How did we get here?

Alan and I were sitting around talking last night and something sparked that question. It was one of those moments where we looked around and said "do we really have two kids and live in Wisconsin? How did that happen?"

Alan and I met at the end of August right before school started in 2007. I was a Sunday School teacher in my singles' ward at the time, and so I already had a pretty good feel of the new guys moving into the apartment complex. I had picked out a promising apartment, and proceeded to make friends with them. I was over at their apartment visiting when I heard a rich, deep, voice coming out of one of the back rooms. Out walks a tall, dark haired, really cute guy singing church hymns in spanish with one of the other guys. He didn't live in my apartment complex, but he had been roommates with a lot of the guys in my ward before they all left on their missions.

I think my first thought was "whoa, a cute guy who is not afraid to sing. I need to met him". We chatted for a little bit before I had to get back to doing other things. Later that night a group of us got together to talk and play games. Alan tagged along with his friends. I remember sitting on an end table talking and laughing with everyone and trying not to be too obvious that I kept looking at Alan.

Over the next few days he was conveniently always hanging out with his old roommates, until he finally gave up that pretense and just came over to be with me. We went to a trampoline/gymnastics center, had a bonfire up in the canyon, hiked up Bridal Veil Falls, had a barbecue, and went to a BYU football game. We watched a movie where he ALMOST put his arm around me, and then another one where he actually did. We were in Salt Lake watching the Joseph Smith movie in the visitors center the first time he held my hand. The next day, after playing racquetball, he kissed me for the first time outside in the courtyard in front of my apartment.

The next few weeks were such a blur. We were together everyday, talking, laughing, playing, studying, and just enjoying one anothers company. I remember coming home from a football game thinking "I could marry this guy", then thinking I was crazy because it had only been such a short time. He must have been thinking the same thing, because a few nights later he asked me, "if I were to ask you to marry me, would you say yes?"

Alan wanted to take me ring shopping in his hometown. I remember him telling his mom on the phone why we were coming up for the day and hearing her response on the other end. "Are you serious?" I think we both knew how crazy we looked, but it didn't matter any more. I had dated enough guys to know what I wanted and what I needed, and I had never been more sure about anything. I remember trying to explain it (very badly) to a couple of my worried siblings who didn't think I knew what I was getting into.

It was a rainy day the day Alan proposed. It was conference weekend, and we were supposed to catch a bus early in the morning to go up to West Jordan to be with Alan's family and then later met my parents in Salt Lake (they were coming to Utah to met Alan). Somehow, I had forgotten to set my alarm. I woke up to the sound of Alan knocking at my door. Then frantic, I rushed around trying to get ready in time to catch the bus. When I was finally ready to go out the door, Alan started dragging his feet. We walked towards the bus station and he was still stalling the whole time. Finally he stopped me and said it was alright if we were a little late. Then, after saying some nice things about me, in the raining parking lot of my apartment complex, he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him.

So, I guess that's how we ended up in Wisconsin with two kids. At least, that's how it happened from my point of view...