Introduction

All couples have a story. Generally when someone asks “How did you meet” you get a simple answer, “oh, we were in the same ward” “mutual friend” “we had a class together.” Well, I wanted to take this question above and beyond. It has been four and a half years since we have met and the more time that goes by, the more details that are forgotten. It is time to write and preserve our story. Although I started writing this just as a journal entry for ourselves, I realized that my computer could crash and I could lose it forever. So, I decided to post it online so that it can be safe. As long as I am posting it I figure I may as well let others read it. I really don’t expect anyone read it. I do realize it is long and detailed and most people probably don’t care. But, it is open if you want to. Be aware that this is written from my point of view. Of course we have since discussed our thoughts and feelings of the times when we were dating, but this is just me writing it out. If Nick needs to correct anything he can comment and fix the story.

Events Leading to Our Meeting

Lindsey. I had completed my Sophomore year of College at BYU and was starting to think about where I wanted to live for my junior year and who I wanted to live with. Living with my sophomore year roommates had been so much fun but I had a little problem that I couldn’t get out of my mind: I had a hard time making friends on my own. I am a shy person and I don’t like to talk to people that I don’t know. Actually, I am a shy person and almost can’t talk to people I don’t know without wanting to run and hide and never show my face again. I went to BYU my freshman year rooming with someone that I knew. She made friends. I made friends with her friends. They made friends. I made friends with their friends etc. I knew that it was time I started over by myself and learned to make my own friends. Next year would be the perfect year to do it. I would be attending BYU in the fall and then attending a study abroad/internship in Romania for the winter. I would find a place that would let me sign a one semester contract (very hard to find such a place) and live with people I did not know. That is exactly what I did. I found a place, gave them a deposit, and then went home for the summer. Everything was arranged. I showed up a few days before school started ready to check in to my apartment and get to know new people. But there was a problem. When I showed up to check in to my apartment they claimed I never gave them a deposit and they gave away my apartment! I was enraged! I sure did give them a $500 deposit and I proved it. My dad was with me and called the bank and had them fax over a copy of the check that they cashed. “Opps, sorry” was all they could say. After telling me that it was too late, they were full , and they would mail me a refund , they left me on the street with my suitcase and nowhere to live. I will just skip on to say that I did find a nice landlord who owned a condo that had an open spot and he let me sign a one semester contract. So I found myself living in a very nice condo with roommates who had been roommates the previous year and did not like the fact that a new girl moved in at the last minute…but they were nice to me anyway.
I may as well make a note here about my previous dating experiences since going to BYU. I dated plenty of guys but none that had a chance of going anywhere. There were lots of great guys, but just because someone is great on paper does not mean they are the right one. I was wondering if I was even capable of completely falling for someone.

Nick. Nick had been home from his mission for over a year and was also going to be a junior at BYU. He was living in a condo with two friends from his freshman year. Nick is also a shy type person. His shyness wasn’t usually a problem with making friends, just asking girls out. Although he had been asked out by many girls, he had asked very few of out and had never kissed anyone before. Part of it was shyness but the other part was laziness…he did not feel like planning dates. He also would not ask a girl out unless he was one hundred percent sure that they would say yes. It kind of worked out that in past any girl he was getting close to dating had plans to leave the country so he never really had to worry about anything developing into a relationship. I guess he was kind of a heart breaker. Girls would like Nick and he would either not even know about it or not really care. Random Story: a few girls were over at Nick’s apartment watching a movie, including a girl who liked Nick. Sometime during the movie, Nick noticed that the girl was not watching the movie…she was just watching him. I guess it was things like this that made Nick uncomfortable in the dating scenario.

The Meeting

I guess officially we met at a Family Home Evening activity on my birthday. We were both there and everyone introduced themselves. Sadly, we have no recollection of even seeing each other that day. He remembered that it was someone’s birthday but I guess we did not particularly take note of each other. Our first real memory happened three days after that FHE activity. We had a ward Luau at a stake center in Mapleton. I was nervous about the Luau of course, because I was scared to go to an activity where I knew nobody. I rode to the activity with my new roommates. However, when we got there I noticed that one of my friends from a semester in Hawaii was in my ward. I was relieved to know somebody and happily joined her and roommates. I did start to panic an hour later when she announced that she needed to leave early. I couldn’t leave early because I had ridden with my roommates. So, as my friend left I quickly scanned the room looking for my roommates. I needed to sit with them because I at least knew them better than I knew anyone else. The only seat at their table was across from them next to a boy. I did not want to sit by that boy. I figured he would feel obligated to talk to me and we would be stuck in some awkward conversation that neither of us wanted to have. But, I had no choice, so I sat by him. Really it wasn’t so bad. I don’t remember too much of what we talked about. I remember that someone said he just got called as a Sunday school teacher and that I should go to his class on Sunday. I figure the rest of what we talked about was the usual conversation….I was from South Carolina, he was from Oregon. I was a Marriage Family Human Development major and he was majoring in electrical engineering. I was the oldest of six kids, he was the youngest of six kids. We ended up with a picture of our first conversation. It is blurry because someone took it on a cell phone camera and we are just in the background. But, when I look at that picture it is funny to think that we had no idea what that conversation was going to lead to.

Get to Know Another

I guess the only way Nick was ever going to actually start dating someone was by being in the same ward. It gives so much opportunity to get to know someone without putting any effort into it. You don’t have to ask out on dates, call, or visit. Basically, you just need to show up at church activities.
The Sunday after the ward activity, Nick and his roommates ended up sitting by us at church. Here was the line up: my roommates, me, empty seat, Nick, Nick’s roommates. I don’t know what was up with the empty seat but it didn’t stop Nick from saying a few things to me. Nick was reviewing his lesson during Sacrament meeting and asked if I would participate in his lesson by reading something. I agreed. In the last hour of church I remember we both got called out of our classes at the same time to have our pictures taken for the ward directory. I ended up behind him in the line and we talked some. This was when I started to realize that I might have a little crush on him. Mostly, I just remember when I was finished and started to walk out that I turned around to wave and smile at him and he seemed shocked. I remember him seeing me wave and his eyes just got huge and he had a look of shock on his face and he didn’t wave back. It mostly seemed like he was thinking “wow, is she waving at me?” but I was still embarrassed. Nick remembers this a little differently. He remembers smiling back at me. He also remembers that it was the first time he noticed my smile…and he liked it. I I do remember going home from church that day and telling my roommate Debbie that I had a crush on him.
The rest of “getting to know each other” happened at church activities. I remember I missed an FHE activity and he noticed that I was not there. However, we also found out that we both had our last class of the day in the same building so we would sometimes walk home together. Mostly, I remember getting impatient. I thought that he had had plenty of time to ask me out. In past experience a guy would get my number or ask me out on a first meeting. However, we had been bumping into each other for a few weeks and he didn’t even care to ask me out. You have to realize that I did not know anything about his past dating experience. I didn’t know that it was uncommon for him to ask anyone out. So in my mind it was hopeless and in his mind he thought he was doing pretty good. I began to give up hope on the idea that he would ever ask me out. He got close once though. At ward prayer, he asked if I wanted to watch “Emperors New Groove” with some people at his house that night and he got my phone number to call me when it was ready. I guess he desperately searched for the movie and a group of people to watch it with us because he really did not want us to watch it alone. I remember I was very uncomfortable the whole time because two of the girls in the room were texting each other back and forth and laughing the whole time. It definitely was not a date though. He did not walk me home.

First Date

The next day I received a phone call. I was surprised to see that Nick was actually calling me. He said “a few of us are going to a concert. I know Brandon and Brian (his roommates) are going. Would you like to come.” He said he would call later in the week to let me know the time and everything. I was so confused. Was it a date? He definitely did not make it sound like a date. I relayed the conversation to my roommate Amy and we probably spent days hashing over the conversation trying to figure out if it was a date or not. Luckily Brian came to the rescue. Brian had something he called “the rounds.” Pretty much every night he would hop from apartment to apartment (of girls of course) to hang out. He had recently added my apartment to his rounds and was able to answer the question for me. Yes. It was a date. I remembered he laughed when I told him how unclear it was to me and he said “yeah, that’s Nick.”
Nick called me the night before the “date” to arrange a time to pick me up. The problem was, I didn’t get out of class until six and the concert started at seven and was a half an hour away and he wanted to take me to dinner. Nick’s solution: I will pick you up at 6:15, we will go to Costa Vida, and you can eat in the car and I will just eat later. So that is what we did. I remember how funny I thought it was that I had to eat in the car…and it made me uncomfortable that he wasn’t eating and did not eat at all that night. His food just sat in the car. He was very gentlemanly on that date. He opened the doors for me, was polite, etc. However, there was no hand holding or touching in any way. Still not knowing Nick’s dating history, I assumed that his meant that this was a “friends” thing.
During the date he did asked me if I would be attending the BYU football game the next day. I let him know that I had not bought an all sports pass that year because I would be leaving for Romania. He told me to call him the next day if I wanted to go to the game because he would probably be able to get a ticket for me.
The doorstep scene was probably as awkward as any door step scene after the first date. I thanked him and hugged him although if I had known that he was not used to door step scenes, I probably would have been too scared to hug him. But, not knowing I just hugged him and said goodnight.


The next day I debated a long time whether or not to call him to go to the game. I didn’t want to be too forward but I did like him and it would be an opportunity to get to know him better. Finally, without realizing what I was doing I called him. Brian answered Nick’s cell phone and let me know that Nick was in the shower. I was kind of irritated that Brian answered because now I would not be able to leave a message and I figured Brian would forget to tell him. I did not realize at the time that it was a big deal that I called Nick and that is why Brian answered. For all I know Brian probably jumped in the shower with Nick to relay the message. Nick did call back…he got me a ticket and he and his roommates gave me a ride. Still though throughout the game, there were no signs that Nick liked me more than a friend.
Note: Nick says when he called to ask me out for the first time, he purposely made it not sound like a date. He said that it wouldn’t make me obligated to say yes and he didn’t have to feel as embarrassed for asking me on a date.

Great Buddies

So from that point I just considered us great buddies. We were seeing each other one way or another every single day. We watched movies, walked home together, I invited him over to eat snow cones from my snow cone maker, etc. He didn’t ask me out on an official date and he did not hold my hand or put him arm around me or even poke me. Oh we were such great buddies. I remember talking all of this over with my roommate Amy and she was convinced that he liked me but I was not. If he liked me he would show some kind of affection. I am probably making this sound like it went on for years. At this point, we had known each other for probably a month. Again, this behavior was not what I was used to. If a guy liked you, you would at least be holding hands on the first date. One night Nick was trying to teach me to shoot rubber bands. We were shooting them around the room and running after them. Once, we both went to pick up the same rubber band and our hands touched. Nick flinched and dropped the rubber band and pretty much put his hand behind his back. I must have had cooties.

I remember the first night that I realized we might be more than just great buddies. We were at his house watching a movie. We were sitting close enough that our shoulders were kind of touching. I was trying to decide if shoulders touching meant true love when I noticed his hand get closer to mine. This means that it went from being a foot away to about ten inches away. I pretended to watch the movie but really out of the corner of my eye I was watching the hand to see if it would get closer. It did. Every few minutes it would move like an inch…until it was about an inch away. It seemed to be stuck there. I almost felt sorry for him and decided that maybe he was trying to hold my hand and decided to apply the Hitch 90/10 rule. This rule was meant for kissing…the guy goes 90% of the way and lets the girl go the other 10%. In other words, I just grabbed his hand. Probably one of the more aggressive things I have done. After holding hands for a few seconds he just said, “ I have a big hand.” I told him it was just fine. A few minutes later Brian walked in and I remember he just stared at the fact that we were holding hands. In my mind Nick wanted to throw my hand and then kick me out of the house. But he didn’t.

Our First Kiss

I guess that’s when things really started going. I knew now that we were more than great buddies. I was scared that Nick would be too scared to ever hold my hand again, but he wasn’t. It became natural for him. I guess after about a week of holding it became time to start thinking about the next step…our first kiss.
In my mind, this is something you don’t think about or plan. It just happens. I guess I better just admit the fact that I had kissed a lot of guys and I had even kissed on a first date. It wasn’t a big deal to me. I never thought about it, I just let it happen. But the truth about Nick was made known to me by Brian. Brian was doing the rounds and was at our house….he let it all be known. Nick had never had a girlfriend, he had never kissed anyone, he was scared to death to kiss me, etc. I guess that after the whole hand holding incident I shouldn’t have been surprised by this news, but I was. I didn’t realize people could go 22 years without kissing anyone. So, suddenly I began to feel pressure. There was pressure everywhere. Everyone kept saying everyday “this has to happen tonight.”The fact that he was freaking out was making me freak out. The more time that went by, the more freaked out I got. It was like the more time that went by, the more scared he must be. So I think I started freaking out at the doorstep every night and just hug him and walk in my apartment without really giving him a chance.
Nick is seven inches taller than me. Kissing takes a little effort….he has to bend down and I have to be looking up. So, it is not just a matter of leaning a few inches forward after a hug…it is a seven inch plummet. Anyway, one night I realized that I haven’t been giving him a good chance. I decided that I needed to look up at him so that he didn’t have to like grab my face or anything to kiss me. So, after we hugged, I looked up at him. He completely freaked out. His eyes got all big and wide and he had completely frozen and saying he looked terrified would be an understatement. So then I freaked out, I turned around and tried to jam my key into the door but I was freaking out too much to get the key in the door. I looked over just in time to see him running full speed around a corner.
Of course I decided that I was never going to look at him again. Especially on the doorstep. It was all just too much. I decided that I needed to give him a deadline (not tell him the deadline, just have a deadline in my head). I decided that if he did not kiss me by his birthday I was just going to give up and forget the whole thing and just go back to being great buddies because I couldn’t stand the pressure. What I didn’t know at the time was that Nick had also set a deadline for himself...he knew he had to kiss me by his birthday as well. Somehow it all came together. After his birthday party given by his friends, we watched a movie, he walked me home, and on the doorstep I looked up and he gave me the quickest littlest peck in the world and then took off running. But I was ecstatic. I ran straight into Amy’s room where we jumped up and down and screamed until we woke up Debbie and then she came and jumped and screamed with us. I guess that’s just what girls do. Meanwhile, Nick casually walks into his apartment and doesn’t say anything about it to his roommates for hours. I guess that is the difference between boys and girls.

Dating

And so things were going great from there. We were officially in a relationship. I know we never really had a DTR but I remember something was said to make it known that we considered ourselves a couple. I remember we usually liked to watch movies or TV every night. Sometimes we would go out and do things: divine comedy, dinner, corn maze, pirate cruise, dollar movies, etc. We would sometimes cook dinner together or make desserts. Somewhere during this time, our roommates starting dating…Amy and Brandon. We would often hang out with them. Things were going so well in my mind. I was dating a guy that I actually liked. There were good things and bad things to the relationship though. I liked that he was such a good person and never got angry. I loved that I could be myself with him and that we could have fun just being in each other’s company. I didn’t feel the need to tap dance to entertain him. However, I didn’t like that he rarely complimented me and seemed so indifferent about everything. During this time I was preparing to leave for Romania. Sure, I was sad that I actually found a guy I liked and that I was going to have to leave. However, it was not going to stop me from going. As the semester came to an end I really did not feel good about going to Romania. I know that nobody believed me and probably still don't believe me, but my decision not to go to Romania had nothing to do with Nick. I was not going to give up such an opportunity for a guy that I had known for three months. So, I cancelled my arrangements to go to Romania and made arrangements to keep living in my apartment. Shortly after my announcement not to go, things began to get weird. I felt something weird going on with Nick. He seemed distant. I knew he was going to break up with me. The last day I was in Utah before going home for Christmas break was miserable. I wasn’t leaving until that night and all of my roommates had already left. Usually after church every Sunday, Nick and I would hang out. I especially thought we would since we would not being seeing each other for the next two weeks. But Nick wasn’t calling. He did call about an hour before I was supposed to leave and asked if he could stop by to give me a present. Even though I was mad at this point and wanted to tell him no, I agreed. After all, I did have a present for him too. He stopped by, we exchanged gifts, he barely looked at me, barely kissed me, and left. I knew that we were over.

The Break Up

The whole plane ride home my sister had to listen to me whine and complain. I told her we were over and I really did feel like he had already broken up with me. She tried to comfort me and tell me that I was over analyzing.
After I had been home about two days I received a phone call from Nick. I hated that phone call. We made small talk for a few minutes before he announced that he felt we had reached the point in our relationship where we either break up or talk about getting married. I did not feel like we had reached any points. We had only been dating three months and I liked the way things were going. I wanted to continue to date to see where things would lead. This was pretty much how he wanted to leave the conversation until I beat more out of him. He told me that since I was the only girlfriend he had ever had, he had no idea if what he felt for me was special or how he would feel about anyone. He had nothing to compare me to and felt he needed more dating experience. I thought he was being so stupid. It seemed to me if he liked me, he would keep dating. But I didn’t want to convince him to keep dating me, I was just broken hearted that he didn’t want to anymore. So, he closed by saying that he still wanted to be friends and I made it clear that we would not be friends because he had broken my heart. The whole conversation he did not seem sad or regretful or anything. It was all stated so matter-of -fact.
This conversation took place three days before Christmas. With my weakened immune system due to my grief I became really sick with the flu. I couldn’t hold down and food or liquids and so I just lay there all of Christmas throwing up and miserable. Worst Christmas ever. I felt like such an idiot. I felt like Nick had never really liked me all that much and that he used me to have experience. I was just a convenient person that showed an interest in him. I had never been broken up with before either. I had no idea how to deal with the emotions that I was feeling.
Nick had made it pretty clear that we were over. So, when I went back to school I started dating again. I went back to the same problem I had always had, I didn’t like any of the guys. I think the more dates I went on, the more I realized how much I liked Nick. It was during I break up that I first thought that he really was a guy I could marry. That made everything so much worse for me. He had set the bar way too high and none of the guys I was dating even came close. It was really hard being in the same ward with him. I couldn’t even look at him. I knew I was being immature and playing things all wrong. Usually girls like to pretend like it doesn’t matter to them that much. When they see their ex, they act like life is great and that they could care less he broke up with them. But, I never was up for games. Nick is such an honest and good person that I did not feel like I could put on some fake show. So, I acted how I felt…hurt. I do feel sorry for anyone who had to put up with me during this time.
After about a month of being broken up, the truth started to come out. Thanks to Amy having a long heartfelt conversation with Nick, I was able to learn this truth: Nick probably wanted to get back together with me someday. He admitted to Amy that he really did like me and that he missed me. Really, he just wanted to date some girls to confirm his feelings for me. I had such mixed emotions by this news. Part of me was so happy that he wanted to get back together with me. The other part was so mad at him for thinking I would just get back together with him when he snapped his fingers. I knew that I didn’t want to just sit around and wait but I also knew that when he snapped his fingers, I probably would run back to him. I know I sound so desperate, and I probably was, but like I said, I wasn’t much for playing games. I liked Nick, couldn’t find anyone else that I liked at all, and I wanted to be with him. Call it desperate if you will. Anyway, after hearing this I knew that I just needed to talk to Nick myself, so we arranged to go on a drive where I made him admit to me the things he had admitted to Amy. After our conversation we both continued to date other people. Well actually, I continued to date other people and Nick did not. Amy was my spy. She would always tell me what Nick was up to on the weekends and who he was hanging out with. I was so mad that she kept reporting that he had not asked a single girl out on a date. I was also so mad anytime I heard that he was hanging out with any girl. He couldn’t win, I was mad no matter what he did, but I didn’t tell him that. We hardly ever spoke during the time we were broken up.

Back Together

I finally realized that he was never going to ask a girl out and that it was impossible for me to move on with the option of us getting back together. So, I decided that I had to shut the door. If we were not back together by the next weekend, I was going to shut the door on him and never get back together with him. I could not move on with the hope that I was placing on us getting back together (I know I am obsessed with deadlines). I did not tell Nick the deadline but I may have had Amy mention it to him. Anyway, Nick called and asked me out on a date that was about two weeks away and I told him no, that two weeks away was not going to work. I told him the only time that would work was this coming weekend. He said this weekend wouldn’t work for him and I just said “that’s too bad.” I guess some rotten girl had asked him out for Saturday night to go to a Volleyball game. Ugh. Anyway, Nick arranged to leave the volleyball game early to go out with me (take that you stupid volleyball girl). Anyway, we went on a date and did not discuss our relationship at all. Nick pulls into my parking garage and I finally ask him if he thinks we are back together. He answers by saying that he thought so. I couldn’t believe that he was just going to assume we were back together without some big discussion about our feelings. So, I made his discuss “feelings” with me. He acknowledged that he had not asked any other girls out because really he just didn’t want to. He only wanted to ask me out and it seemed pointless to ask another girl out when he didn’t want to. I liked that. We also acknowledged the fact that we saw each other as potential husband and wife but we wanted to date longer before we made any decisions.
Although the two month break up time was so hard for me, I do not think that we would have ever gotten married without it. It was the separation that allowed us to really realize our feelings for each other.
The next semester was just perfect. Our relationship was so much better this time around. The things I had problems with from before the break up seemed to disappear and I was really falling for Nick. I remember one special date we had. Nick bought tickets to see “Joseph and the Technicolor Coat” at a nice theatre in Salt Lake. When he came to pick me up he had super-cleaned his car and was all dressed up. We went out to eat before the show.

The semester was coming to an end, I knew we were going to have to have another talk. We were both going to work in the summer and Nick had plans to go to Oregon while I went to South Carolina. I did not want to maintain a long distance relationship if he did not feel that our relationship had real potential. So, we had another discussion where we agreed that our relationship was leading somewhere and it was worth saving through the summer.

The Separation

Although I was sad to have a separation I really believed that it would be a good test for our relationship. With no more snuggling or hugs we had to depend solely on talking. After our first long distance phone conversation I was sure that we were going to have to break up. While we were talking on the phone, Nick was barely making conversation, barely answering any of my questions, and there was a point where he was just banging on a piano. I hung from that conversation very disturbed. I remember thinking the next day that I was going to let him know that it was a major concern for me that we couldn’t just have a normal phone conversation and that I didn’t think we would make it through the summer. I couldn’t even wait until that evening to call him, I called in the middle of the day. Somehow or another I got through to him and he made a big change. We were able to talk on the phone every night for hours and I was able to continue to fall for him 3,000 miles away. Nick was working nights in a special lab where he had a pager. He would send little pages to my e-mail throughout the night. I used to love waking up in the morning to having 5-10 little notes from him.

Luckily our four month separation period wasn’t straight months without seeing each other. We were both able to attend Brandon & Amy’s wedding in Nauvoo. But the most important thing was my visit to Oregon. I guess there was something about that trip that really made us fall in love. I loved that Nick was the same person around his family as he was in Utah. I loved seeing him with his nieces and nephews. I think I was kind of scared that he would pretend not to know me around his family and be scared to talk to me. But he wasn’t. I loved that there were no hidden scary secrets about Nick. All of his family seemed to adore him. There was no drama between him and anyone.

Nick and I aren’t really “romantic.” We don’t have pet names for each other (even after three years of marriage). Pet names include: honey, sweetheart, angelfacelovekinspooh. We don’t do romantic things that people do in movies. But I admit…we did do something romantic in Oregon. At Lake Billy Chinook we used to sit under the stars at night and talk. Nick was the one who started bringing up questions like how many kids we want one day or where we would like to live, etc. I loved that he was being so open and talking about marriage. I think it was one of those nights that I knew I was completely in love with him. But I didn’t say so. He did mention to me one of the nights that he only wanted to say “I love you” to the person he marries.
Ironically while I was in Oregon there was a joint Priesthood/Relief Society meeting taught by the stake president and the topic was on love in marriage. Ha. I wasn’t embarrassed to have this topic with Nick but I was kind of embarrassed that his parents were sitting right there beside us. I was kind of wondering the whole time if they were watching us. Anyway, by the end of the lesson I knew that Nick and I were ready to get married. It really seemed like the whole lesson was pointed at us trying to let us know that it was time to take the next step.

That night Nick and I had just finished a movie and were talking. All of the sudden Nick looks at me and tells me that he loves me! It was so unexpected to me! Of course I said it back. Suddenly we found ourselves talking about the lesson in church and the next thing I know, we decide to get married in December. We even went ring shopping the next day before my plane left. It was a hard goodbye…even though it was only going to be three weeks before he came to SC.

Here we learn another difference between boys and girls. I went home and gathered my family and gave them one juicy detail at a time for hours leading up until the fact that we were going to get married. I had my audience crying, laughing, ohhing and ahhing. Nick sent an e-mail to his mom that said he thought that she should know that we were probably going to be getting married. Luckily she cornered him in the kitchen the next morning to find out if it was going to be over Thanksgiving or Christmas. He at least told her that much.

My decision to marry Nick was not a hard one. I think that from the time that we got back together I knew we should get married. Of course I was prayerful about my decision, but I never got a huge revelation that he was the one. It just always felt right. I do believe that Heavenly Father gave us a push to let us know that it was time through the Stake President’s lesson.

Engaged

It was hard to know when we should tell people about our plans. Since I wasn’t wearing a ring yet, it didn’t seem right to tell people that we were engaged. But, we did know that people needed to start making wedding and travel plans. So, pretty much everyone knew we were going to get married before I even had a ring. We bought the ring while Nick was in SC. We flew to Utah together to start our Senior years at BYU. Of course I knew the ring was coming and I couldn’t wait to have it!
We made simple wedding plans. Picked the date, the temple, and made the reservation with the temple. We didn’t have too much of a choice on the date since it was going to be over a Christmas break and we had a lot of things to fit in a small time frame. We chose the Portland temple simply because it was what ended up being most convenient. Plus, Nick was the youngest of six kids and all five of his siblings had been married in Portland. I couldn’t break such a tradition (even though Nick told me I could).
Sadly, I have no idea what the date was the day that Nick proposed. Sometime in mid-September and pretty close to the year anniversary of our first date. I do know that as soon as Nick called and asked if I wanted to go out to dinner I knew it was going to be the night. We ate at TGI Fridays and then Nick wanted to take me to get hot chocolate in Mapleton for some reason. I figured he was going to propose that night but I had no idea why he was going to do it at a hot chocolate place. Anyway, he was having a hard time finding the place and I was so confused why he was looking for it in the middle of a residential area. Suddenly we pulled up to a church building. I was still confused. Why would he propose at a church? As soon as we walked around to the back of the building, I recognized where we were. This was the picnic area where we had met at the ward luau. In the trunk he brought out hot chocolate (it was still hot…) and cookies and candles and placemats. After a few minutes he came around and knelt down in front of me and told me how much he loved me and how we wanted to take care of me and be with me forever. He pulled out the ring. We aren’t criers so we didn’t cry. But we were so happy! The engagement time went so fast. We had so much to do while we were in school. We had my roommate Debbie take our engagements pictures. I made the announcements by hand. I had to find the perfect dress (dress shopping was probably the most fun preparation). We had to find housing, and make a picture slideshow of our lives. We took temple prep and marriage prep classes. We had to meet almost weekly with the bishop to receive advice and counsel. Nick was so wonderful during this time. He pretty much just let me pick whatever I wanted and smiled the whole time.

Busy Weeks

It came time for the busiest few weeks of my life. I was trying to take finals, Christmas shop, pack up my room, get ready for cleaning checks, pack for Christmas in Park city, wedding in Portland, honeymoon in Mexico, and reception in South Carolina, while I was trying to study and take five finals. Somehow I managed to get everything done. I met my family in Park City for Christmas. The day after Christmas, we all flew to Portland for the wedding.
I was endowed on the 27th and it was a really good experience for me(Besides the fact that I was an hour late).I heard that you don’t get much out of going through the temple for your first time, but I really did. Nick’s entire family was in there but only my parents were allowed in. There were so many important and wonderful things I felt that day but probably not things I should write about.






















The next day we had a family dinner. It was so nice and so good! It was in a Relief Society room of a church building and catered. Everyone was in Sunday dress. There was a special little program featuring the Music Man. All of the siblings went around the room and told memories about the Nick and me. I don’t remember most of what was said! This is exactly the reason I wish I had written everything down sooner. I only remember Madison talking about the club and Halston talking about the time everyone was screaming(that’s another long story). I can't rememberanything that was said about Nick! My mom had brought with her a time capsule I made while in young womens. In the time capsule was a list of names for children, the temple I was going to get married in, the dress I was going to get married in (it was cut out of a magazine and was inappropriate and I had used a pen to make it modest), and a list of the qualities I wanted in a husband. It was funny how Nick actually fit all of the qualities I had listed. Even the silly ones like he had to be tall and have straight white teeth. Anyway, Nick had a bachelor’s party that night. It was a basketball party with my brothers, his brothers, and Brian. I made him promise not to get a black eye. I went back to the hotel to get my beauty rest since I had to be up at six the next morning to get my hair done.

The Wedding Day

The wedding day was busy and wonderful. My dad, Madison, and I went to get my hair done. I went back to the hotel and did my makeup with Madison’s help. We had to arrive at the temple an hour early so that Nick and I could take care of paper work and such. I got ready with my mom as my escort. I did wear my wedding dress to get married in. Before the sealing and after getting ready I met Nick in the sealing room. I guess it had taken me awhile to get ready and Nick admitted he was scared that I wasn’t going to come. But we were happier than ever and were sealed for time and all eternity.
I wasn’t nervous or scared about my decision to be married. Everything felt so right. I was marrying a good person, with good values, who loved me, and I was crazy in love with him. When I looked across the alter at Nick, I knew all was well.

We were going to take pictures next and needed to get ready for them. I was in the locker room for about five minutes before I was ready. Then I waited outside for Nick for about 30 minutes. I just thought it was funny that I had to wait for him. We went outside and took plenty of pictures in the freezing cold. We were lucky it didn’t start raining until the second we stopped taking pictures. Anyway, when my mom and I left the locker room to take pictures we left our recommends inside and now we could not get back in the temple to change and get our stuff. All of Nick’s family had left by this point and I didn’t have any other family there. Luckily, there was a nice stranger behind us in line who offered to take our keys and bring us our recommends. I guess you really can trust people in the temple. The lady had to go though my wallet to get my recommend!

Eventually we were changed and Nick and I went to Cheesecake Factory to eat with my family and the Liljenquists. We ate and then stopped by the hotel to pick up my luggage. We then went to the house that our reception was in and started to get ready for the reception. While I was getting dressed upstairs, Bethany and Sister Morrin were helping me get dressed. Suddenly out of nowhere a bug zooms across the room and down my dress. I started freaking out because I could feel it crawling around and I couldn’t reach (because of the sleeves of my dress) to get it out. Poor sister Morrin had to reach her hand down my dress and pull the yucky bug out.The reception was beautiful. We had many guests show up. We had lots of food and a white chocolate fountain! We cut our cake that had been decorated by Nick’s cousin Jessica. I threw the bouquet to all of the little nieces. Then we left. We took Nick’s dad’s truck and went back to Nick’s house to get all of his stuff. We stayed in a hotel near the airport that night since we had a five AM flight to Mexico the next morning.

The Honeymoon

I guess things didn’t go as smoothly as planned on our honeymoon. When we arrived in Puerto Vallarta we went to find a taxi to take us to our timeshare. Taxi drivers in Mexico are crazy on so many levels. They just grab your suitcases and start dragging them to their taxi in hopes that you just follow along. We really had no idea what we were doing. So we just stood there are slapped wrists of people trying to take our suitcases until we found a driver we didn’t think was trying to rip us off. Driving in Mexico is scary. There are no rules! People just drive around like crazy and Nick and I were scared to death. I just closed my eyes the whole time and I was so sure that we were going to die, but we didn’t. He pulls up to our hotel, throws us and our luggage out, and then drives away just in time for us to look up and see that the hotel is under construction and not open.
My dad is the president of a timeshare resort. My parent’s wedding present to us was a week of timeshare. RCI set everything up…..in a hotel that wasn’t even open. Luckily the lobby was open and there was a nice man working in there (Franklin). He really did want to help us. I tried to call my dad since he would know what to do. But, unfortunately, he was on a three hour long flight from Portland to Atlanta. I called RCI. Everyone I called said that I was calling the wrong person. They kept asking the phone number to the hotel we were at and we would just sit there and wait for someone to call us back. I never thought anyone was going to call us back but they did. Finally I got to talk to a person who knew my dad, knew the situation, and was going to work something out for us. The problem was, it was New Years in a tourist city and almost everything was already booked. Nick and I had not eaten in over 24 hours. We were starving. We trusted Franklin enough to leave our luggage with him and he promised that if someone called he would run over to the restaurant and let us know. So we finally got a bite to eat and ran right back to the lobby. We sat in that hotel lobby for about six hours until RCI lady finally confirmed that she made a new reservation at a different hotel. Franklin helped us find a cab. He even yelled at the first few cab drivers who pulled up and tried to rip us off. Franklin let us know when we had a good deal and waved us off to our new hotel. Things didn’t go too smoothly at the next hotel. The lady we were supposed to talk to had already left for the night without telling anyone else our situation. The fax that was sent to them had not gone through. Somehow I think they just felt sorry for us and went ahead and gave us the room and assured us they would just sort the mess out. So, we actually ended up in much nicer hotel than we were originally supposed to be in! It was called The Mayan.
So we spent the next week mostly on the beach and in the pools. We ate at the hotel restaurants and experienced a Mexican Walmart. We celebrated New Years and watched fireworks from our balcony. I even let Nick watch some of the bowl games on TV.
Leaving Mexico didn’t go very smoothly. We are so lucky that we gave ourselves and extra day to make it to South Carolina for the reception…otherwise we really would have missed our reception. We left Puerto Vallarta airport and had a layover in Mexico City where we needed to switch airlines. We got off the plane and got into this scary box. It was actually really scary….we thought people were supposed to be walking through the tunnel into the terminal to go into the airport but there was a wall at the back. People were just walking into a tunnel and getting crammed into a box. We were one of the last people in there and it was crowded and kids were screaming and then all of the sudden all of the doors shut. I thought gas was about to turn on to kill us all. But, apparently it was what they call a ‘remote gate.’ It is just a box on wheels that drove us to the airport. We had about ten minutes to switch airlines, go through customs, and check in again at a place that was about a twenty minute jog away. Yeah, we weren’t even close to making it. We had to stay the night in Mexico city and then make the same flight the next day. We rode in a shuttle van to our hotel. We were in the sketchiest looking place I had ever seen. Seriously. Graffiti and guns were the least of my worries in this place. Anyway, the hotel we stayed in was actually pretty nice. I have no idea why it was in the middle of such a scary neighborhood. Nick and I had to leave the hotel and venture out into the streets of Mexico City to eat. Puerto Vallarta is a tourist town and so everyone there speaks English. In Mexico City, nobody spoke English. We actually had to pull out what little Spanish we could remember from high school to try to communicate with people and order food. The only food name I could really remember was pollo. Chicken. So I just kept saying it over and over while a cook just kept lifting up food and pointing to it. Nick actually ate some sketchy tacos al pastor from a street vendor. I was so scared he was going to get horrible food poison. But he didn’t.
The next day we arrived extra early to make sure we made our plane. We made it to South Carolina.

South Carolina Reception

The SC reception was wonderful! I had no idea how much my mom was doing to our house to turn it into a reception hall. It looked fabulous and so many people came to wish us well. Nana and Grandpa Steve , Aunt Lisa & kids, Nick’s parents, Nick’s grandparents, and Nick’s aunt Marsha all traveled to be there. The food was fabulous and after the guests left, Nick and I actually got to eat some! Then, we opened wedding presents! I don’t think I have ever been so tired in my whole life as I was after that reception. The past few weeks had been crazy! We stayed at the resort while we were there. The next morning we flew to Utah to start our lives together.

The End

I guess there is a year and a half gap between the end of this blog and the start of my current blog. I don’t know if I will ever fill in that gap…even though it includes the story of how we found out that we were going to have Makenzie and I love that story. I guess most people don’t want to hear it…it does include period talk. It might make my posterity uncomfortable to read about such things….