letters I sent Andrew while he was on his mission. Note, I do not read these. I will never ever read them. Within the pages are written some of the dorkiest things that have ever been put on paper. When I try to read them my face turns bright RED and I realize how dumb I was back in my 19s and 20s. Luckily, Andrew doesn't remember them at all. If I read them now, I am sure that I would burn them. Which would make Andrew sad. So for his sake I just let them be and hope that my grandchildren NEVER find them.

And here are all the letters I sent Andrew while I was on my mission. I don't mind reading these because I had matured a lot by this point. Thank goodness for missionary work.

This isn't even everything. All the letters that Andrew wrote to me while I was on my mission are in a different box.



This is the ticket from our first date. Because of this little momento I have been able to remember when our first date was even after all these years. One time he found this in my wallet and scribbled a note on it but I blurred that out because he would be really embarrassed if I didn't. That boy is sweet I tell you!

There are other momentos in this box too like Andrew's claim to fame in the Deseret News. I LOVE the first line, "Who is Andrew Stacey?". If you're wondering you can click here and find out. It will be so fun to show this to our grandkids someday. My favorite part of this article was that it quotes Andrew's brother, Ricky. Please note, Andrew DOES NOT have a brother named Ricky. I'm still not totally sure how the reporter got that little fact mixed-up but it has become a favorite Stacey family joke to blame things on brother 'Ricky'.

Looking through all these letters reminds me of all our little quirks throughout the years. Some we've outgrown, others we haven't. This was from Andrew's shadow-writing stage...he always wrote my name like this for some reason. 

By the way, as I was going through the box I found this Christmas ornament someone gave me years ago. I can't remember who. Janay? Carol? Mom? How has it spent all these Christmases not on my tree! I'm so glad I found it. It will be front and center this Christmas :)

I LOVE going through this box. It makes me happy. I know that not everyone has the tolerance, patience or maybe some would call it 'stupidity' to date someone for such a long time (we have still dated longer than we've been married...it will be two more years before it's 7 and 7). Timing was a fickle thing with us. But I'm glad we have a box full of memories. And I'm glad Andrew's been in my life for almost 12 years. Seriously, no guy ever really stood a chance after I met him.