How it started....

In December of 2003 I was living at my grandma Mimi's house and not really sure what to do with my life. Byu-Idaho had not exactly worked out for me (turns out a combination of throwing water balloons and being signed in on a roll when you're not there equals getting kicked out of college....oops) so I was left with a kind of confused feeling as to what to do next. I knew I wanted to serve a mission for our church, but turning mission papers in was still 6 months away from me. So, my friend Kelly King (who was just about to go back for her second semester at BYU-Hawaii) called me one day and I was telling her how I didn't know what to do with my life when she had a great idea! She told me to come out to Hawaii and just live there for a semester. She told me that Hawaii would make me "pensive", so I started thinking about it. Later that night I was talking to Mimi and out of no where she was like "why don't you move out to Hawaii with Kelly?" She had had no idea about my conversation with kelly earlier that day. So that's all I needed, two people in one day telling me to move to Hawaii....I started looking at plane tickets.

When I left I had two stand-by tickets (one for going there and one for the way home), enough money for one month rent (in an awesome house on a cliff right over the ocean), and enough money for one months worth of food. I knew if I didn't get a job out there right away, then my stay in Hawaii would only be one month long. I was really lucky and got a job at a hospital right away doing medical billing and making 12 bucks and hour (which was a ton compared to everyone else's minimum wage of 5 buck an hour).

So here's the whole the point of my little "look back".....about one week after I got out to Hawaii, I met a guy named Matt. Turned out one of my roommates (who was actually not a roommate, just visiting one of my roommates) was Matt's ex-girlfriend and they were still friends. So he came over to our house almost everyday to hang out with her and was forming attachments with all of my other roomates. I obviously noticed Matt (he IS really good looking) but didn't pay much attention to him because he seemed to have a thing for just about every girl that lived in our house. :) So one day, about two weeks after I had been in Hawaii, Matt asked me if I wanted to come to his house and burn CD's before a super bowl party he was having. I went and we had a really good time, until a girl he had been dating (that I had no idea about) showed up. She was from Thai Land and spoke almost no English. Apparently Matt didn't need verbal communication. :) Sooooo, Matt quickly ended things with this girl and from that day forward we were together 24/7.

We did so many fun things and I was so glad that I was in Hawaii. Both of us just thought is was kind of casual and had our own set of plans for after that semester was over. When he left at the end of that semester to go home and work, I felt sick. I missed him SO much. I had never missed a guy before, so this was new to me. Turns out he felt the same way. We ended up dating for a year half (with a few short lived break ups on the way) and then got married in the Los Angeles Temple on May 8, 2004.

That was four years ago today and still the best decision I ever made. Two kids, one college degree (and one cosmetology degree), many jobs, many apartments, and one signing up with the air force later, we are ridiculously happy. We have our little bumps in the road along the way, but all in all, things are perfect. Matt takes such good care of us and loves us to pieces. Hallie, Chase and I feel the same way about him. It's also a plus that I still find Matt to be really hot. I really feel that a series of event in both our lives lead us to a place where we could meet and go from there. We fit together perfectly and I know we can accomplish some great things together. I love you Matt! Happy anniversary.