Way Back When Wednesday - How I Met My Husband

 I met Derek during the second semester of my freshman year at BYU.  He had been in my ward (like a parish or congregation but Mormon) the whole year, but for some reason, I never ever saw him.  He says it's because of work, but I know for a fact he stayed up WAY too late watching movies and eating doughnuts and slept most of the day.

One day, after my Book of Mormon class, I was walking home with my friend.  She had a huge crush on him and had asked to the Winter Preference (the formal or semi-formal girl ask guy dance).  We were discussing who he was, because I had never heard of him, and he came up behind us!

A few weeks later, the ward's FHE (Family Home Evening) groups were re-organized and who was in my group?  Derek!  Being my clueless self, I wanted to get to know this guy my friend liked.

I noticed that we walked home the same way each day, and one evening walked up to him and told him that we should walk home together everyday.  He was a little confused and/or scared, but agreed to it.  The first day he didn't wait quite long enough, and I spent the whole time trying to catch up with him to no avail.

I also called him to look over one of my German assignments.  I had to write a fairy tale in German and I  heard that he lived in Germany for a few years, so I asked him to proof read.  He ended up staying at my apartment chatting with me and my roommates until curfew and he had to leave... about six hours!

A few days later, I got a call from Derek.  He asked how I liked sporting events or comedy things.  I told him that I liked both of those things alright, and then he asked if I'd like to go on a date with him to one of those things.  And of course, I said yes.

He decided to take me to a comedy thing held at Provo High.  His roommate Isaac took my roommate Kristen, and his friend Yi took another Kristen who lived in my building.  It was a lot of fun!  After the comedy show, we went to Wendy's and then ate the food in the car in a parking lot on campus.  The only problem was there were only 5 seats in Derek's car.  Good thing I was Derek's date.  I got to sit in the front.  Plenty of room!

The Sunday after our first date, Derek came over to my apartment to hang out with me. Around dinner time he announced that he was going over to a Japanese girl's apartment to eat dinner, and then afterward make out (He swears he was joking, but still... Come on!). I got SO JEALOUS because Derek had gone on a mission to Japan and had self diagnosed "yellow fever," meaning he had a thing for Asian women, especially Japanese. I was so upset and didn't know what to do.

I knew I needed to talk to someone about my new crush, so I chose who I thought was my safest roommate to share this new and sensitive information with. Turns out, she had a crush on him too! That's all I needed more complications! I didn't want to make her or my other friend feel upset or jealous if I decided to pursue Derek.

Then I called my mom and had a good talk with her about what to do. My mom and I have a great relationship and can talk about EVERYTHING. She suggested to do what I felt best about.

I waited on MSN messenger for him to get home that evening. It was pretty late by the time he got on, and I was really stressing out. He suggested that I go over to his apartment to hang out. I didn't think that was a great idea because I had a test the next morning and I needed to either review that night, or get up early the next morning. Derek suggested that he help me that evening and I, being the giddy, boy-crazy girl, agreed.

We ended up staying up until 4am not doing much reviewing... mostly talking. Since we couldn't stay in his apartment after midnight, we went for a ride and then talked on the back steps of my apartment.

By 4am, I decided that I should go to bed. My test was at 10 the next morning. So I gave him a hug and looked up to say goodnight. I SWEAR I didn't intend to ask for or get a kiss, but I guess hugging and looking up at the same time is a clear KISS ME sign. So he kissed me. What a GREAT kiss! I was jumping up and down and freaking out silently--my roommates were sleeping--once I got inside where he couldn't see me.

My apartment held a dorky BYU tradition that if you kiss a guy, you have to buy your roommates ice cream. Well, since I hadn't really been dating Derek for all that long (less than a week), and heck I just met him two or three weeks earlier, they were VERY surprised to say the least when I gave them a bowl of ice cream wearing a huge grin! And thankfully, neither my roommate or my friend were upset about me dating Derek and not them.

We continued to date through the semester, and when it was time to go home for the summer, we decided to try the long-distance thing.  Well, one thing led to another and on May 25th, 2003, Derek informally asked me to marry him, and then on June 6th, he officially asked me with a ring... my Mom's original engagement ring.  It made the whole experience just that much more special!

A couple of our engagement photos. My roommate Caroline took the photos.

She is an awesome photographer

One of our wedding pictures.  Derek likes it because he "blows me away" in this photo.

Us at Derek's house when we were engaged. 

A picture of us just before a dance. It was a fun date! The dance was on a train!