My Love Story

Jedediah,
Supportive, Caring,

Handsome, Muscular, Captivating Trance,

Acumen, Cook, Creator, Gamer, Lover, Husband.

Some said I had three months up at BYUI. Others said I wouldn’t last half of that; both of them were right, but they didn’t see me finding him on the first day. This is a collection of pictures, stories, and poetry of memories together.

Yes, this is the story of how we fell in love.

During the first week of the semester the freshman orientation is set into play. (It is often called “EFY on steroids.”) I had been really peeved that I was forced to go to some meet and greet. The group started to play a game of name tag, and the guy that I was going to marry walked in late. Of course I remembered his name right off the bat, and when I said it our eyes met for the first time.

I had been so defiant against relationships because of the teasing I had received for going to “BYU-I DO.” Yet I kept wishing he would follow me when I left and my wishing always rewarded me. I’d catch him staring at me, blaming him for the contact, but I was looking more than he was at that point.

Later that day a girl I had befriended asked aloud if anyone wanted to go to the store with us. My heart jumped, flailed, spurt butterflies, and sang all at once when he did this little head nod with his hands in his pockets. He followed me around like a puppy, and hasn’t really stopped since. He decided to be my best friend. It’s odd how fast we became one person, but something just clicked with him. It was so natural. Like I wasn’t falling into love, I simply walked beside a man until our hearts grew inseparable, our thoughts connected in unison, and our lives irrevocably changed.

Haunted Mill

So we went to the famous haunted mill on Friday. We'd wanted to go for a while, but never had the time because our learning experience was being continued in the home. Jedi told me as we waited in line that he wasn't scared of these places because he's seen real haunted houses in Wisconsin. With the great though of "oh, there's real ones out there!" in my mind we began the maze. Mostly they used the "jumping out of impossibly tight places" tactic which made me claw his poor hand, but the scariest part almost cost me my life and sanity... if I ever had sanity.
I can't look at strobe lights right? I get headaches and my mom said I might have seizure problems if I'm around them too long. Well, in the maze there was about six. I had started to get use to the idea of shutting my eyes and trusting him to lead me to safety when I hear "Don't look down ('yeah right! After you say that I'm automatically going to look! Ding Dong!') But there is a lip so hug the wall." Deciding to chance it I took a miniscule glance down just to do a quick check and sure enough there was a two story drop one inch away from me. Slowly I shuffled with one hand in Jedi's and one on the wall when I feel the wall move. Swiftly it pushed me off my blind balance and I start to fall. Fall down the two stories of the Mill. Using my toes I hold myself and hung on to him for dear life, but it wasn't working. I was still falling no matter how hard I struggled. A scream escaped my mouth right as my rear hit the mirror.
Then he laughed at me! I thought that I was dying and he laughs! As I looked down I saw the reflection of the loft above. There happened to be a ledge in the middle of the floor where they conveniently placed the scene. It didn't matter that it was fake at this moment, however. Hysterics began to wet my tear ducts and my mind couldn't close the constant rushes of adrenaline it was causing. Of course I was super jumpy until he held me to calm me down while we waited in another strobe light. I'm never going to a haunted mill again.

Meeting the Relatives

Ever since I saw "the Notebook" I have wanted to shove ice cream into someone’s face when they're eating it. So when I was at Jedi's grandma's birthday party at the Golden Corral he decided to get a chocolate ice cream cone. The chance was perfect! We were sitting in the back so no one would see us, or so I thought.
By the time we had returned to the table the ice cream was almost gone: I was going to have to do it quick! I hit the bottom of his hand, but Jedi is a ninja! Somehow he darted my failed attempt to cover his face. So I tried again. Fail. Now he was onto me. He giggled and while he was distracted I tried again.
Now, my brain was pretty fuzzy. Being with the Entirety of his extended family (or so it seemed) my nerves had been a little fried. Because of this shortage of un-burnt brain cells; it didn't click that the cone wasn't near his mouth, didn’t click that my fingers hit the cone, didn’t register that Jedi jerked his hand away which gave the cone more needed force, didn't realize there was a waitress behind us. I did, however, comprehend the silence that followed. I understood Jed's expression on his face.
Yes. I threw an ice cream cone at an innocent bystanders head, a great first impression! Fail... fail fail FAIL fail fail...

Yellow Stone

Accidently waking up four hours early turned out to be one of my favorite adventures that we went on. We met each other at eight o’clock to go on our I-Team hike, but it turns out it wasn’t until twelve. I was already up and we wanted to be together so he suggested that we go for a drive.

The drive just happened to be to Yellowstone, Wyoming. On this spontaneous road trip we played the question game back and forth. I then learned all about his family, his life before school, and stuff like what his favorite type of fence was. We listened to his music and laughed about how idiotic we had both been at waking up to early. I remember thinking I had never been on a road trip with a guy and I was nervous and flattered the entire two and a half hour ride.

We ate at a diner that resembled I-hop then visited an I-Max theatre to watch a movie about cave diving. Jedi was insistent on cuddling and being cute but I kept getting lost in the movie. We didn’t make it back in time to go on the hike, but we definitely preferred our spontaneous activity.

Our first kiss wasn’t really a first kiss, it was more like a first make out. We’d only known each other for three days, and in those three days I had convinced Jedi that he didn’t have a chance when really he had me from “my name is.”

Every I saw a couple holding hands (every half hour) I would say “ew! EW! EW EW EW!” until they passed. The first time we held hands officially was for twenty seconds while turning around a corner on the street. The comment made after words was “maybe we should wait a while before we do that in public again.”

We walked to my apartment and in the comfort of my own home I think we even cuddled while I popped in my favorite video “Ever After.” We kept looking at each other. He would look in my eyes then subconsciously flick down to my lips then back up again. Finally he went in and we didn’t break apart for … well I’m not going to tell you.

After I giggled and I said “that wasn’t like a first kiss! That was like a freaking first make out!” So we fixed it. Just to make sure we fixed it again. And again. That was also the night we gave each other our totems so we could strive to one day be married to one another. I don’t think that I knew it would happen, but I considered it.

The next day he picked me up from school and we walked back to our apartment complex. Hand in hand I asked him if it was official yet and he said no. He said we were friends that liked each other and dated other people. He didn’t like the idea of boyfriend/girlfriend. He thought it was adolescent and not part of the life he wanted. Of course, I didn’t stand for that. I said I only held hands with a boyfriend then promptly threw his hand down and stalked off. “Ok ok, boyfriend girlfriend” he said as he ran back to me and slipped his hand in mine. “No, you gotta ask or it’s not official.” He did. He later admitted that he felt like he had given up on something that he had been trying to achieve, but something he never regretted giving up.

Treasure Hunting

One weekend Jedi thought it would be a great idea to rent a GPS so we could go searching for treasure with coordinates. While walking all over town we talked about animals ninety five percent of the time. We discovered our mutual fondness for dogs and cats and decided that when we got married we would adopt as many animals as possible into the family. Funny enough, we found a cat that led us strait to one of the treasures. The stray cat was very friendly and followed us for a while until she got distracted with a mouse in a field. We then ventured to Barns and Noble (I’m telling you, we walked ALL over town) and found a book called “Things to Ask Your Future Spouse before You Get Married.”

Quizzing each other about each question I found how compatible our personalities really are. Where one lacks, the other is abundant and we usually agree on everything else. We joked that we are puzzle pieces for each other because our personalities go hand in hand. On the walk home it started to rain, so he pulled me out in the middle of the street and gave me one of those really romantic smooches you see on TV.

The Sand Dunes

Sept. 8^th was our first official date. We had met just two days prior to that for the very first time. During the day we received information about a bonfire out on the famous sand dunes of Rexburg. We decided it would be fun to attend, and were excited to be the only freshman out on the dunes so early in the school year. We joked that no other freshman were cool enough to be invited to a bonfire before school was even in session!

Truth be told, we both thought the bonfire was lame. So we followed a small group that was going dune-diving. You take a running start and jump as far as you can. The dune we chose to jump off had a good 15 feet before you hit the gathered sand at the base. I began to joke about scorpions and gave Rebekah the jitters. After calming her down we got the courage to jump as far out as we possibly could, shooting strait into the sand. Once stuck knee deep we looked for something else to do. We began burying ourselves in sand right next to each other. Secretly under the sand we touched hands. After breaking the ice we began holding hands underneath the privacy of the sand. Eventually we dug ourselves out of the sand dunes and went home with butterflies in our stomachs and the hopes of being able to hold hands “in public” soon.

October 11^th was our one month anniversary of being an official couple. A few days before, we went to a local crafts store. Down one of the aisles, we found Webkins stuffed animals, and Rebekah’s eyes lit up! To her surprise, they actually had her favorite animal, which until then seemed nigh unto impossible to find - a donkey. After a few minutes of holding it she set him down and we left the store to do other things. I went back the next day and purchased the donkey. For the finishing touch I wen t to a local floral shop and picked up a single rose.

Imagine the twinkle in her eyes as she came home from her busy school life to a rose and her favorite stuffed animal on our one month anniversary. The smile that gleamed on Rebekah’s face made it all worthwhile. We named him “Lil John” and consider him our son. We take him to movies and even buckle him in a seat when we take him places! He is precious!

In the middle of November, Rexburg had a huge snowstorm blow through town that lasted a few days. During the first night, I took Rebekah out to learn how to drive in the snow. She drove like a pro- What more can I say? The following morning I took the car to school and back. On the way home I was descending the famous hill of Rexburg when I came to my left turn. As I turned the steering wheel, the car began to turn, but hit a patch of ice and was not progressing through the turn. Traffic was coming towards me, so I pulled the emergency brake to slide out of the way. Out of the way the car slid, parallel into the curb. I hobbled the car home, half a block away, and checked the damage more extensively. I had chipped off an edge of the rim, resulting in a puncture in the sidewall of the tire. I pumped up the tire and drove to the nearest Tire Factory. I also called Rebekah and told her the news. I remember the sound of worry and panic on the other end of the phone as she ran through the checkpoints of how bad it was. Money isn’t the biggest part of this story; it’s the experience of an emergency that this gave to us. We both know things are bound to happen in the future… things that aren’t planned, things that will make life more challenging, but we learned that as we link arms and face them together, we can carry a smile through it all and everything will be fine.

Engagement from His Point of View

Truth be told, the official engagement was far overdue when it finally took place. I awaited eagerly the custom-designed ring for over 2 weeks. I went through several different ideas. The first day Rebekah and I hung out, she told me how she had dreamed her future husband would propose to her at Thanksgiving Point. I was quite serious about this, until I found out her parents have a special connection with the Salt Lake Temple. I was going to propose at temple square, until someone asked me what she loved a lot. I then began to put together a proposal through a written script that I would ask her to read with me. The script would include (guy gets on one knee) and then I was going to propose. Another idea I had was to propose to her at the beginning of our engagement pictures so that they would be real live engagement pictures.

I finally rested on the idea of using her dog to propose to her. Christine Deppe was willing to help me by tying the ring onto a bow around Girl’s neck. I distracted Rebekah until Girl escaped to the front porch. I went out to retrieve Girl with her early in the morning on November 28^th. Rebekah saw Girl and asked why she had a bow around her neck…. Then she asked why she had a ring on her bow. Her face lit up as she realized it was a diamond ring and she put the pieces together. Not a word was said as we walked Girl back to her home. I knelt down on one knee and asked her to be my wife. To which she replied, “Of Course! I Will!” I had several ideas but I think the best one came through in the end.

Engagement from Her Point of View

“Wake up! Good morning! Hey hey… Good morning!” he said with a huge boyish grin across his face. Over the past couple of days I had become accustom to waking to Jedi so it seemed like just another Sunday morning. I remember thinking “Dang it, I’m going to look sleepy for church again.”

My mother’s voice rang from the floor below “Rebekah! Your dog’s got loose again!” That dog! She knows how to get out of anything just to get attention. Nothing odd crossed my mind. I even told my father “guess what? Girl got out again” as I walked down the stairs.

When I stepped out onto the porch sure enough there was girl. However, she had a bow around her neck so I asked the only reasonable question.

“Why is there a ribbon around her neck?” At further inspection the next reasonable question of “why is there a ring around her neck?” seemed suitable. Knowing my dog, putting a diamond ring on a wild dog was a very risky thing but who was I to judge? At that point I didn’t really care. I floated out the door with the dog in my arms and left my boyfriend trailing after me as I babbled about my dog unconcernedly.

Reaching the dog’s pen I didn’t really know what to do so I just set her down and let her do what she wanted. We stood there for a moment until he asked me to untie the ribbon.

Sliding the ring upon my bare finger he asked the undeniable words in which I answered “Of course I will!” Poor kid, earlier that week I had been angry at him. The wedding was not two weeks away and I still was not properly engaged. I threatened to say no when he asked me so it must have been so nerve racking for him. After words I gave him a hug and whispered in his ear “took you long enough,” to which I got a blush, a smile, and a kiss.