The fall of 2006 was a pretty busy time for me. I was in my best friend, Lindsay's wedding in Savannah, Georgia. I had also just started my first semester at the University of Michigan - Flint. I was on my way to being a nurse...I just needed to get accepted into the program, yikes!! Jack and I continued to date. Those were the more care-free times when we could meet for a drink or dinner without the concerns of money or baby-sitters! We would often meet at Kickers and get their wings on Monday nights...mmm, were they good...cheap beer, too! For Sweetest Day, he bought me a bracelet...it was beautiful!! Things seemed to be going pretty well for us, and we were approaching our one year (from the day we had our first date) anniversary in November.
The week before our anniversary, Jack and I got into a discussion about children. He was adamant about not wanting children, and I was extremely adamant about having children. He was over at my apartment, and I was making us dinner during this discussion, and at one point I looked at him and said, "I am going to have children with or without you." Probably not the most sensitive way to go about making my point...but for as long as I could remember, I couldn't wait to be pregnant and have a kid...children were just not in the cards for Jack.
That Wednesday, Jack took me up north to spend some time with Joe and Cassie (his dad and step mom) before Thanksgiving. We were spending Thanksgiving dinner with my family. We had a nice time at each! That next Monday, which was our one year anniversary, he called and said he wanted to come over and talk to me. I was like, cool!!
He came over (empty handed, I might add...hmmm...why doesn't he have anything for me on our anniversary??), and said we needed to talk. I had no idea what he wanted to talk about. He sat down and started to tell me how serious he was about not wanting children. He was more than 100% sure that kids were not in his future. He was already 38 years old; he didn't want to be 100 years old when his kids graduated from high school. I felt completely blown away. He was breaking up with me. Not only was he breaking up with me, he was breaking up with me on our anniversary!!! Why did he take me up north just days before? Why did he wait until this day to break up with me? What did I do wrong? I couldn't believe it. We talked about the different scenarios in which we could work things out, but they all lead to me wanting kids and Jack not. We cried and he left.
A couple of days later, I returned some things that he had gotten me that I didn't want around anymore, including the bracelet he had gotten me for Sweetest Day. I put the things in a bag, went to his apartment, knocked on the door. He wasn't home, which I sort of already knew because the black beast (his truck) wasn't in the parking lot. So, I hung the bag on the door and left forever...
According to Jack, he talked with his buddies Al and Dave. They were at Tee-Bonez having drinks at the bar. Jack told them that he broke up with me because he didn't want kids, and (apparently) they said that he should have kids...kids are great.
He called me a while after he found the bag hanging on the door, and asked me to come over and get the bracelet; that it was mine, and he wanted me to have it. Plus, he wanted to talk to me...I went over to his apartment, and we talked things out, and we got back together, tentatively. We were both on edge about it because he still wasn't 100% sure about having kids.
The next several weeks were filled with intense conversations about future possibilities. Children, religion, what-ifs, marriage, houses, finances, etc.
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