Memory Lane

I haven't done one of these for a long time, so really I'm due.

My sister-in-law, Tami, has been posting things in various places about how excited she is for her 5th wedding anniversary (congratulations Tami and Nate!!). Seeing all of that has reminded me that it was this time of year, five years ago that BJ and I first met. Crazy! Some of you know how we met and some of you don't, so I thought I'd share "our story".

I came home from my mission in October, 2003, to a home I had never seen before. My family moved from Colorado to Kansas while I was gone. I had never even been to Kansas before. I came home, found a job, and eventually decided that the best place to meet people would be the single's ward. I was a little disappointed. That particular single's ward seemed to be full of people that were about to get "kicked out" for being too old. Don't get me wrong, I had a LOT of fun there with the people that I met but the dating pool seemed to be pretty small.

I must have complained about it because my mom suggested I sign up for one of those LDS dating sites. I told my friend Christy about it thinking that she'd get as big a laugh from the idea as me, but she actually though it sounded interesting. At the very least, we could laugh at everyone else. So we signed up one afternoon. I wish I could remember what I wrote in my profile, but this....is the picture I posted. I used to be so skinny :) It was only a few days before I had a "smile" from BJ. I checked out his profile...(where it said his little sister Tami had just gotten married) and sent a smile back. Then he sent a message. And an invite for instant messaging. And pretty soon we were chatting online every day. He even hooked up a webcam to prove to my mom that he wasn't a 65 year old man.

Then he asked if he could call, but I decided it would be safer if I called him (with a calling card so my number didn't show up on caller id). Even though that first call was a bit of a bust, it wasn't long before we were talking every night (after my parents went to bed.....I was being sneaky).

I had already decided to come out to BYU for school and since BJ was in Kaysville we decided to meet when I moved out here. We had planned to meet at the temple, figuring that was a safe place. My dad vetoed that idea as soon as he caught wind of it. He said that if I really wanted to meet this guy,we could meet while he was helping me get settled. So sure enough, our first date was with my dad. But we met up again only a few hours later... after my dad had gone back to his hotel :)

Pretty soon BJ was skipping class to come visit me. I saw him pretty much everyday. We did everything together....he even went job hunting with me. We were engaged by the end of the month.....
and married four months later. When it's right, it's right.....no sense in waiting.

So there you have it. We've known each other for five years. And have been married for 4 1/2. In some ways it seems so much longer because of all we've been through. But in other ways it feels like it was just yesterday. I'm so grateful for him. There's no one else I could possilbly love this much or want to share forever with. He's my perfect match.