What I'm thinking about...

If only...

The Baby Bump!

18 weeks and counting!

Our Love Story: MFEO

Warning: Long post ahead!
(I've always wanted to say that.)

I've been thinking a lot lately about me and my husband's history together, and decided to blog about it. I hope you enjoy our story...I hope I don't bore you too much...but I guess this post is mainly for me anyway.

Bart and I have known each other since middle school. Our families have been in the same stake since our oldest siblings were young. I remember one particular Sunday a LONG time ago (who knows how old I was) my mom pointed Bart out to me and said she wanted me to marry him someday. She thought he was an awesome kid and would make a great husband.

Fast forward to the middle school years (I was in 7th grade, Bart was in 8th). I walk into my social studies class and there was the boy my mom had betrothed me to, sitting by my teacher's desk as his student aide. To tell you the truth I thought he was pretty hot for being 14 (even though we both were in our prime awkward stages). I didn't like the class much (and I hated my teacher) but I loved seeing Bart. We kept eyeing each other all through class and I remember finding random smiley faces on my test, which I know were not from my teacher.

The next year is when we really hit it off. I was still in middle school but Bart had moved up to our high school, Shadow Mountain. During this time we would pass notes back in forth (using my sister and her boyfriend as carrier pigeons). My birthday came and he gave me a vase of yellow tulips, which were beautiful. Another year went by and I moved up to Shadow. We still talked on the phone and hung out (I skipped a class to eat lunch with him...I was completely scared and Bart still laughs about the plan I devised to get out of class).

Then the crucial day came...the day every mormon girl (and mormon guy who likes the said girl) waits for...the day I turned 16. I'm proud to say that Bart was my first date. :) We went on a double date with Rob Campbell and Jenny Rojas (now Coleman). Our plan: dinner and a movie...classic! Dinner was at Outback Stakehouse and the movie was Ice Age (I know, that was a long time ago!). He held my hand during the movie.

Our 2nd date: Prom. Since Bart was a Junior he was eligible to go to prom and therefore asked me to go with him. We had a blast! We had dinner at Bart's house with my future mother-in-law as our chef (and it was wonderful, of course). Then we danced like crazy at prom and finished out the evening by getting pulled over (thanks to Eddie Ford's fish tail skills right in front of a cop). Oh, and then we watched an illegal copy of Spiderman at Bart's house. I know...bad to the bone! :) Out of the three years that I went to prom, that was the only professional picture that turned out great. The 8 x 10 picture is hanging up in our apartment.

A little time after that I remember listening to the prophet saying that the youth should not be exclusively dating. I knew that my situation was included in this category and felt like I needed to do the right thing. So I told Bart that I did not want to exclusively date anymore. Well, he was not too happy about that. Many things were said (that I'd rather not repeat even if I could remember them) and our feelings of love interest quickly changed to anger, disgust, and sadly, dislike.

Bart keeps telling me that he was able to get over our little "tiff" a lot earlier than I did. I guess I can agree to that, to my dismay I have a bad habit of holding grudges. And to make me even prouder of my actions at this time, I completely went back on the prophet's council (and my reason for breaking up with Bart) and started dating someone else exclusively for a year-and-a-half (I know...don't get me started).

Needless to say, things did not go well between me and Bart for the next two years. Every time he would try to talk with me I would be nothing but cold. And I had no problem slandering his name whenever it came up in a conversation (what a vicious girl I was!). Eventually I calmed down. And to show you who the better person is in our relationship, the day of Bart's farewell he came up to me and apologized for all the crap that happened between us. It hit me that day how awful I had been acting...not only to Bart, but to others who I felt "wronged" me. Who was I to think I could treat people like that?

Well Bart headed off to Canada for his mission with no regrets, while I was left at home to do some soul searching. I dated a couple of people here and there but no one too serious. I still kept thinking about Bart and how easily he had forgiven me (and all of his other awesome qualities that I could not get out of my head). At this point and time we were writing back in forth, but nothing too serious...until I violently shoved the letter writing into said seriousness. Bart could tell you exactly when this effort happened, because he started receiving letters like crazy from me. No, there was not talk of I love you or you're the only one for me or I can't wait to marry you...at least not in these letters. :)


But, as most of you may know, Bart broke his leg during the last half of his mission in Alberta and had to come home for surgery and recovery (another blogworthy story about how it happened and my reaction to him being home, but that will have to wait another day...this post is way to long already). Well needless to say our relationship progessed to the level where I believed he was the guy for me. And then Bart headed back out to Ontario to finish up his mission.


We continued writing, I continued waiting, and the rest is history. Granted we did have a few shaky moments that made us both rethink our relationship, but in the end Bart got the girl and I married the man of my dreams. :)


Well, congratulations! You made it to the end of my very long post. Again, I hope you enjoyed it and I promise to not give you that big of an information overload for awhile (at least not without breaking it up with pictures!).

All the Best.