One of my favorite things is hearing how married couples met and fell in love with each other. Now just wait a minute. For any who are feeling like they must explain that we don't fall in love, or it's a choice or whatever diverse takes there are on this matter... just stop it. I don't care. Whatever you call it, I want to hear how you knew that he/she was THE ONE. When you knew you were irreversibly hooked on this person. When you knew life would never be the same again. When you -- okay, you get the idea.
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Life is tough but it's tougher if you're stupid. -John Wayne
We were at a dance. We didn't actually dance, instead we sat around the snack tables and talked. Talking about interests, etc. he'd mentioned liking to play racquetball and cooking. He was famous around the ward for his peanut butter brownies. After the dance, late at night, he came back by my apartment and stuck a note under the door. Not just a note, but an actual card kind of note...saying thanks for the date, we should play racquetball sometime, and here's the recipe for the brownies. That's what turned him from a date to a prospect--he remembered what we talked about and followed up.
Prospect to Serious Prospect: The guys' hall RA asked me to trade inspection duties for a month (I was an RA too) to whip the guys into shape a little. Then-to-be-Hubby's apartment was the ONLY apartment that was done with cleaning check when I left. Everyone else had to redo multiple things, usually requiring me to come back several times to recheck. That man can clean!
When I knew, knew, KNEW: The following semester, my schedule was so messed up, the only job I could take was the 4 a.m. custodial shift. Then-to-be-Hubby would get up at 3:30 to come drive me to campus so I wouldn't have to walk in the cold and dark. Then he went back home to bed, but still...
We were introduced by a mutual friend. Our first date was chaperoning a youth dance together. I fell in love with her hair at first sight. We danced. We went out to eat later. At the end of our date, back at the stake center before we got in our separate cars to go home, I asked it I could run my fingers through her hair. She looked a bit shocked. I couldn't help it--I was inescapably drawn to those long strands of brunette ringlets. We hugged. I played with her hair. We said goodnight. I called her the next day. We went from there. We dated for a few months and courted for several more.
She "knew" before I did. In truth, I don't think I "knew" until the birth of our son--two years after our wedding and three years after that first date. I was going on faith and some small assurances that I had made a good choice. But when I witnessed what she endured to bring a new life into our family, I knew. With a witness more overwhelming and powerful than anything I've ever felt before, I KNEW! And I suddenly loved her more than I ever thought was possible.
I'm hers, body and soul, forever.
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The ability to qualify for, receive, and act on personal revelation is the single most important skill that can be acquired in this life. - Julie Beck
My first official date, I knew she was the woman for me. We didn't get tickets to a sold out show, so ended up playing DOOM in the computer lab. ALl my friends liked Fragging her, but she just laughed and played along. It was my first and only experience in which the girl didn't treat me like some immature kid that she would change.
I still remember when we had our first kiss on the doorstep, some few dates later. That night I drove home, and luckily there were no other cars, cuz I ran right through a redlight on my way home. She's an amazing woman, great mom, and still very patiently waiting for me to grow up... :)
--Ray
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I'm not slow; I'm special. (Don't take it personally, everyone finds me offensive. Yet somehow I manage to live with myself.)
I met MrCoco at a singles' ward. It was after Sac. Mtg. and we were all going to SS. We were loitering in the back of the chapel and he looked at me, stuck out his hand and said, "I'm MrCoco." I shook his hand and we walked to SS together. We sat by each other and he was giving the opening prayer. It was such a great prayer! It was original and honest and sincere... After SS we stayed in that room and talked during the final hour of Church. He just seemed so nice and sincere. (You really don't appreciate those simple traits until you have a spouse with neither.) Anyway, he asked me out for the following weekend and we were "it" from then on.
One time we agreed to meet at Salt-Air for a dance. I was getting off work around 10pm and would meet him there. I walk in fully expecting to hang out for 10-20 min. until we found each other - the place was packed. Well, he's standing there, like right toward the front entrance and immediately comes up to me. I was astonished! He wasn't even dancing while he waited for me. I couldn't believe it. (I probably would've been. I mean, there were a LOT of people there to meet!)
There was also another time early on that I'd mentioned my affection for chocolate covered strawberries. About a month later it was Easter and there they were - a box of chocolate covered strawberries. He remembered! That was great.
Then there was the time about 2 months into our marriage when I was recovering from our first miscarriage. I was so low at that time. The due date had been his birthday and everything just seemed so perfect. It was over a weekend when my two oldest's were visiting their dad, which added to my low spirits in general. I come out of the bathroom and there, on our bed, was a plate of chocolate covered strawberries. Home-made with the chocolate shell stuff you pour on ice cream. (MrCoco is not much of a cook.) It was the sweetest thing I'd ever seen in my life. Not a gimmick to get lucky, just pure honest love.
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Life is tough but it's tougher if you're stupid. -John Wayne
I was 18 years old. And quite outspoken about how it was wrong to marry young, I would never marry young, I was going to serve a mission and if some guy wanted to marry me, he could wait a year and a half. (Plus, my dad was a family law lawyer, and we used to talk about the people he saw in his office. I knew the stats. My world rose and set on my father's opinion.)
But I saw nothing wrong in dating a 29 year old. He was nice, he was harmless, I wasn't really attracted to him, we had fun on our dates and he had a motorbike.
I love motorbike rides.
Two days before finals my first year, I was walking back to my apartment from the Institute, where he had shared his root beer with me. I idly thought to myself, "I wonder what it would be like to be married to someone like _____". My first thought was, "Oh, come on! He's old. He dances funny. His jeans are ridiculous."
And then very distinctly into my head came the words, "You should be ashamed of yourself. He's everything you've ever wanted in a husband, and you know it."
That's how it all started.
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They might not look it, but bunnies can really take care of themselves.
it all began with being a total and complete klutz.
My wonderful hubby was in college band with me and I had noticed this nice guy making a trombone sing. (he could really bring it back then!) He seemed to be such a decent and regular type that I knew there was more than just another college guy. I am not normally a shy or retiring type but all of this felt too different to be my normal pushy self. So I waited for him to make the first move. . .
I was walking backwards down the steps after class one day, talking some friends and tripped over his horn case that was lying on one of the steps. Landing all sprawled out with my music folder scattered to the 4 winds, I stuck my hand out to him and said "Hi!", and he helped me up.
The dating began in earnest and it wasn't until after his mission that everything snowballed. Mr. 'Belle told me that he was really impressed that I didn't go all 'girly' about falling down!
He came to spend time with me the week after his mission at Christmas time under the eagle eyes of my parents, and in the summer, he sent me an airline ticket so that I could fly out to see him under the eagle eye of HIS parents.
We got engaged that week, under the eagle eyes of no one.
The day he proposed (on the lawn of the temple!), he was all prepared, he rolled out a little red carpet (LITERALLY) and knelt down on a tiny purple velvet pillow and held out a ring and said 'would you do me the honor?'
and 23 years later, here we still are. . .shooting for the eternities or bust painted on the side of our little wagon to the stars.
Sorry ladies, you all missed out on Mr. Right! I got him!
Cat and I knew of each other in high school. He was good friends with a guy who was my boyfriend for about seven months. I knew him as the guy who never asked me to dance at church dances. He was one of the few guys who knew how to dance in the stake. He would ask all the girls to dance, even the wallflowers, but not me. I could never figure it out. He'll tell you that I was taboo for a long time because he knew his friend liked me and then after his friend broke up with me I was still taboo. He will also tell you that I was the only girl he felt uncomfortable around. He could never figure out why.
Then, a couple of months after his mission at an all-Ohio Halloween young adult dance I saw him again (of all places). We were both standing at the refreshment table. It seemed everyone else was dancing but us. I thought, "What is it with this guy? He STILL won't ask me to dance." He will also tell you that he was trying to finish his refreshment first. He was dressed as a German sailor and I was dressed as Peter Pan (although he thought I was Robin Hood). He finally came up to me and said, "Miss Hood, may I have this dance?" We danced every dance together the rest of the night.
There was a group of us who traditionally went out to Bob Evans after young adult dances and I invited him to come with us. He and another guy had to go give a blessing to someone. I saved him a seat and apparently he was "impressed" that I did that.
The friend he came to the dance with got off his mission around the same time he did. The two of them attended the University Ward for awhile and the two had sworn off all the girls in the ward because they all gave them the cold shoulder. They couldn't wait to get back to BYU and find greener pastures.
Well, when Cat and his friend arrived at Bob Evans his friend teased him and said, "Pssst. You might be needing this and handed him a ring underneath the table." "Cat was horrified I would see and said, "Put that thing away!"
By our second official date I was pretty sure I had found Mr. Right. And I didn't think that would ever happen because I had broken an engagement with a fellow just 9 months prior to this. However, when he went back out to BYU in January my older brother was sure he would find some other girl and dump me. But Cat chose the right and knew he had a good thing when he had it.
I'd sent my missionary off a month previous. The plan was that I'd live at home, work, and save money. When he got home, I'd find a job, move to Salt Lake where he was, we'd get married, and I'd put him through school.
Well, that night a month later my oldest, wisest sister called me. She said she'd been thinking about me, and she really thought I ought to live out on my own for awhile. The idea resonated so loudly with me that I went that very day to the Institute building to look for roommate ads.
I found one at the right price, close to where I worked. I think I moved in the next day. With 3 girls I'd never met.
As I was moving in, one of my new roommates came in and introduced herself. She told me she was on the way to a party and asked if I'd like to come.
I went with her. In the middle of a game of Scattergories, he came in. Gosh, he was cute. But I took him for about 18, and didn't want to do the "Preemie" thing again (he was 24 and had been home a couple of years). And there was that missionary. . . But gosh, he was cute. He sat next to me to play because there were no boards left, and we shared. We laughed and laughed together from the start. Gosh, he was fun. And smart. And so, so nice.
I found out he was a computer guy and told him about my speaker problem. He said he'd be happy to come over and take a look.
When he came over to take a look, he found that I'd plugged them into the right slot, and he thought I set the whole thing up. I didn't, but still, I was intrigued. I found myself looking for him at every party and Institute function I went to, and being disappointed when I didn't see him.
We hung out more and more, and started dating not too long after that. I had some reservations. Pretty stupid ones. But when I saw how he was with his niece and nephew, I saw an amazing father for my future children, and realized I had fallen in love.
-- Edited by Jen at 08:45, 2007-12-03
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"There is order in the way the Lord reveals His will to mankind. . .we cannot receive revelation for someone else's stewardship." L. Tom Perry
I'm the luckiest, most blessed man on the planet. SERIOUSLY!!!
I love her with every fiber and molecule of my being.
I met her Dec. 14th 1986. My little sister had written me the month before and told me that she had met my wife. (I had heard that story before!) Sis and her hubby were assigned to teach and meet with the YSA's of the ward. After sacrament meeting I went to the Sunday School class. She has the most gorgeous smile and the most beautiful red hair! She thought I was a visiting high councilor until my sis told her... then she says... "Oh it's him" (the brother that would be asking her out)
Our first date was Dec. 15th. Dated daily until the 24th.
On Dec. 24th I asked her to marry me. She said YES! On Dec. 25th I asked her father if I could marry her. He said, "Mahonri, if it weren't against my religion, I would kneel down and worship you... I wondered if I would ever see the day that my daughter would actually submit herself to a man, you must be a very righteous man or she would never have said yes" Bought the ring on Jan. 2nd. Flew back to Dental School. Burned up the phone lines. She came to Milwaukee in February. I went back to Utah for spring break in March. She came out for Easter in April. I was the first to finish requirements in my class and was awarded my diploma a month early and was excused from commencement. (everyone else had to attend to get their diploma... the last requirement that was waived for me) This happened the first week of May. Got married on June 30th, 1987. Took dental boards on our honeymoon to San Francisco. Began my practice as a licensed DDS in Utah and AZ on Aug. 6th. 7 kids, 20 years and the rest is history as they say.
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no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing... the truth of God will go forth till it has penetrated every website, sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished and the great Jehovah shall say the work is done
Mahonri, you've been married less than 15 months longer than us, but considering you had finished Dental School before tieing the knot, you obviously have a few years of seniority advantage on us.
What Poncho didn't say was that she almost felt like she was ready for a convent in that singles ward the way the "core" members of it did not date. She was having zero social life with LDS guys (of course until me and my "room mate" got off our missions, I can't blame her.). Nor did she tell you about the real winners of dates from non-LDS guys she was getting (at least in full or in this thread). What she also didn't tell you was the girl everyone suspected I would get involved with announced to me my first or second Sunday back that she was leaving on a mission in three weeks and so she didn't want to go on a date, that he had gone out with her semi-regularly before mission and she had written him semi-regularly while overseas serving The Lord and that despite all that, this girl had never even told him she had desires to serve a mission. What Poncho also didn't tell you was that once when talking on second or third date, she casually mentioned that she may consider going on a mission (see the comment about being ready for a convent above) and that Cat said "Well, that is your decision, but I would rather you don't." and when she asked why he had the convenient out of being able to tell her a mission is not something any person should enter into lightly as a default because some other life condition was not met... that he knew a number of sisters from his own mission who had done that and were absolutely miserable.
Anyway, by Thanksgiving, we both were in agreement something had developed between us. By Christmas, we had a pre-engagement agreement... meaning we knew engagement was something we would consider and work towards. I returned to BYU, Poncho came out at her spring break to visit me for the week, and by the time she flew home, we were engaged. We kept it "secret" (yeah, like they didn't already have a clue) from the families until I came home in April and we "officially" announced our engagement. We were married in September. So, I had been home from Germany 13 months... Poncho figured out by mid December while dating why I really didn't want her to serve a mission...
Moral of the story? Don't know if there is one... but as Mahonri said, 5 kids and 19 years the rest is history.
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It seems to me the only thing you've learned is that Caesar is a "salad dressing dude."
Bad, latenight story-telling. Sorry, Mahonri and others.
DH was 24.
The other missionary had told me to date while he was gone. When I wrote him a letter and mentioned that I was doing just that, I got back a very nasty letter basically saying he wanted nothing to do with me and that I needed professional help. It was a good indication that he (the missionary) wasn't the guy for me. I don't do head games.
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"There is order in the way the Lord reveals His will to mankind. . .we cannot receive revelation for someone else's stewardship." L. Tom Perry
The other missionary had told me to date while he was gone. When I wrote him a letter and mentioned that I was doing just that, I got back a very nasty letter basically saying he wanted nothing to do with me and that I needed professional help. It was a good indication that he (the missionary) wasn't the guy for me. I don't do head games.
That's not too bad, really. I became a devil-worshipper!
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Life is tough but it's tougher if you're stupid. -John Wayne
It was a good indication that he (the missionary) wasn't the guy for me. I don't do head games.
