Three Years Ago Today. . .

When Joel called me up for the first time to ask me on a date, I had to look him up in the ward directory. I didn't remember who he was, what he looked like, or even that he had already been to my apartment several times.

He certainly knew who I was. He had me pegged since one of the first BYU singles ward prayers as someone he wanted to get to know better. Get to know me better he did--and quickly. He took his three roommates with him to visit my apartment, then quietly and observantly stood against the wall, mute and quite invisible. I was the subject of a study I didn't know I had signed up for.

He and his roommate were in the Sunday School presidency, so when they decided to call me as a gospel doctrine teacher it provided them with the perfect excuse to return late one night and get my phone number. The trouble is, he sent his roommate to do it. The trouble is, this was a friendly roommate. The trouble is, then, that I wasn't sure who was the interested party. All I knew was that a guy had come late at night with a lame excuse to get my phone number, and I didn't see a good reason to say no.

But thank goodness for this roommate, who, after many times of returning with Joel to visit my apartment--armed with excuses such as "We wanted more cookies!"--finally took it upon himself to make sure Joel would do the deed and call me. Dialing my number on his own cell phone, he pressed send and handed it to a nervously wavering Joel, who was sitting on their couch.

I said yes.

Twice, actually, which means that the second time I said it (six weeks later, just before Thanksgiving), it came with a shiny ring and a box full of anticipation. We moved up our marriage date from a time in May that felt eons away and got married just after Christmas.

We have never looked back, and we have never been happier.

Now, in case you aren't nauseated enough, here is our song. We picked it because we had a running joke during our courtship that I could always tell what level of feeling Joel had for me by looking in his eyes (hence the opening line of the song: "look into my eyes, you will see what you mean to me").

Everything I do (I do it for you) by Bryan Adams
(yes, I know this is a cheesy song that probably everyone designated as theirs in the early nineties. But we didn't know each other then, so sue me)



(Ignore the cheesy Robin Hood: Men in Tights clips)

BUT, we actually have another unofficial song. This song, You are the Woman by Firefall, is one Joel would sing along to in the car every time we heard it on the radio. Over the years it has kind of become our song as well. Every time I heard the lyrics, it reminds me of exactly what would be Joel's point of view when we were dating.

In case you're feeling in a musical mood, and because I'm on a roll with the video embedding, here is this one as well: