If You Live to be 100, I Want to live to be 100 Minus a Day, so I Never Have to Live a Day Without You

So, I'm going to marry the love of my life, and I am very grateful for everything that happened to bring us together. I just want to apologize in advance to all of you ladies out there, but I got the cream of the crop with this one. But don't worry, I'm sure there are still some great guys left out there for you, just not as great as mine :). But don't take my word for it, instead, let me tell you a little bit about my husband-to-be. Greg is from Mississippi, and is 22 years old. He is in the air force and has at least another 5 years with them. Luckily, he's at a base where he won't get deployed unless he volunteers, and even more lucky, he doesn't want to volunteer to go (now that we've met). He is an extremely sincere guy, and when he asks how you're doing, he genuinely wants to know-not in the girly "tell me your whole life story" kind of way, but in the gentleman type way. His sense of humor matches mine exactly and we can feed off of each other easily. So that keeps things fun, especially when your 2000 or so miles apart:


He is always ready to serve others and does so with a smile on his face. He is VERY talented, especially when it comes to anything engineer-yes, that includes mechanical and electrical. I'm pretty decent at fixing things, but it's nice to know that he can do pretty much anything to our home to enhance it. So we're going to be set. He's going to school to become a mechanical engineer; he already has the know-how, just needs the paper-work. He is spontaneous, and always up for an adventure, which is great for me, since I tend to be more reserved about things (even though I'm willing to try almost anything...almost). So he gets me actively trying new things. He makes me feel special, like I'm the only girl in the world that matters, or that even exists. He acts like he's the luckiest guy ever to have me, but I know that it's the other way around. He is patient with me when I get moody and go "complete girl" over something silly, and for some reason, he still loves me when I have my breakdowns. I know he's going to take care of me, physically and monetarily, and I trust him with all of my being. This really is just scratching the surface of Greg, but I tried to be all encompassing when describing him-I don't want to bore anyone. Whether you know our story or not, I am going to tell you anyway, Ok, here goes:

Greg and I met...ready for it?...on an online dating site. Go figure! Neither of us are socially inept or awkward, so it often surprises people when we tell them that's where we met. But I'm here to testify that it's not weirdo's that meet online (although they are out there), but there are, in fact, quite a few normal people available as well. Also, whenever someone finds the audacity to tease me about it, I just tell them that we are so perfect for each other, God knew we had to meet. Since there really wasn't any other way for us to run into each other (he being from Mississippi and I from Idaho), God had to intervene. Thus, online dating was created (yes, I know it was several years ago, but God knew we were perfect for each other, even back then).

(Photo by Clarissa Law)

Greg sent me the first message, which was LOOOOONNNNGGG! I didn't want to read it, and actually ignored it for a few days. But finally, I got sick of the nagging that I should respond, and decided to be nice. He continued to write really long messages, which bothered me at first. But after the 3rd or 4th message, my view on him changed, thank goodness! Soon I was looking forward to hearing from him, and even sooner, he was the only one I cared to get a message from. Eventually, we became facebook friends and exchanged phone numbers. However, we mostly used phone numbers to text, and kept the messages going through FB. Instead of talking on the phone, we went straight to Skype. Oh what a lovely program! We realized that it wasn't uncommon for us to talk for 4 hours at a time, and we only stopped because one of us had to be somewhere else. One day, Greg's parents were visiting him while he was in Tech school for the air force, and he was texting me nearly the whole time. His dad said, "You must like this girl," and proceeded to buy him a plane ticket to Utah in order for us to finally meet in person. We decided to use this at the first opportunity we could, which was October 23, 2010.

The whole week before he came, I spent praying to know whether or not I should pursue this. I said, "I don't care one way or the other, I just can't have him go back to Mississippi and me not know if I want anything to come of it. So please let me know." When Greg finally got here that Saturday, I thought, meh, this will be fun at least. And we ended up driving to my parents' home (because my family wanted to meet him). Within the first hour of the car ride, I remember thinking, "He is so much fun. I love this. I want to do this with him forever.....I want to marry him." This took me by surprise, since we had just met in person an hour ago. But I knew it was a good feeling, and that it was the answer to my prayers. On Sunday night (the day after he got to Utah), we told each other we loved each other, and started thinking how this could even work. I knew I wanted to marry him and I knew it would be difficult, but I also knew I could do it. Marrying him would require me to move away from my family, friends, school, and everything I know. But if I can tell everyone one thing as a take-home message, it's this: He is worth it. And he is the ONLY one who would be worth it. Anyway, we ended up buying a ring later that week, and he asked for my dad's permission. Dad thought it was going fast, but he really liked Greg, and thought him quite the upstanding young man. Mom and my brother loved him too. But the one that meant the most to me was my little sister. She loved him too. For some reason, that was the one that I cared most about-her approval. Guess it's this sisterly love you don't realize you have for each other until something like this makes it apparent.

Greg didn't propose on his trip to Utah-mostly to not cause my dad to freak out. Instead, he waited for Thanksgiving, when I flew to Orlando, FL (to accompany him and his family to Disney World). The farthest East I have been is Mt. Rushmore (when I was 3), so this was quite the adventure to have on my own.

We spent the first 3 days of the break going to the parks. I felt like a little kid again. It was so magical! And Greg got a kick out of my enthusiasm.

We even got to meet the Beatles! They were so nice to let us get a picture with them. Although I still can't figure out how they were all there....and young. Disney is magical!!! haha

Greg and I went to the 3D show of It's a Bug's Life. It was sweet, because they even had things actually shoot out at you...like stink bug sent, bug spray, cockroaches running under your butt. We went on that a few times.

On November 23, we went to Animal Kingdom, and towards nightfall, Greg led me down this path (which had no one on it, go figure, Disney Land is always packed). And he stopped and started fiddling around in his backpack, "trying to decide where we needed to go." I was suspicious, so I turned around and adjusted my shoe. When I turned toward him, he was down on one knee and he asked me to marry him. It was such a beautiful area, too! All green, with a waterfall. Again, we had the path all to ourselves from the time we stepped on the path, to the time we finished celebrating our engagement. After, we took a ferry ride to Magic Kingdom (Cinderella's Castle), and watched the fireworks. It was very sweet :)

Cinderella's Castle

So we are getting married May 20, in the Bountiful temple, for time and all eternity! And I tell you what, I can't wait to have him forever!