About five months later, Jeannie, Dr. Todd’s receptionist sent Tammy a postcard to remind her to make an appointment for her next cleaning.  Tammy set up the appointment for the morning of January 28, 2004.  When Tammy arrived at Dr. Todd’s office that cold morning, Lisa was leaning over Jeannie’s desk grinning.  She was talking with another patient that she had made wait until Tammy arrived.  The matchmaker introduced Tammy to Jason.  After talking for a few minutes they exchanged email addresses and started corresponding.  A few weeks later, they met for lunch at Chili’s and started dating. 

As Tammy and Jason got to know each other, they discovered that they not only had both grown up in the Decatur area and had shared a dentist for most of their lives, but there was another time their paths could have crossed.  When Jason was a senior at the U of I, he lived on the fifth floor-south of the men’s dorm at ISR.  Tammy was a junior and lived on the third floor of the women’s dorm at ISR.  She also had season basketball tickets with two of the guys on Jason’s floor that he knew.  Now why didn’t someone introduce them fifteen years ago?  Who knows how many times they passed each other in the hall or sat at a nearby table in the dinning room?  Jason’s theory is never.  He says he would have remembered Tammy.

The spring of 2004 became a busy time for Jason.  He was asked to be the assistant baseball coach at Virginia High School where he taught high school math.  Tammy and her grown puppy, Max, often drove the hour plus drive to watch Jason help coach his high school baseball team.  In May Jason took Tammy to the prom.  Since she didn’t go to her own senior prom, she was excited even to be a chaperone.  They had a wonderful time.

Since Jason and Tammy are both teachers, they both have their summers off.  This gave them a lot of time to spend together.  They worked on things around Tammy’s house like yard work and painting the shed.  They took a dance class together.  Jason even learned to use Tammy’s sewing machine.  In late July, they went to Sevierville, Tennessee with Jason’s parents, sister and brother-in-law.  They had a ball white water rafting, but got even wetter another day during the sudden colossal downpour that turned their Smokey Mountain trail into a raging river for the 2 mile hike back to the cars.  Unfortunately the camera was wet and wouldn’t take pictures.  It was a fun time returning to the resort!

It was late in the evening of October 30, 2004, when Jason proposed.  He had only purchased Tammy’s beautiful ring the day before, but couldn’t keep the secret any longer.  Of course Tammy immediately said yes!

By the way, Dr. Todd retired in March of 2004.  It is a good thing that Tammy and Jason take good care of their teeth and that Lisa and Jeannie did their matchmaking when they did!  The timing was finally right for Tammy! 

..... and the story continues.