Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day is an interesting holiday...My sister-in-law Erika put it best I think "Getting ready for the dumbest day ever. Love should be expressed everyday of the year, flowers and chocolates should be given every other day, week or month as well as the gifts... Btw I'm not bitter and I am in LOVE. I just hate V-day! :)" 


It shouldn't be a once a year thing. Love should be shown always. Random visits home with chocolate and flowers for your significant other is important. It shouldn't just be today.  


But in honor of Valentine's Day. I thought I would share the story of one of my favorite Valentine's Day. It was actually what happened leading up to this Valentine's Day, but it all centers around love for each other. So I am going to share it...You don't have to read it if you don't want too. 


It was Christmas of 2001. I had gone home from school for the winter break and enjoyed a great holiday with my family. I made a decision that visit. I had somewhat recently broken up with a boy friend, things were crazy in my life. I was scheduled to graduate with my BS from BYU the following December. So I decided over that break, that I was going to go back to school and focus on my schooling.  I wanted to finish up with school and move back to Las Vegas where I would get my teaching certification and start teaching. That was my plan. I was giving up on dating and guys, because they always just broke my heart. I didn't want to deal with it anymore. You can probably guess what happened next. 


On January 6th, Justin and I met for the first time. It was at a Sunday evening prayer meeting for our church. It was the first day I made it back to Provo from break. School started the next day. I walked up to the meeting, which I was in charge of, and saw Justin sitting on the porch. He was this cute guy, in this huge black down type coat. It looked a little overkill to me, but who am I to judge!  He also had on a green scarf. He was new to our ward at church and so I introduced myself and my roommates. We said our few pleasantries and when on with the meeting. During the meeting we picked an apartment and introduced the people who lived there. This week, it was my apartment. So we introduced ourselves. AS I said that I was from Las Vegas, Justin and his twin brother gave a big Whoop. It piqued my interest. So after the meeting I walked up to him and we started talking. It turned out that he was also from Vegas. We chatted for a while and then I decided I should catch up to my roommates who I thought had already gone home. So I ran home and found the house empty. So since I couldn't tell my roommates all about this great guy I met, I called my mom. "Mom I just met this Guy! and he's from Vegas! He's really nice and I think he might ask me out sometime..." or something along those lines. But it was obvious to my mom that this guy interested me. 

Our first picture together. Taken by my mother
AFTER we were engaged

The following week My hopes faded. Justin didn't call or visit. I was disappointed. So my roommate and I came up with a plan. We were planning a trip to go to Vegas and thought it would be fun to see if Justin and his brother wanted a ride down to Vegas for the 3 day weekend. So the following Sunday I asked him during one of his roommates baptisms. Brett wasn't interested. Justin wasn't sure. On Monday he decided that he would go. We spent evening hanging out that week and then we spent a great weekend in Vegas, hanging out Saturday night until about 3 in the morning! It was fun. We came back and as he walked me home, he asked if I would like to go to a movie with him the following Friday night. I said yes and we made plans. That week, we spent every spare minute together. It was great!  We went on our date on Friday night: Watching an early showing of Fellowship of the Rings and Cafe Rio for dinner. Afterwards, since it was still an early evening, we watched Space Cowboys. He walked me home that night. He had held my hand most of the night. He walked me home and wanted to show me something in the stars. So he pointed and then all of a sudden we were kissing... It was a great first date, after spending virtually everyday together for 2 weeks. 


On Saturday, my parents were up visiting, helping my sister make the final arrangements for her move from American Fork to Loveland CO. I spent the day with my parents up in Ogden visiting mom's family. Apparently I talked about Justin the entire time, I don't remember. But they finally told me to call him and invite him to join us for dinner with Michelle and Mike that night. So I did. 


We went to Chili's and had a great time. Mike and Justin talked about their missions in Germany, and I just smiled, gitty with joy that Justin was getting along well with my family. After dinner, Justin joined me as I drove up to the Salt Lake area to get my uniform for the Olympics. I was a volunteer working in the Soldier Hollow venue loading and unloading buses. We talked a lot and had some very serious conversations. It felt right, it felt good. I knew that night that he was the one I was going to marry.  It was weird though, cause we had only met 20 days earlier.  On Sunday we went to church and afterwards talked. We talked about his visits to Paris and mine to Hawaii. He told me that if I showed him Hawaii, that he would show me Paris. I told him I would hold him to that! He also told me that he wanted to talk to me about something later. I said okay. We parted ways for a while that day and met up again after our weekly prayer meeting. The same one we had met at 3 weeks earlier. 


It was January 27, Justin wasn't asking me to marry him that night, at least that wasn't the plan. He wanted to ask me to think about the possibility and pray about it. Except, I already had my answer. So i told him, I already did, and we went for a ride. We ended up sitting in the parking lot in front of the LDS Temple in Provo Utah. We talked about what this meant. We both knew we wanted to marry the other. We both knew it was right. So we decided that there was no point in not getting engaged. We picked a tentative date. and decided that we should keep it quiet and only tell our parents for the time being. We went home and parted ways. I walked in the door, and my roommate knew something was up, so I told her. Then I went and hid in my room and told my parents. I think shocked was an understatement...a HUGE understatement. Justin and I decided to go down to Vegas so that we could spend some time our families and our parents could meet. 


We spent the weekend of February 5th and 6th in Vegas with our families. It was a wonderful visit and I think both our parents were okay with our decision, once we all sat down and talked about it. 


ON February 12th, Justin and I were going to go see a musical at BYU. I wanted to show him my favorite thinking spot and so we stopped by the Provo Temple first and walked around the grounds. That night Justin made our engagement official, by surprising me with a diamond ring. He said he didn't want to be typical and give it to me on Valentine's Day. He wanted to stand out.  


Justin has been my everything since then. He is the perfect husband. He loves me more than anyone can imagine. He is a wonderful father, a caring doctor and a man who makes me wonder how I ever deserved him. He is my Knight in Shining Armor. He Completes me. He is my one, my true, my only...My Justin. 


Justin and I were married for time and all eternity in the Las Vegas LDS temple on June 8, 2002. It was a wonderful experience! And I have loved every minute of our marriage since them. Even the hard ones! 


I love you forever Justin!