This past week Roger and I had a major milestone. Fifteen years ago, on April 9th, 2004, Roger and I got engaged. Since we don't have a written account of the experience I decided that after 15 years it was about time. So here goes:
I got home from my mission on March 23rd, 1994. Roger was waiting there at the airport when I arrived. Since this story isn't about our courtship I will leave the details of why he was there for another time. Needless to say, from the time I stepped off the plane we were practically inseparable and things went rather quickly. It had been about 2 weeks since I got home and things were moving toward a hopeful future. We had seen each other practically everyday and I am pretty sure we both knew that we were in love. We went on a date to Salt Lake City and walked around temple square. After words we drove up in the Avenues and parked in a spot overlooking all of Salt Lake City and the temple. We talked about all sorts of things but mostly the future. The longer we talked the more discouraged I got. Roger kept saying things like he wasn't sure he had enough money to think about getting married and he wondered how would we be able to finish school and how he just didn't know how to make things work out. I felt frustrated because I felt like if we had some sort of commitment then we could work towards a future together with faith that all would be fall into place. Instead it appeared as if he was freaking out and looking to slow things down. I wasn't sure what to think the next few days although we kept seeing each other as if nothing had been said or changed. (He told me later that this was all a ploy to "throw" me off. He didn't want me to know an engagement was coming. I don't think men realize how much a woman analyzes everything and I seriously wondered what was wrong with him)
Well a couple of days later, on Saturday, April 9th, it was my turn to decide what we were going to do that night. Since I was living in Lehi and he was in Provo we took turns driving back and forth and planning our dates. Well he called me sometime during the day and asked if I would just come to his apartment and he would figure out something we could do. When I arrived we went across the street to a video store to pick out a movie. We wandered around for quite awhile looking at the various titles and trying decide what to watch. We finally picked the movie "Forever Young". It had been out for sometime but since we were both behind on our movies neither of us had seen it or knew much about it. So we figured it would be worth a shot.
After going to Food-for-Less to pick out some treats (licorice and popcorn) we returned to his apartment. His roommates were all there and he informed them we were going to watch a movie and they needed to go to their rooms. He then popped the biggest bowl of popcorn I had ever seen. At this time I did not know how much he loved popcorn (he takes after his mother) and he did not know that I only like it a little bit.
We sat down on his couch and the movie began. The movie was a typical romance. It starts out in 1939 with a man (Daniel), in love with a woman (Helen) and he decides to ask her to marry him. Before he has a chance to do it (he chickened out) she is hit by a car and goes into a coma. After several months he is given no hope that she will ever wake up and he decides to do something drastic. His friend is a scientist who has been working on a top secret cryogenic machine. So he decides to be the first human test subject and his friend does it in secret with the promise to wake him in 1 year from his frozen state. Well it shows him being frozen and the time passes away. Well needless to say things never work out the way they should and he is awoken by two boys in some warehouse 53 years in the future. The majority of the movie is about him trying to find his friend and of course has all kinds of adventures along the way.
At the beginning of the movie I ate a little of the popcorn but then stopped to move on to the licorice. Roger kept asking me if I wanted more and I kept graciously declining him. Well throughout the whole movie he kept plugging away at this endless bowl of popcorn. Eventually, his roommates kept passing through the room and grabbing huge handfuls of popcorn as they went by. Of course I was clueless and pretty engrossed in the movie. As we were getting near the end of the show, it was obvious that this man's love was still alive. She had woken up from her coma and never knew what had happened to him. So he is desperately trying to get to her before all these scientists get to him first. (His friend had died and left him in a pickle) Well Daniel finally got to her and of course it was so sweet and romantic. He said "So are you going to marry me or what?" I was leaning against Roger at this time. I could feel his heart beating rapidly through his chest and my shoulder. I asked him if he was o.k. and he said he was fine. He then asked if I wanted more popcorn. I said no, but he insisted and said "have more popcorn". At that moment I looked down into the almost empty bowl (it took the whole movie to get to the bottom) and saw a ring. I was surprised and thanks to his little "act" of panic a few nights before was totally not expecting it. Roger then said "I don't want to have to wait a lifetime to marry you, will you marry me?" Well of course I said yes.
It was kind of crazy that we had picked the movie we had. I don't think Roger enjoyed it very much as he had been anticipating me finding the ring. He never imagined we would make it through the whole movie and yet the timing was perfect. We immediately called his mom and woke her up to tell her the news. She was excited for us. We then drove to Lehi to tell my family. My little sister knew something was up immediately and yelled "Nooo". You see I had just gotten home 17 days earlier and my other brother and sister were still on their missions and she was ready for me to leave yet. My parents were excited as well yet not surprised.
Anyway, the rest is history. We obviously got married and are working on the "Happily Ever After " part. Agreeing to marry him was the best decision I ever made (well that and going on my mission which instigated our meeting each other in the first place). We have had a fun and crazy 15 year ride and I look forward to many many many more years to come.
Here is something else that was kind of funny about the whole situation. I got home from my mission on a Tuesday and gave my homecoming talk on Sunday. The following Sunday was General Conference. I got engaged the following Saturday. The next day, Sunday, was the first time I had seen my ward members since I gave my talk. Many people came up to me and asked how I was adjusting. Of course I told them "pretty well, I am getting married" Seeing their shocked looks made it all the more fun.
She got lots of yummy candy and no less than two hours later she had eaten it all (except for the few pieces she had saved for her brother and sister).
And here is mom, messing around with the camera and trying to capture the essence of my four year old before it goes away.
favorite.
