[speaker001:] This is the story of how I met my husband. It's kind of like a Brady Bunch story. I was the lady with the two daughters and he was the man with the two sons. We had each been divorced for a while and we each were too busy to do any dating or meeting of perspective mates. So my daughter Michaela had a group of friends, affectionately called "The Quail Girls," and his son, Ryan, had a group of friends, I won't tell you what we'd name them, but anyway, they were normal high school seniors, and both of the children were seniors at South Mecklenburg High School at the same time. And the boys and girls interacted a lot, they were, uh, they were all friends. One of the girls in Michaela's group, Shelle, just got an inspiration one day when she was staring out a window riding down the road, and she said, "Chaela! We need to get your mom to meet Ryan Speckman's dad!" And Michaela said, "Really?" `Cause she was, of course, very protective of her mom. So finally, Michaela said, "Well maybe that will work." And all of the other girls are saying, "Yeah, yeah, yeah!" So that was when the idea was born. And for the next few months, Michaela kept saying, "You know, Mom, you need to meet Mr. Speckman." And I said, "Now why do I need to meet Mr. Speckman?" "Well you need to meet Mr. Speckman because he's single and all he has time for is his job and the boys. He's really cute and he's a really nice guy and he's real involved with the kids." I said, "Well if he is really cute and he's a really nice guy, then I'm sure that he's got a girlfriend." And she said, "No, no, no. I know he doesn't. I just know he doesn't because the girls say he doesn't and he never goes to the games with anybody, and you need to meet Mr. Speckman." So I said, "All right, whatever. I'll meet Mr. Speckman." So then I would forget about it and the girls would come over and they would say, "Ms. Quinn you need to meet Mr. Speckman." And I'm like, "Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'll meet Mr. Speckman." So, um, a soccer game would come up because the boys played soccer, the Speckman boys played soccer. Michaela would say, "How about it? Can you go to the soccer game on Thursday night?" And I had an evening job and I would say, "Well no I can't go Thursday." So then a few more games would go by, um, I could go to the game, but she couldn't go to the game and next time she could go to the game then I couldn't go to the game and she would say, "Well Mr. Speckman wasn't there anyway." So this fixture in our house became this Mr. Speckman person. So, um, there was, at the end of the sports season, the fall sport season and the spring sport season, at South Mecklenburg there was always, a what they called, a banquet and they didn't serve any food, but for some reason they called it a banquet. They had all the children, the students from the fall sports up on the stage to be introduced, get whatever recognition were appropriate, and, um, there was going to be one in early December of 1995. And, uh, that was when it was decided since I was going to be there, because Michaela played tennis in the fall, and Mr. Speckman was going to be there, since Ryan and Eric played soccer in the fall that was when this meeting would take place. So in order to make sure that I would be there one of the Quail Girls, who lived right around the corner from the Speckmans, said she would come and she would pick me up. Michaela couldn't drive me because she had to be there early to be in this program. So Michaela helped me pick out what I was supposed to wear and, uh, Wendy came to pick me up. And you have to understand, Wendy is this, she's a wonderful girl but she's kind of a silly girl. She's always like, "Ha, uh, ha, uh!" So Wendy came to pick me up and I was all nervous and everything, which was ridiculous. I was, I felt like a high school girl myself. And, um, when we got there, uh, we s, sat with Wendy's parents, who, again, live around the corner from Mr. Speckman. They said, this is, uh, Wendy's mother said to me, "Oh! You're going to meet John Speckman! Whew! I hope this works out! You've got good taste!" I'm like, "Oh boy! What am I getting myself into?" So Wendy and I sat down and were just kind, you know, of chatting. She's squirming and looking all around and everything and the program started and it's quiet and all of a sudden she says, "There he is! Right over there, right over there!" I said, "Sssh!" So anyway I got, I got a chance to take a look at Mr. Speckman and, um, he looked just like Michaela had described, so through the whole thing I kind of did an analysis of, you know, do I or do I not want to meet Mr. Speckman? And if I do, you know. Basically, do I or don't I want to meet Mr. Speckman, but I felt like I would let Michaela and all of the girls down if I did not. So after the program was over Michaela came down off the stage. And she came and, uh, came with me to the little lobby of the auditorium where they were serving food. So all the Quail Girls and I were together and we were having punch and cake or whatever, and the guys and Mr. Speckman were over kind of in another area. So, uh, you know, Wendy was saying, "How are we going to do this? How are we going to do this?" And I said, "Well, you know, if it happens, it happens. If it doesn't happen I'll, I'll, you know, it can happen at another time I'm sure. We'll be in the same place another time," because minutes went by and nothing happened. So I said to Michaela, after about five or 10 more minutes, "You know, maybe this isn't the right time. Let's just leave and, and, you know, I'll, I'll just meet him another time." And all of a sudden I got this tap on the shoulder and I turned around and I looked up into the eyes of this high school boy and it was Ryan Speckman. And he said, "Don't you want to meet him?" And I fell in love with Ryan Speckman first, and I said, "Well sure!" So he went and he got him and I walked in that direction, and Mr. Speckman came over and said, "Hi! You must be Ms. Quinn." And I said, "You must be Mr. Speckman." So we introduced each other and had a few awkward moments and then we left. So the next, th, OK that was the Monday of Thanksgiving week, so I had to work the day after Thanksgiving in the medical clinic where I worked, and it was a crazy, crazy, crazy day, and Michaela called me in the middle of the day, this was on a Friday, and she said, "Guess who called and left a message?" And I said, "Who?" And she said, "Mr. Speckman!" And I said, "You're kidding!" And she said, "Are you going to call him? Are you going to call him? Are you going to call him?" So I said, "Yeah I'll call him." So I went home that night, called him, left him a message, he wasn't there. So a couple of days later, I get home from work again in the evening and there was a message that said, "Call me back, whatever time." So I called him back and we arranged to have dinner on that following Friday. So I called and talked to Michaela and I said, "Well we're going out to eat." And she said, "I knew it! I knew it! I knew it! Ryan came up to me at school and he said, `He called her! I think they're going to go out! '" And apparently another one of the Quail Girls worked at Boston Market and some of the boys who were in Ryan's group crossed the serving line and said, "He called her and he's going to ask her out!" So everybody knew before I knew that he called me and was going to ask me out! So Friday came and we were supposed to go out. I came home from work so there was a message and on the voice mail was Shelle, the girl who had this brainstorm to begin with, and she said, "Hi! This is Shelle! Just wanted to tell you good luck tonight. Don't be nervous! You'll be fine!" And I'm like, "I'm old enough to be your mother, I'm sure I'll be fine!" So everybody's eager to find out what's happening on this date. So, um, Michaela was going out and I had instructions to call her as soon as I got home, to beep her as soon as I got home so we could discuss the date. So we went out to dinner at a place where, Mr. Speckman had asked one of his sons' friends where we should go and he said that's where we should go, and so we went there to eat. And the whole evening was talk, the discussion the whole evening was how all the preparation, and all the discussion that was going on with me and the Quail Girls was also going on with John and with all Ryan's friends. And they had cleaned out the car, they called him at work and made sure that he was there in time for the date, so, I mean, we had a lovely evening, lovely evening. And, um, just talked about how funny it was that these kids were trying to, to make us meet. So the next day, um, Michaela, yeah, I called Michaela, and she said, "What did you think? What did you think?" I said, "You know, he's a very nice man, but he is so busy with his business and with his two boys that I don't even think he's even got time for another date but he, he is very nice. But if he asked me out again I'd probably go out again." So this was Friday night, early, so the next day I went out and I bought a Christmas tree and I had a lot of errands to do. In the afternoon Mr. Speckman calls and said, "Really had a good time last night." I said, "I did too. It really was fun." He said, "I'd like to do it again sometime." And I said, "Yeah I would too." So we're talking some more, and I said, "I went and got a Christmas tree." He said, "What are you going to do this evening?" I said, "I'll probably put the Christmas tree up." He said, "You know I would really like to go to McAdenville." So anyway, I said, "Cool! You want to go to McAdenville, we'll go to McAdenville." So Michaela came home and I said, "Guess what? I'm going to McAdenville." And she said, "Oh my God!" She called Shelle, Shelle was at the house in five minutes! "I can't believe it she's going out with him again! You're going out with him again!" So we went out again and we went out the next Friday and Saturday and the next Friday and Saturday and the next Friday and Saturday, and meanwhile, all the kids at school are in absolute shock that we liked each other and we were going out, I don't know what they expected. And one friend of Ryan's, Brandon said to Michaela one day, "Wouldn't it be weird if your mom and Mr. Speckman got married? And like, you moved into that house and you were taking a shower and Ryan, Ryan's your stepbrother and he's going to knock on the ba-, how weird would that be?" Michaela told me that and I said, "That is so weird." She said, "That is so weird!" Well it wasn't long before, um, probably a month or two later, she said to me, "Mom he's wonderful. Would you ask him to marry us?" Anyway, to make a long story short, about, we met in December of `95. February of '96, he asked me to marry, No! February of `97 he asked me to marry him. June of `97 we got married, and our wedding party was the Quinn girls and the Speckman boys, and the guest list was the Quail Girls and all of Ryan's friends and they all lived happily ever after.