Our Story

I absolutely have loved being a girl. From wearing tap shoes and tu-tu's as a first grader to making hair appointments before Senior prom. But my very favorite thing about being a girl is reading and watching the fairytales of the damsels in distress being rescued by a prince charming. In every situation, the prince entered the princess' life and made it better. There is nothing better to me than a happily ever after ending. Of course growing up I couldn't wait until I met my prince charming. Little did I know that would begin in Junior High. As Brad and I recall "our story" we wanted you to get a glimpse into both of our hearts as events unfolded. My memories will be in pink and Brad's will be in blue. So, once upon a time...

I have to admit, I have very little recollection of my school days. I remember being in band, eating in the Jr. High snack bar, and eating gravy, cheese fries at Sputter's after school. But to have exact memories of people, I have very little. Thank goodness for Brad's memory!

Where do I start? 7th grade, Cooper Jr. High. Junior High is such an awkward time in kids' lives, yet the memories of people and friendships stick with you forever. Football games, band trips, school plays. And seriously looking back at those things Jenifer was there. I know I was there, but I don't remember changing on the bus at the fair grounds after the Fair parade and Brad walking up the bus steps and seeing me. I remember though. Jen and I were in many classes together. We had a lot of the same friends. I remember going to the "party house" just 1 mile down the road from where Jen grew up where she and all of her friends would sneak out and meet me and my friends. If you read this and this sounds familiar, relax...that's all that will be said. Good times. I remember sneaking out of the house one time and driving to Brad's house with another friend of mine. When we left, I hit his mail box. I was never so scared! As you can see, Brad and I shared many fun times together in Jr. High. After my school days at Cooper were over, I tried to stay in touch with many of my Pirate friends, but life takes over. I've had a very interesting life with lots of highs and lots of lows. But even those highs can't match what I'm fixing to share with you.
School days were over and it was time to grow up. I went off to college, lived my life, kept in touch with only a handful of people from school. I was making new friends and creating a new life as an adult. I have definitely made more than my share of mistakes. I have disappointed people as well as disappointed myself. However, looking back at my life, every thing that has taken place has shaped me to be the person I am today. So fast forward 19 years.
Returning to Lubbock after being gone for 5 years was an unexpected event. I was living in South Dakota and needed to have hand surgery. So on September 17th I returned to Lubbock. My sister and her family had also just moved back to Lubbock after being gone for roughly 10 years. I had the opportunity to see and do things with my nieces and nephew really for the first time. Halloween was my nephews birthday. Being the sports nut he is, I took him to the Texas Tech vs. Kansas football game. I have season tickets to the Tech football games. My best friend Rod had agreed to go to the game with me on Halloween. He had to find a halloween costume before the game, so we didn't have alot of time to spare before the game. We got to the game just in time to buy a corndog and Peanut M&M's. We made our way to the stairs to walk up to our seats. As I'm sitting there with my nephew and several other friends, I noticed a familiar face walking up the stairs. After she passed by, I asked Bobby "is that Jenifer Christopher?" We discussed it for a little bit and then I knew the only way I would find out is to go up and ask her. I was sitting with Rod in our seats enjoying my corn dog. I see this guy walking up to where we are. I looked at Rod and remember asking him if he knew this guy. He of course didn't and he didn't look familiar to me. Then he came closer to me and asked, "Are you Jenifer Christopher?" I remember looking at him trying to place who he was, and I hesitantly said, "yes." I said "I know you probably don't remember me, but my name is Brad." She said "Brad Beard?" "Yes ma'am," I answered. At this point I remembered him, but it had been 19 years since I had seen or heard from him. We proceeded to play catch up a few minutes before the game started. I remembered telling him that he should call me sometime so we could catch up. I told him my number was on Facebook. He said "ok." Now it's game time. I caught myself looking up to see Jenifer when there was no action on the field hoping to not get caught. He got caught a couple of times, but that only means that I was looking at him as well! In the 3rd qtr I noticed Jenifer's friend had left and she was sitting alone. Rod had to go to his halloween event so I told him I would get a ride home from another friend that I knew was at the game. I thought her friend would probably be back soon because Tech was putting a hurtin on Kansas and I couldn't imagine anyone leaving early. I continued to watch and when I was convinced he wasn't coming back, I had to come invite her to sit with us. I remember Brad walking up to me and asking if my friend had left. I told him yes and he said I was more than welcome to go sit with his group. I told him I was fine sitting alone. After all, I didn't know who he was sitting with. Brad sat down next to me. We continued to play catch up and hollar for Tech for the remainder of the game. After the game, I had asked Jenifer if she had plans that evening. When she said she didn't have any, I asked her if she wanted to watch the Texas game. I said that would be fun and then game him my number to call me. Yes, I had to ask for her number because earlier instead of giving it to me, she informed me it was on facebook. I remember walking away thinking it was cool to run into Brad and it would be fun to reconnect with him more and watch football. I told her I would call after I took my nephew to his halloween event which took forever and a day to get him there. He took his time calling, but he finally did. It was halloween, football traffic, and you can't forget there is always construction in Lubbock, Texas. I remember I was on the corner of 82nd st and Ave P when he called. I answered the phone and we decided where we were going to meet. So I sat at Jake's, close to the door. Jenifer took her time getting there. Long story, but a missing purse and 87,000 trick or treaters at Bodyworks delayed my arrival!! But I did show up!! After cheering for Texas and realizing I was cheering alone, she pointed out that she was not a UT fan. He's lucky I overlooked that! We spend the remainder of the game not really watching the game. We caught eachother up on the past 19 years of our lives and started to get to know eachother. I remember Brad being such a gentleman that night. He was easy to talk to and he made me laugh. I was having fun. I was having a good time. Even though I couldn't cheer for Texas, a beautiful girl and football is always good. After the game we noticed there was a band playing in the back room. We kept seeing all of these people dressed in costumes going to the back room. So we decided to go check out the place. Boy was I in for a culture shock. As we were walking back there, I hear the music and realized this was so not her element. This was going to be fun. I can't really describe what was going on. There were a bunch of weird costumes, screaming on stage, and people purposely bumping into eachother on the dance floor. I later learned from Brad that was a mosh pit. Oh sweet Jesus. Where was I?? We were doing our best to talk while the costumes were screaming on stage. Jenifer stepped in the way to protect me from the Psycho clown. Well Brad did only have one good hand at the time. So we hung out for the rest of the night. Still can't believe she didn't have plans that night, but very thankful. It was the most fun I've had in a long time. I had fun too. I was exposed to alot of new things, but enjoyed laughing and being with Brad.


We could go on and on about the memories we have those first few days we hung out. Let's just say that we have been together every day since that night. Growing up, experiencing different kinds of love and relationships, you form this "prince charming" in your mind. You form what characteristics you want him to have, what values, what traits. Even if you think he doesn't exist, it's still fun to hope for a fairytale. Well, my fairytale has come true. Brad has been and continues to be the most amazing man I ever knew existed. He is better than I ever dreamed my prince charming would be. I have never known this kind of love before. He is my best friend. Since that night Jenifer has opened my eyes to a lot of new things. She is the most amazing person I know. Falling in love with her has been more fun than I ever thought possible. Little did I know the love of my life was one of my good friends from Junior High. Little did I know the love of my life would be sitting in a crowd of 47,000 people just 2 rows away from me at a Tech football game. I will end "our story" with 2 of my favorite sayings. "Cinderella was 16, Belle was 19, I was 34. Fairytales do come true." "It's never to late to live happily ever after." Life really is better than the dream.