Once upon a time....

Once upon a time I met this boy. All great stories start with once upon a time and this one is great at least for me. So once upon a time...Yep he was a boy, in fact my first impression of was WAY CUTE, but I thought that he was too young; every mutual acquaintance we knew was just leaving on their mission and I was not going to get interested in a younger guy. I had just finished my first internship for school and had one year left until I graduated. Some guys in my ward came to help me move into my new apartment and he came along to help (apparently someone told him a cute girl was moving into 12C). Our apartment was kind of a hangout for whoever and Officer was there a lot.

That fall we tried to get a group of us together one Friday night and go to a fair/rodeo in a nearby town. Like many other college Friday night’s, plans changed rather quickly and it ended up being just him and me that went. I didn’t have any intent of this being a date, but I think he felt obligated when it was just us. I found out later that he overdrew his account just to pay for admission to the rodeo. Sorry Love! A few weeks later I found out that my grandma and grandpa were staying in Idaho Falls for her birthday. My grandma and I have always had a special relationship and I wanted to surprise her with a cake and a card with a five dollar bill (just like she had always done when I was a kid) since she wasn't far away. My car Trixy was not the most reliable vehicle, so I turned to Officer. Really, I knew if I asked anything of him he would do it; I guess I kind of took advantage of the situation. I called him (a bold move on my part I think) to see if he wanted to take the afternoon and drive to Idaho Falls with me. He told me later and swears he was preparing himself to call me and ask me out for that night. Anyway he jumped at the opportunity and we took off that afternoon. I wanted to just doorbell ditch a cake on the room of their hotel, but nothing gets by grandma. She caught me. I talked with her for just a minute; her first question was, “who is this young man?” I just said a friend. She invited in for cake, but we planned to go out to eat, so we compromised with coming back for cake after dinner. We get to the restaurant and look over the menu when he looks at me from across the table and says, so if I pay is this considered a date? I laughed. Sure, why not it was free dinner for me. I don’t recall much of the conversation, but I’ll never forget the waiter winking at him (it was a waiter, not a waitress).

I guess that's kind of where it all started for us. I'm sure I could fill you in on a billion details, but I'll just sum it up. We both dated other people for a while and then about 6 months later we just kind of ended up together. He invited me to a concert and on the way home we drove all night in a blizzard. 25 mph on the freeway makes a trip quite long, but we found a lot to talk about. We started spending a lot of time together after that and 4 weeks later I was going to be moving to start my final internship before I graduated. He proposed March 2nd, 2003 after we took a trip to visit my parents. This is hilarious really. He wanted to talk to my dads, he was pretty nervous even though it wasn't really an asking permission thing. My dad ended up in the ER that night from some kind of food poisoning before he had a chance to him talk about it - not a good sign - it just made him more nervous. Once that was over he wanted to make it official and took me to the Temple grounds on our way out of town. As he got down on one knee to ask me, I could see a security guard in the background walking up toward us. It kind of ruined it for me, I was trying not to laugh or cry - I hate getting in trouble. I think he was disappointed that I didn't cry. It was late and long story short - we got kicked off the temple grounds. We joked after that that they probably had photos hanging up somewhere with instructions not to let us come back, of course we knew that wasn't the case. It didn't go as he had planned, but it was a memorable proposal anyway. I wouldn't have had it any other way. We did the long distance thing for 4 months and after I graduated we moved to Sugarhouse(I lived with grandma, he lived in our apartment - had to clarify).

This is getting to be a forever long post - sorry. If you've made it this far keep going, it only gets better, for us anyway.

Then we had this magical day 5 years ago today and we got married! It was a beautiful day, you can't ask for any better in the bay area. After the ceremony and pictures on the Temple grounds we needed to change because it was an hour drive back to the luncheon and reception. It just so happened that Officer gave our temple recommends to his brother to hang onto during pictures and it just happened that he left early for the drive back. It was the craziest thing - we really weren't going to be allowed to go back into the temple. Thank heavens for this little man who snuck me past the front desk. The rest of the day went off without any hiccups - at least that we knew of. I'm so grateful for my in-laws and my family because trying to plan an out of state wedding while you're in one state and your fiance is in another and the wedding is in another...to complicated for me. Officer and I really didn't have to worry about anything as far as planning goes. It was a happy day and we left that night for Monterrey, CA for our honeymoon - that was a surprise for me, I didn't find out until the reception. We started our happily ever after life together...

And we have lived happily ever after, it's true we have not so good days, but it's a lot easier together. I love you

O

this much!

(a circle is forever)

Happy Anniversary!