The Story of Us

I had a friend who recently wrote about how she and her husband met. It was a great story and it inspired me to write my own. So here is the story of how Rusty and I met and how it came to be that we were married.

First some background. I had had a boyfriend for about 2 years straight before I met Rusty. Usually when one relationship ended, I went out on the rebound to get over him. One time I got dumped, and within a few hours went on a date with my new boyfriend. There was even some overlap between guys. :O Yeah, I didn't like to be alone. So the last time I got dumped, I realized that I just didn't know who I was. I was just always someone's girlfriend and hadn't been myself in a very long time. I know that sounds very 'Jenifer Love Hewitt' of me, but it's ok because Rusty looks a lot like the guy she dated after she said that, too.

Anyways, so May 2002 my goal for the summer was to not have a boyfriend and to go on a mission in December. I thought I would do some soul searching during that time. In the meantime, Marty (a really good friend of mine) and I drove to Idaho Falls for Annie's wedding. It was Saturday night when the reception ended and Marty and I decided that we would drive as far back to Silverdale as we could and pull over in a rest stop somewhere to sleep when we got tired. Anyways, I drove all night long. I was wired and felt some urgency to get to church the next day. I remember Marty asking me how it was that I was still awake and I told him, "I don't know. I think your eternal companion must be coming to church tomorrow." Actually, it was mine.

Rusty had just come back to Port Orchard for the summer from BYU. He planned on going to our combined Singles Ward just once (that Sunday) and then just go to his home ward (in another stake) for the rest of the summer. It was fast and testimony meeting and Marty decided to bare his testimony about me ('cuz that's what boys in Singles wards do). Well, I caught Rusty's eye and he decided that he would stay in the Singles Ward that summer and we started to hang out a lot. I was still trying to preserve my goal, so I avoided dating just him. In fact, we hung out a lot with his best friend Jared. The three of us did just about everything together. When I started to really like Rusty I threw my goal out the window. (It lasted about a month LOL). But I was still very careful about exclusively pairing off with him. I had a bit of a "reputation" in the singles ward, and didn't want to cause more gossip.

Two girls actually warned Rusty not to date me. LOL. I'm glad he didn't listen.

So Summer ended and Rusty headed to BYU Hawaii and I headed to BYU Idaho. He lasted a month there and dropped out and moved to Rexburg. If really should've dropped out myself and moved to Hawaii. What was I thinking? Rexburg is COLD!

Anyways, he officially proposed on Oct. 28 2002. I went on an all-day scavenger hunt that lead me to places we had been. At each place, there was a clue with a rose. All of my professors that day gave me roses and notes, too. He was at the last rose. He took me to dinner and then we went horse back riding. He had written me a song that he sang and then proposed. It was really funny because he was SO nervous during dinner that I had to say, "The temple is already reserved Rust. I'm going to say yes, so just chill!"

Engagement picture!

And then two months later (Dec. 28, 2002) we were married in the Seattle, WA temple.

It's been the best (almost) six years of my life!