Swoon to Honeymoon: A History

The first time I saw Tommy in suit pants, a white undershirt and suspenders; I swooned.

Well, the modern-day version of swooning anyway. I mean, come on, he looked like the sexy, private detective type from the 20's who chases down mob-bosses and probably even does his own cooking.


Anyway, in reality, we were in a super old (and gorgeous) mansion stacking white-picket chairs. He had been hired to be man-labor for the set-up and take-down of my sister's wedding reception. Little did he or my sister know, I had a major crush on him. Hence the swooning.

I could blame what happened afterwards on the suspenders, but to be fair, it's all Tommy's fault. He's just so wonderful.


But first, let me go back.

Approximately one month previous, I had reluctantly decided to do what I had never done before. i.e."put myself out there", "be bold" and "chase down my man". And being extremely shy at the time, I thought I was making wild progress by actually speaking to him on Sundays during church (we both worked in the nursery) and by getting acquainted with his family and even going over to his house to ask craftsy questions of his brilliant mother.

Looking back on it, I can see why he didn't pick up on any of my fearless attempts to accomplish the three aforementioned tasks.

However, this was progress to me and I considered it a major victory when, the day after the reception, he asked me to hang out at his house sometime that week. Which brings us back up to speed on our timeline...

We started a friendship that blossomed around lots of talking, card games, taking walks to the park, late-night Safeway runs for canned pineapple, tours of his high school, and of course, Smallville.

The dating began December 4th 2007.
1 blissful month later I left for college and 7 tough but love-filled months after that he left for Argentina.

I knew I was in love. I knew he loved me. And I was positive if we did everything right in God's eyes, we could be together again.

Mr. Hopeful was sure I'd marry somebody else while he served his mission in Buenos Aires for two years.


Fast forward 24 months and 4 days.


One of the best days of my life thus far: he came home.

He looked like a sunbeam with his tanned skin and his sun-bleached hair and his huge grin. He smelled like dirt mixed with old dirt mixed with foreign dirt shoved in a suitcase. He was beautiful.

The dating began August 4th 2010.

13.04 blissful and packed eons [days] later he proposed. August 16th 2010 in a parking lot at 1am.

7 months and 10 days later we were married and sealed for all eternity in the Rexburg temple. March 25th 2011.

It'll be 5 months tomorrow baby!

We were able to go on a wonderful honeymoon a couple weeks ago. [I'll write and picture-record that later] It was a much needed vacation where we got to do whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted, and had an absolute blast together. It was definitely a wonderful way to celebrate spending our lives together.

People call us newlyweds but I can't hardly remember my life without him, it feels like we've been together forever, and heaven-sakes do we love it that way.

I cannot count the number of times I've swooned or been swept off of my feet (literally and figuratively) by my giant, miraculous, sunbeam of a man.
Nor the number of times I've called him by his full name during our tickle/wrestle/play-fights, nor the number of times I've realized what a huge slice of perfection my life is with him.

Love is love is love is love. Can't get much better than that.