Warm thoughts

Jennifer: "After Cory and I meet we exchange information and kind of start talking to each other on a regular basis, developing a relationship. That's when cell phones were just starting.

Cory: "There were no rollover minutes."

Jennifer: "Cory says, I think I want to come out to see you in Chicago; I've never been out to Chicago.' I said all right, that's fine, and he comes Thanksgiving weekend. I told Cory to bring his winter coat because we were probably going to Chicago to see the Christmas lights at Marshall Field's. So I pick him up at the airport and he's got a windbreaker on and I say, 'Where's your winter coat? and he says, "This is my winter coat." I said 'Oooookaaay,' because at night you needed the parka. We went to Chicago for the weekend and out with friends."

Jennifer, turning to Cory: "My dad offered you his winter coat, but you were too manly to accept it."

Cory, turning to Jennifer: "I could never have imagined how cold it was really going to be. Nothing in my mind would have ever related it. The highest up in the (Maryland) I would have been was probably (near) Pennsylvania, but never during the fall season. So Chicago being around the lake, I had no concept of 1) where i was even going, and 2) the wind was just incredible."

Jennifer: "So there we were walking around downtown walking around the Marshall Field's lights, and you had your little windbreaker. You didn't (complain), probably because your teeth were frozen shut, but I remember your lips were chattering. You had to have been miserable."

Cory: "I had blue lips. Her and her girlfriends were yukking it up, (saying things like), 'Nice date you brought there, Jen.' It was my first experience with cold, and I just grinded right through it."

It was all worth it for the Ferrells, who celebrated their first anniversary in February.