The Ring

(I wrote this yesterday, but turns out I saved it to drafts instead of posting.  Oh well.  Still counts as Valentine's Day right?!)

Finally we are to the last post- and how fitting, on Valentine's Day!  Happy Valentine's Day sweetheart. Thanks for a wonderful love story that keeps going. I love you.

Summer's End:
After four long months, the summer sales season was finally over. Andrew was coming home!  The difference, however, would be that he no longer would live five minutes away as he had before (in Clearfield with his sister), but would be living an hour away in Provo (with mission friends) and attending BYU.  Still, it was a LOT closer than Arizona, so I couldn't complain much.  We hadn't dated anyone else since July, but things weren't always smooth sailing and I think we were both nervous as to what would play out, both with the history and the new distance.

Since I was the generator of the previous break ups, I knew Andrew was nervous about my resolve- answer or no answer.  So, I decided a grand gesture would be in order.  That is right- A RING!

Alright, sorry.  I know that was misleading, but I couldn't help it. :)  No, I didn't propose to him.  Don't get ahead of me just yet.  Instead...I have always loved Joseph Smith's sermon where he used his ring to symbolize eternity, so when Deseret Book started selling replicas, I logged it in the back of my mind hoping that one day I would have a reason to give one.  I couldn't think of a better way to say "this is going to work" than that.  We were back on track and had a new resolve to 1) communicate better, and 2) to keep the "light and fun" in our relationship.  And yes, I actually have ONE picture of just that.  We went to BYU's Homecoming together- which is where we discovered our mutual opinion that college dances are not really our thing.  (But, at least we had an excuse to dress up together.)  We've had six years since to find what exactly are our things, and we have made it a point to continue keeping the "light and fun" in our relationship.

One short month passed before we both knew it was time...

The First Proposal

Sorry, I did it again.  I guess I should clarify- it was the "unofficial proposal" not an unsuccessful one.  I was in my last semester at Weber State, which meant full time student teaching, and he in his first semester at BYU an hour away.  Going back and forth was not impossible, but difficult.  For this reason, Andrew signed up for a Wednesday night class at BYU's Salt Lake center, just 20-30 minutes away.  Meeting in the middle became a weekly occurance.  We spent many a Wednesday night seeing movies at the theatre there off 33rd South, or eating at one of Salt Lake's many resturants, etc.  One particular Wednesday night Andrew suggests we take a drive.  Now, as it would happen, I would meet him in Salt Lake with my car and he would have his- which is why we usually stuck around Salt Lake before heading back to the school and driving home our separate ways.  Should we drive out of Salt Lake, in either direction, we'd eventually have to drive back and THEN part ways from there.  Didn't make much sense logistically, so I wondered if he had something special planned.  Note:  proposal was not a consideration whatsoever.  Now, I know that most people say this and are lying through their teeth, but we had not brought the topic up seriously since his return.  No ring shopping, planning, NOTHING.  So REALLY, I had no thoughts in this direction on this particular night.  We head north and find ourselves in Bountiful.  He mentions something about not wanting to go any further North before heading back, so we start thinking of what we can do in Bountiful.  No real brilliant ideas come up, so he asks if I'd ever heard his about his family's connection with the Bountiful Temple.  I hadn't, at least not in any detail, so he drives to the temple and we take a few walks around while he tells me.  (Turns out his grandpa was over the building of the Temple, had been set apart as a sealer there, their family had a special session with President Hinckley there and each of his family members since had been sealed in that exact sealing room- among other personal experiences.)  Now I KNOW you are thinking- "The temple?  Come one, it was obvious by now right?" based on the whole: talk about it, browse rings, "it won't be ready for two weeks blah blah blah", end up engaged at the temple, "I had no idea!" cliche.  No.  Believe me or not, it doesn't really make a difference;  I was completely enthralled with his stories and must have glanced off for a bit because when I turned around, he was on his knee.  I remember thinking, "What are you doing?" but I recovered quickly.  I had always wanted to be surprised at my proposal and I got my wish.  More than that, I got him and I didn't hesitate in saying yes.  The only people who knew about his intent to propose were his grandparents and we decided to keep it that way for a while.  He definitely knew me- a surprise proposal that AND a shared secret.  Romantic to me.  It almost slipped out that night when I returned home WAY later than curfew and was asked what was so important that I broke curfew so drastically.  I believe the words, "did you get engaged or something?" came up and  I believe my response was,  "uhhh, no-yeah, would it help if I did?"  Needless to say, the secret didn't last long, but it was fun while it did.

It was one whole month later (and the cat had already been out of the bag, so I figured it was official) that I got my second surprise.

The Second Proposal

Now, in the month that had passed we had been ring shopping, and had even started to plan some of the wedding and honeymoon.  This last point was where the surprise comes in to play.  We considered all different options for a honeymoon, figuring that you only go on your first vacation together once, so we wanted it to be amazing.  We aren't the "buy now, pay later" kind of people, so it came down to our dream honeymoon in England, or my ring of choice.  I decided I'd rather have the honeymoon now and the ring later and that was the plan.  It was a Sunday and we were returning home from Provo (to be honest, I can't even remember what was going on in Provo that brought me there, but he was taking me home none the less) when he suggests we pull over and go for a walk.  We had some time before we were supposed to be wherever we were supposed to be and it sounded like a great idea.  We were right around downtown Salt Lake and he pulls over at the entrance of Gilgad Garden's (we'd been there a couple of times since holding hands, usually so he could make fun of me.)  We reminisced some and, of course, he teased, but as we came to the inscription I had knelt by before- HE got down...on his knee.  Out of his pocket he pulled this (except it was a princess cut, sorry I couldn't find an exact picture)...

I kept asking, "how?", so much so that he had to ask his question twice before I answered correctly.  To this day I don't know how he did it.  The part I love best about this ring is that it is growing with us.  There wasn't going to be a wedding band (or two as I want eventually)- but we did spend our honeymoon in England as we wanted.  And- this way, I got a surprise for our first year anniversary too.  The first band.  We will continue to build as we hit new milestones, but more importantly, it was at this point that we became "official" (but if you were to ask us, we were so long before.)

Engagement added a whole new excitement, and batch of stress with it.  We had set the date for January 23, three months from here, but we had a lot going in the meantime.  I had my student teaching and graduation to complete at Weber before moving to Provo, my mom had surgery, Christmas came and went and much much more.

But, as it is intended to do...engagement

led to marriage.

On January 23, 2004- a beautiful, clear, COLD day,

we were sealed by Andrew's grandpa in the Bountiful, UT sealing room 7.

And, as our love story keeps going and has for six years now- there really is no ending.

I'll just steal the classic line, "and they lived happily ever after" and leave it at that.

So what is yours?