How I Met...

The Love of my Life....

Our Engagement Picture

It was the fall of 1994. I was a freshman at BYU. I made it known to my roommates, and anyone else that cared to ask, that I wasn't there to get t degree. I was there to get married. I mean, why else would I go to BYU? If I wanted an education, I would have stayed home and gone to the local university where I was offered a scholarship (....not that the local university is better...it's just cheaper.)


So there I was- 18 and exited to be on my own. I got a job cutting fruit for the salad bar at the cafeteria at 6:00 AM (bad idea...but I can cut a mean pineapple!) I had my dorm room, and I was set. Ready to date. Oh yeah, and take some classes. My parents had a rule: never date an RM more than once. Randy (an RM) lived in the building just over from me. We were in the same ward. The same Family Home Evening Group. It was then that I realized just how WEIRD this guy was! He was determined to marry an Rm himself, but once he met me, he knew he was in trouble! :) He asked me out pretty early into the semester. Our date was memorable. We went on a 'scavenger hunt' around the dorms. We had lists full of items. It was fake. All items were crossed off except for two: 'an egg' and 'sell and egg for 25 cents'. We went from door to door. At one door, we'd ask for an egg. At the next, we'd ask them if we could sell that egg for a quarter. We collected enough money to get ice cream at the corner market. We also went to see The Last of the Mohicans at the edited theater on campus. Randy kept trying to make the moves on me. ;) And I was trying hard to stay awake (nothing against him or the movie...I inherited that trait from my mom.) That was our date.

Preference Dance. We set our roommates up with a date. Randy was set up with my roommate, Rachel...he looks like he's about ready to beat my date. Can we say jealousy? :)

We continued to do things together in our FHE group throughout the semester. Christmas break came and went. I somehow knew things would change between us when we got back. He had been to Italy for New Year's and brought me and my roommate back a necklace from Venice. I thought he was more interested in my roommate until one day I was talking to his roommate, who told me Randy was really interested in ME. That was all it took. We spent all our spare time together. When he wasn't studying (he did enough for the two of us) we'd hang out. I realized what I once thought was weird about him, was really what attracted me to him. He always made me laugh and he is so creative. I was never bored.


Early one morning, after an all-night talk at Denny's (he wasn't allowed in my dorm after curfew) we got engaged in my stairwell. It was really more of a mutual thing. We had been talking about anything and everything and it came out that we knew we should marry each other. Then I said, "Well, what do we do now?" Romantic, eh?


Neither of our families had met the other. I had spoken of him over Christmas break, but his family had no clue about me. I had him call my dad and ask permission (after the fact) and he asked my dad how he felt about that. My dad replied, "I don't know, I've never met you. But I raised her to make good decisions and I trust her."


What a guy, huh? I mean, I was only 18. I don't think I would take it so well. I did technically only go on one date with him before we were engaged.... We made a trip to my parent's house to announce it to the rest of my family. Randy surprised me and got the ring before we went. He put it in a fortune cookie and made up some game...the details are fuzzy.....I opened my cookie in front of everyone and found the ring. He got down on one knee and proposed to me. It was official. We took a walk together and kissed for the first time. :0)


A couple weeks later, we took a trip to Las Vegas to see his family. We pretended we were just friends....so sneaky....then one night at dinner, we passed my ring around on a plate and announced our engagement. I don't think his mom took the surprise very well.


After knowing each other for a little over seven months, we were married in the Salt Lake Temple for time and all eternity.

Ahhh...don't you just love kissing pictures?!