Cheezy Post

So next month is our 1 year anniversary. This makes me think 2 things. First - holy cow, I can't believe it has already been a year. Second - frick, I haven't done our thank you cards yet. Don't worry, I've started working on them. I'm pretty sure that they are mostly wrong but hopefully since it's been almost a year people won't remember what gift they got us and they'll just be like "hey, they gave us a thank you card for the blender we got them, sweet!" Even though no one got us a blender. In case you were wondering, we are still accepting presents, and we are in need of a blender. No pressure.

I started working on the thank you cards last week (actually I started working on them like 6 months ago, then we moved, then I forgot about them until just barely) and it's got me thinking about our wedding day, marriage, and when we were dating. In case you don't know, I love Rick. A lot. And not just because he smells good and has big muscles. If you don't personally know Rick, you should, cause he's seriously the best person I know.

I met Rick almost 6 years ago. His younger sister, Marci, is one of my good friends who I have known since we were little and we played recreational soccer together (I hated being the grey team, being blue was my favorite. I loved those reversable jerseys). When I was 17 I had heard of this "Rick" guy that all of Marci's friends talked about. From what I had heard, he was older (by almost 6 years), had long hair, was in a band, and was in the "hardcore" music scene, but was still an awesome Mormon. He was quite the stallion of Provo. All of Marci's friends were in love with Rick. I had started to talk to him a little here and there and had a huge crush on him, but Marci made me promise that I would never ever EVER date her older brother because she was sick of all of her friends using her to get to him. We pinky promised. And I meant it. Why would he ever like me? Plus he was 22 and I was 17 and if I brought home a guy who was that much older than me and had long hair my mom would kill me. Rick and I talked every once in a while, we became pretty good friends and it was super easy to talk to him. He moved away to Kansas to go to Railroad School and I started dating someone. We would send each other texts every once in a while just to see what the other person was up to. He was working in Kansas, then in Provo, then in Arizona, then back in Provo, then he got a job offer to work for the Union Pacific Rail Road in Tucson, Arizona and so he packed up his things and moved.

I dated my ex boyfriend for a year before he went on his mission. My plan was simple - go to school and work while he was on his mission and then get married when he came back. My boyfriend had been gone for a year, he was halfway done with his mission. Around this time I developed a case of insomnia, which I had never had before. Not being able to sleep, I would get on the computer and my MSN chat account would automatically log me in. Rick was online too, apparently he was a night owl. We would talk and fill each other in on the details of our lives. I remembered how easy it was to talk to him even though I hadn't seen him in a few years. We would talk and text more and more. He was currently working for the Railroad and was loving his job. One day he told me he had been laid off (when you work for the UPRR you get laid off then called back and it's a cycle until you build up enough seniority that you stop getting laid off) and he would be coming back to Utah to visit family and friends. We made plans to hang out while he was here. The night he got to Utah we decided to hang out and go on a drive in his sweet little convertible for a few minutes. We ended up driving around and talking for several hours (90% of our conversation was about throw up. Seriously.) Rick didn't know how long he was going to be in Utah, he wasn't planning on it being long term, so we figured we'd hang out until he had to go back to Arizona. We spent almost every day together. It was so easy to be with him because we had been friends first and we could talk easily.

The more time I spent with Rick the more our feelings for each other grew. As cute as this sounds, this was actually a hard time for me. I had a missionary coming home in a matter of months, and he knew that I was seeing Rick, and Rick knew I didn't know what to do about the situation. Sometimes I felt like I should pick Rick, sometimes I felt like I should pick the missionary. I felt a lot of pressure to choose, but I knew that I couldn't make a decision based off of how I felt being able to spend all my time with Rick and receiving only one email a week from the missionary. I prayed and prayed. I knew that I had to wait until my missionary came home to make any decisions. My missionary told me that the first week he was home he wanted me to just spend time with him and not see Rick. Fair enough. A few days before my missionary came home, Rick's grandma passed away. I knew that I couldn't not see him during this difficult time in his life. The missionary came home, and we started to hang out. Every second that I was with him I was uncomfortable. I couldn't be myself. Conversations didn't come naturally, they were forced. After we would hang out I would feel sick to my stomach and just want to sleep forever. I had my answer.

A few nights later I was with the missionary and we were talking about the decision I would soon be faced with. I was not planning on breaking up with him that night, but as the conversation progressed, I knew what I needed to do. It was the most awkward and uncomfortable breakup ever. If you want the details ask me sometime, this is the super vague version of the story.

That night I went home, went into my mom's room, woke her up and said "we broke up". My mom really loved the missionary so I was surprised when she said "Oh good, you both looked so miserable." She was right. I don't want to rag on the missionary, because really, he's a good guy, but those few days we spent together made it very clear to me that we wouldn't work together. That night I also called Rick and told him to come to my house. He came over and I told him what had happened that night. I told him I wanted to be with him. I felt like 100 pounds had been lifted from my shoulders. I could finally breathe. The next day was Rick's Grandma's funeral and I went with him. Everyone in Rick's family told me they were so happy and they asked when the wedding would be. I laughed. But turns out the wedding was 5 months later. We were engaged in March and Married on May 23, 2009 in the Draper LDS Temple.

Best decision of my life.

I love this guy.