Random Similarities

When Eric and I were going through our pre-marriage counseling several years ago, I distinctly remember the preacher asking us a question that I had no answer for: "Are there any random similarities between you two that you have discovered?" He didn't mean common interests, he meant odd things from our childhoods that occurred even though we grew up in different states. I thought about it, but I didn't have an answer.  For whatever reason, this really bothered me.  Why?  I'm not quite sure. Eric and I grew up in completely different places and had completely different, yet equally happy childhoods, but I still wanted to find some random common quirk or experience that we shared.  After nearly 4 years of marriage I can say that I can answer that question.   The other day at one of our softball games someone mentioned to me how good at baseball Eric was growing up and that if he hadn't quit when he got to high school that he could have been really good at it.  Eric quit baseball because he wanted to go fishing one weekend and his baseball coach scheduled a practice or a something and told him he had to be there.  Obviously fishing won out.  If you've met him and had at least a 10 minute conversation with him you would know that fishing will beat out just about anything in his world. So what does this have to do with coincidences between us? Well it just so happens that my last year playing organized softball (until we started playing together a few years ago) was when I was in the 9th grade.  That was the year my life became so consumed with basketball that everything else that I did fell to the wayside.  So there you have our random similarity: we both quit playing softball/baseball at the same age. I realize it's a bit of a stretch, but it's something, right?

Of course now that I am really thinking about it you could add in that we both were apple juice-loving kids and that my middle name/great-grandmother's middle name is almost the same as his grandmother's name: I'm an Annalea (pronounced Ann-uh-lee) and his grandmother is an Annie Lee, which is not the most common name in the world. However, I have found that it's a lot more common in Alabama than it is in Indiana or suburban Tennessee.  Gotta love those Southern double names!

Of course you can't leave out our childhood loves for fishing, too!

Aren't we the cutest?!

Ok-so my fishing experience was a few times a year with my Dad at my grandparents' lake house, while Eric literally played in a playpen in his Dad's fishing boat before he could walk, but it's still fishing. I had no desire to hold my fish...I was just fine with them sitting in the box next to me.