Engaged!

I'M SO EXCITED!

For those who might have a slight interest, I'm going to give a brief, or a really extensive, run down of everything and have Calvin add tidbits here and there. So here we go.

We met last September in the MARB at BYU. Now we're engaged and getting married December 21st in the Idaho Falls temple!

To fill in the gaps, we dated throughout the semester and had a lot of fun. After our first date I felt dazzed thinking I'd just been on a date with the boy version of myself. Example from my journal from that night, "the more I think about it, the more I think he is the boy version of me." Example from Calvin's journal from that night "we hit it off so well. It was really bizarre how similar we were. I thought to myself 'wow, she is the girl version of me.'" We had a lot in common; Calvin is studying exercise science with medical school plans and I'm in the nursing program, we both love The Office (not too uncommon I understand), we have really fun moms, we love Tay Tay Swizzle (even when it's not that cool anymore), neither of us can really grow facial hair, we're monolingual, and we think kissing is fun (not all that uncommon either I hear [just kidding mom]). Overall, a really enjoyable semester.

Here we are hiking the Y with Annie (my smokin hot Australian roommate) and Jase

After the Sunday session of the LDS General Conference in October.

Oh my gosh I think he's so cute. And he's really good at ping pong. Niceeeee.

Taken during date night, game night. Fun night. 

Wonggggg. Wong. 

Santy Clause 

Post cookie failure. 

And then I left for Jerusalem. I left for BYU-Jerusalem January eighth and had plans to let go and see where things took me. I figured we would both be taking different paths and we needed to see where they took us. They took us right back to each other. Major intersection, more like a merging really. Calvin and I kept in touch constantly throughout the four months I was in Israel. We sent weekly (daily) emails and I called him a few times (a lot more the closer my return date came). Calvin studied for the MCAT, and I galavanted through the Judean Wilderness. But we missed each other; best friends for life seem to do that.

I had realized at some point in February that I needed to take spring classes at BYU when I got home no matter how badly my brain didn't want to. I arrived back in Idaho Falls, moved down to Provo three days later, saw Calvin that first day, and things clicked back into place within an hour of being together. He asked a trillion questions and I showed him the bajillion treasures I'd brought back from Israel. If possible, spring semester was fifty times better than last fall semester.

We went to a Korean restaurant, Fusion, with Calvin's Korean roommate, John, and his girlfriend, Haram. One of my favorite things. 

We have a love affair with Comedy Sports Club. It was our second date and I wouldn't mind it being every date.

On the day before my twentieth birthday Calvin and I ran around doing teenage things for me under the direction of Jenessa Hutchins, J-Honey. We swung on swings, listened to Teenage Dream (I HATE that song), got some slurpees at 7-11, and acted like we were twelve.

When I got home from class on my birthday Calvin had had flowers delivered to my apartment.

We went on a surprise hike to Stewart Falls, our first date, for my birthday. I was starving and was feeling slightly melancholy that we would have to hike the entire thing before dinner. When we got to the top Calvin pulled Cafe Rio out of his backpack. I'm starting to think I'm pretty easy to trick, even with having grown up with my dad. How on earth do you get two Cafe Rio tostadas up the hill without someone knowing??

Mid studying for the MCAT.

Spring term had gone really well, and then Calvin left for Vegas to take the MCAT. It was at this point that things started to really fall into place. He was gone for two weeks because after the test he went home to Grand Junction, Colorado. On a whim, I ended up driving to Colorado the last weekend to see him and spend time with his family. That was the turning point in the war for sure. 

Calvin likes to ride his bike (basket and bell included) up the road occasionally. Ok kidding, he actually does road biking with his dad and brothers. Over spring term he was training for an eighty mile ride in Denver, Colorado. After frolicking through the wildflowers up Payson Canyon he picked me some flowers and brought them back.

I learned how to play poker. 

Spring term wrapped up, and I didn't have plans to stay in Provo for summer term. I packed up and moved home to Idaho Falls to spend time with my family and to beat on Zach. Over the two months we spent a lot of time traveling to see each other. Between a speeding ticket, a dead stranded car, and a shredded tire we traveled between Provo, Grand Junction, and Idaho Falls. 

Calvin introduced me to a Vietnamese soup called pho. Sometimes I wake up at two am craving some. Pho is in the top ten reasons why I'm excited to be moving back to Provo in a few days.

Asian restaurants can be confusing.

Dinosaur Calvin.

Here we are before wining and dining at our favorite Asian restaurant again, Fusion.

Nickel Arcade is such a novelty. The Deal or No Deal machine will be our demise. 

Although occasionally we strike gold.

Hahahahahaha. Hahahah. Hahaha.

For my mom's birthday my whole family planned a surprise murder mystery dinner party. We all scoured DI and dressed the 50's part.

Bar B Que and her date. Or something.

One of the best days. We were able to go to Sara Jenkins wedding. Woah, Sara Andersen. Such a fun weekend. 

Huckleberry picking in Idaho Falls.

On the days or the weekends we were in different places we skyped.

We skyped a lot.

Shoot, I'm tired of writing. I'm sure everyone is tired of reading. Here we go. 

In my mind I figured we wouldn't officially become engaged until I moved back to Provo in September. So this whole thing has been a complete surprise. Calvin and I had been ring shopping so he could see what I liked, and he took that knowledge and went from there. 

On August 31st I was out shopping with my mom for last minute college necessities. When we got home I saw a package from FedEx sitting on the counter. From Calvin! He is constantly doing things like that so I wasn't overly surprised, just really excited. I opened it to find two bags of Alpine mints (from WinCo, go buy some, seriously), a note that said he hoped the package arrived before I moved back to Provo and he wanted to just do something for me, and a DVD. My family was all cramming to see the DVD, but I felt embarrassed. I had no clue what was on it. I thought he might have recorded some guitar songs or made a slide show of pictures or something. I felt nervous. I ran downstairs and watched the DVD. It was ten minutes of Calvin talking about his side of things from the beginning and all that mushy stuff. It was such a thoughtful video. He walked off camera and I sat there thinking I needed to call him and tell him how wonderful he was. Then he walked back on screen and said "oh, I almost forgot you might want to go out in the backyard. There's something there for you." Holy smokes, I panicked. My hair!! And I suddenly hated what I was wearing. And my hair!!! So I changed, shrugged off my hair, and went upstairs. I was all shaky and stuff. Like a nine on the earthquake Richter scale. 

At this point I noticed the blinds covering the large window to my backyard were closed. Suspicious. I went outside with my mom right on my heels. There was a vase of flowers and a card sitting by our fire  pit. With my mom so closely beside me I started to feel silly thinking that he might be there. Because she obviously would have known he was surprising me and wouldn't follow me out to the scene of the crime. I finished reading the card and the last sentence was "So... I kinda have an important question for you....." I started.. squawking... "mom, mom, I don't think you're supposed to be here!!!" She started panicking "but I haven't finished reading it yet!!" Then I saw Calvin walking out from around the foresty bushes by our fire pit. Complete meltdown mode. My mom ran off. I don't remember the actual proposal but I do remember uttering a really informal "yaaa" in response to his proposal. I hyperventilated, Calvin was completely teary, ya know, the stuff from the movies. I'm really super, extremely excited. K fine he wasn't crying. It really was such an exciting moment though.

Hyperventilating

Still hyperventilating

I'M SO EXCITED!!

Nate and Zach were the secret photographers.

:)

Calvin, me, and my little Perkins hostess

Ew gross, sorry.

I woke up at least ten times last night thinking I'd lost my ring.

 So that's the story! We're really excited and thrilled to be at this point in our lives. I didn't really let Calvin write anything but he approves this message. At this point we're planning on a wedding in the Idaho Falls LDS temple December 21, 2013. 

...and they lived happily ever after.