Friday, March 17, 2006

Jessica R. and Corey H.'s Love Story

Boy met girl:

We met through school/church a little over a year ago. I hung out with some of the people in his group but decided they didn't like me and thought that maybe they were a little immature. He claims he thought I was emo and painted my nails black, which I don't think I have...ever.


Proof that first impressions aren't everything:

Despite the fact that I thought he was immature and he thought I had a bad sense of fashion a year later we started getting to know each other better. It's all because I was trying to get a bunch of Colorado people together in September and found his number (Note: I did not stalk him!)I sent out a text to all the CO people I knew and he happened to respond. But the party never happened and he didn't even know it was me until...

A day or two later it came up in conversation and he figured out it was me. Cat is out of the bag now and ball is in Cor's court.


Disclaimer:

At this point in my life I had decided to let things just happen and not be the girl who starts things. I decided to say yes to dates if and when I was asked but I did not plan or provoke such things.

Over the course of a couple of days Cor and I happened to go to the same social events. A BBQ here and crepe party there and a night of watching 17 Again.


The first Date:


I loved it! Very casual and nothing to worry about, Cor suddenly gets a craving for ice cream and before I know it he's on his way to pick me up and take me to DQ at 11:00 at night. I did not know DQ was open so late and this was exciting news to me. Is it ok to admit that I was really impressed with his truck? I had to pick my jaw up off the ground before climbing inside. What can I say I'm a sucker for trucks.


Disclaimer:


Even though I said I was not going to put out an indication I might be a little more interested, I still did with Corey. I wasn't even sure I was a little more interested.

After that we spent every day together until Thanksgiving break. He was impressed that I liked to watch sports and I was impressed with finding another side to the fun (not immature) Corey.


And now:

We're engaged!

He surprised me with a "Christmas" dinner when I got back to Co on the 31st. We exchanged gifts and ate by candle light. It was the most romantic thing Corey has done for me and yes I was teary eyed.

And then he asked if I was ready for dessert...

The room was dark except for the candles so I didn't see the ring and barely saw what was written before I realized he was on his knee asking me to marry him.

Sarah Hu. and Adam A.'s Love Story

Adam and I met in choir at BYU and lived in the same apartment complex. We dated for two months, broke up for six-and-a-half months, and finally started dating again. We quickly realized that we wanted to be together forever.


One Saturday (so two weeks after our first date the second time around), Adam and I had a choir concert in SLC. On the way back to my home, we marveled at how our time apart had helped us.


On this drive, Adam bravely brought up a risky topic: “So, if this were to go long-term,…….have you thought about timing at all?” I told him, “Yes….” (You see—Adam has an internship in Austin from May to August, and we both knew that we were in it for the long run…so if we wanted to get married soon, it would have to be in May, before going to Austin, or in August, after being apart all summer, after Adam’s internship, and right before school started. That was no bueno.)


Through the course of our conversation, Adam and I realized that we wanted to get married—and in May. From that point we were “unofficially engaged” and decided to tell only our parents.


Three days later, Adam asked my dad for his permission. Wednesday, we went ring shopping. Friday, we had a splendid date. Adam said to me, “I have something to show you, but it has to be in the morning…like early. Can I pick you up around 6:40?” I, mostly unaware of what was going on, told him yes.


All bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, Adam picked me up in the morning, and we drove to the Mt. Timpanogos Temple. We walked over to the east side and had a lovely talk about all sorts of things, particularly about covenants, while watching a beautiful sunrise come over the mountain. After the sun rose, Adam had me sit down on a bench. He knelt down, said some wonderfully romantic things, and asked me to marry him. :)


I am thrilled beyond belief! I still can hardly believe how perfectly everything has turned out. Adam is the man of my dreams, and I’m so excited that he and I get to spend eternity together.

Mercedes B. and Trefton D.'s Love Story

As I was beginning my second trimester in the 10th grade, I was looking forward to my new classes. I enjoyed school, and I loved to learn and be with friends. I rarely had friends in my classes however, and I knew that this trimester wasn’t going to be any different. I walked into my new third period, algebra. With a big smile on my face, I sat in front of a kid I had seen but never spoken to.


By the second week of class, this so called “kid”, or Trefton, had asked me to give him all of my past assignments. It was for him to “look over” he said. I however, knew his real intentions. We had an older teacher, quite ornery, and never cracked a smile. Thankfully she never caught on to our awful act, so we continued to do it every day. I didn’t care, he was cute. He didn’t care; he didn’t have to do any work.


Trefton played sports and was popular. He had wavy brown hair, big brown eyes, and so hilarious! He was tall, very masculine and all the girls were in love with him. He dated the cheer leaders, the more outgoing and confident girls. I played sports, and was more on the quite side when it came to boys. We were opposites.
As weeks went by, he wasn’t just a kid who copied off my papers; we started to have real conversations. We would talk, laugh, and joke about things that had nothing to do with math. I couldn’t wait to get to school, just to see him, just to talk to him in third period.


We began to talk outside of class; he even got my number and called me sometimes. He thrived off of teasing me, or laughing about the jokes that he had to repeat three times because I never got them. He came over to my house once just to show me his new car. He was so excited and talked and pointed at all of the new and improved gadgets. I had no idea what he was talking about but I pretended anyways. He was funny, mysterious and different than all the other boys. I wanted a part of him, even if he wasn’t aware of that.


We officially went on our first double date on Valentine’s Day of our sophomore year, with my grandparents and all the grandkids. We went bowling and then to Arby’s for dinner. Talk about romantic. We dated the rest of that year, and then broke up. We were immature, and weren’t ready for anything serious, so we went our ways. He dated, and I dated and we were fine with that. During that period we began to become best friends. He would call and complain about the crazy girl that took him to harvest, and I would explain to him about the creepy kid that wouldn’t leave me alone. We always gave each other advice, laughed about awkward subjects and talked constantly.


It was the summer of our senior year when we realized we still had feelings for each other. I had knee surgery that summer, and he came over to watch a movie with me, just to keep me company. We began joking like old times, watching the movie and began to talk. We talked about why we broke up, where we were at that time in our lives, and what we wanted. He kissed me that day, and our relationship started all over again. The time apart let us grow up, we dated others and it was our “ah-ah” moment that we needed to be together.


I’m currently going to school at BYU-I, and he is in Boise attending Northwest Lineman college. We both knew so long ago, to be together forever was what we wanted. Now, exactly 4 years later from that Valentines date, he purposed and we are thrilled as ever!!

Sara Ha. and JT W.'s Love Story

How did we meet? I met JT in passing my first semester of college. He’s my best friend’s cousin and so I saw him occasionally during my first year or so. It was not until general conference of October 2009 that everything changed! JT had three general conference tickets and so he asked his cousin if she would like to come and bring a friend…and I was the lucky friend! What a great way to get to know a guy’s character than going with him to listen to a prophet of the Lord. We had such a wonderful time together (along with being spiritually edified)! A few weeks later he was at my apartment (to see his cousin of course) and he very suavely asked me on a date for that Friday…to a Utah Jazz game. The date ended up being over 8 hours long: we got caught in some crazy traffic in Salt Lake and later watched a scary movie (JT told me later that he just wanted an excuse to put his arm around me). I enjoyed every second of it! And the rest is history! :)


There are a lot of sweet moments with JT. He is just so good to me. One thing that really gets me is watching my nieces interact with him. It is precious. There is nothing like watching a darling man with kids! It just makes your heart melt! Especially since my nieces are always super excited to see their “Uncle J” and want him to sleep over. Cute cute cute.

Oh goodness, JT and I are just silly sometimes. Haha, but here’s a funny story that we’re still teased about. I was sitting a kitchen table talking to some people when JT came up behind me and put a hand on my shoulder. So naturally I reached up and grabbed it and then decided I wanted the other hand too. So I reached up and grabbed that one too. It took me a few seconds to realize that the second hand I was holding on to was not the same as the other one…on the contrary, it was significantly smaller. I had accidently grabbed my sister’s hand. Oops! JT and I still laugh about that!

JT was the first boy to ever make me cry….

I never cry. I don’t cry in movies, girls camp, boys, school…you name it. Somehow I had found a way to suppress tears in every situation. In high school, I even had some friends who called me a “rock” because they had never seen me shed a tear! The night JT proposed to me was elated…above and beyond cloud nine! We both were beaming and laughing and just SO happy and filled with love! Then the strangest thing happened…my eyes started to water….and then tears started to form…and before I knew it, I was crying! I was crying and laughing and crying and laughing some more. I was just so happy that I couldn’t help myself! Oh, and the way JT was smiling at me just made me cry even more! I couldn’t believe that I was so lucky to have JT be with me forever!

So he is officially the first boy to make me cry….and oh, how I love him!

Katie M. and Braedon G.'s Love Story

Now on to the fun stuff. Mine and Braedon's story.

I was never a girl to look for that "fairytale" or "movie" type story, but somehow it found me. Prepare yourself for some good cheesiness - I'll try and keep it short. Braedon and I met in the sixth grade when I had switched schools because of my family moving. At the time (and still a little to this day) I was an extremely hyper and energetic girl. He was a fun loving nerd of a boy. We instantly became friends, best friends in fact. After awhile I soon realized that Braedon had a crush on me (he will even attest to it, so it wasn't in my head). I of course being the hyper tom-boy that I was did not have the same feelings for him. I loved him, but only like a brother - and was always saying so to others. Well we continued to be great friends all through middle school and high school and the whole time he still had a crush on me (again he will tell you the same thing). I got pretty good at ignoring it and making sure to use the word "friend" a lot. Now don't get me wrong, I cared for Braedon a lot, and at times would even say that I had started to like him, but the timing would never seem to work out and I would go back to just thinking him as my best friend. Well we went to Jr. Prom together and it was shortly thereafter that I finally started to admit to myself that I had more feelings towards him then just those of the platonic nature. So that summer I decided to turn on the 'charm' (if it can even be called that) and give him the clues that I liked him. If you ask him there were no such clues, but I promise there was. It took him till the end of the summer to finally get the courage to ask me how I felt about him. For him to have the courage at all to ask me, once again, about how I felt is pretty amazing to me. I of course responded in a most positive way and we soon started dating. Braedon is my first and only everything - hand holding, relationship, kiss (which was in the rain up in the mountains too might I add), "I love you", etc.

We dated all through our senior year of high school and then a year after. He then was called to serve an LDS Mission to St. Louis MO. We knew it was coming, but nothing could prepare us for how hard those two years would be. While we both knew it was the right thing to do, going through something like that is not something I would wish on anyone. But I waited for him, wrote him every week, and we both grew stronger and more in love with each other as those two years past. Then as his mission was winding down there were plans made for his family to drive down to MO to pick him up and visit families there. On their way back they were going to be stopping in Moab. Me and Braedon's mom got to talking about it and cooked up a little plan. We got permission from his Mission President and decided that I would meet them in Moab and surprise him by being there. It was one of the hardest secrets to keep, but we all did it and he had not a clue of what was happening. I sat (stood, paced, fidgeted, etc) in the hotel room as I waited for him and his family to walk in. That last 15 minutes seemed longer then the whole two years. But finally Braedon walked in and was dumbfounded. I have never seen him so confused and stunned before. After the initial shock wore off he came over and gave me a great big hug. Best. Hug. Ever. I don't think I realized how much I didn't feel whole with him gone and I never know I could love someone so much. It felt so right having him back and in my arms, and we both knew that all our waiting had paid off.

Well if you haven't been able to tell the end of the story by now, I'll fill in the last bits for ya. We waited a month before we got engaged on November 16th - this is another cute story but I'm afraid of how long this is getting so I'll leave it out. We aren't getting married till May because I'm currently enrolled at UVU as a Mathematics Major and will be graduating in April. We felt it best for me to finish up school so I wouldn't have too many distractions my last semester of school. May 13th can't come soon enough though. I couldn't imagine a better person to spend the rest of my life with. He is wonderful. I am so glad that he waited so long for me so that I could wait for him and that I get to marry my best friend for 10 years once and for all!

Katrina Q. and Jared B.'s Love Story

Jared and I met WAY back in the day. I think I was 13 and he was nearing 15. He was the best friend of my best friend's older brother and we had bother heard stories about each other. My friend was madly in love with Jared and decided that I had to meet him. So the day came for the introduction and neither of us were really prepared (at that age something like this is definitely a big deal, haha); Jared tried to climb out onto the roof to avoid meeting me and I ran beneath the stair landing to avoid meeting him. Thus started our long love/hate relationship.


Nearly every weekend for the next three years we saw each other at our friends' house, playing night games, which were our version of "grown-up tag." When I was 15 we suddenly discovered that we had crushes on each other at the same time, but we quickly found out that our extremely similar personalities made arguments at the ready. As I entered the dating game at age 16, we both began drifting our separate ways until we no longer saw each other often and rarely spoke. And this is when I had a dream. I dreamed one night of my wedding day but saw nothing of my groom except his eyes: dark green around the outside of the irises and progressing to gold around the pupil. This vivid dream struck me and I wrote it in my journal then shared it with my mother.


Years later, after Jared returned from his mission and had been home nearly a year, we began corresponding again. We had connected on Facebook and began to catch up. One thing led to another and we began seeing each other again. After realizing the old flame had been rekindled and that we were mature enough to handle our numerous similarities, we began dating. As we started dating we discovered that it was easy, everything seemed natural between us. From holding hands for the first time to sharing our first kiss, nothing was awkward or forced, but felt completely right and natural, as if we had been doing this our whole lives. We were at complete ease around each other, able to fully and absolutely be ourselves.


It was winter when we had begun dating, and sun had been nowhere to be seen in several months. One day, Jared told me about his eyes: "They're really weird when I get sunlight in them. There is a dark green ring around them and then the inside turns to gold." My heart nearly stopped beating. He had described the eyes I had seen in my dream years and years before. I said nothing of it, but waited for a day of sun, making him promise to show me his eyes. When this day finally came I was completely awe-struck. I looked into his eyes and looked into the eyes I had seen in my dream. I knew then that I would love him forever and be his forever.