Memory Monday

So, Kambree is really liking a very nice boy named Cameron.
Yes, Kambree and Cameron.

Anyway, they're very cute together and my Kam thinks this Cam might be the one? So, I of course have been thinking back to when I found my "one". I got out my journal to remind myself of the time frame and walk down memory lane. I was unclear on the time frame. I remember it was fast  - our entire courtship - but when I told my Kambree I thought that couldn't be right? Was it really that fast??
I thought I had written more but when I tried to share my story with Kambree, low and behold, I didn't write specifics! Just about how much I love him, how wonderful he was  and blah, blah, blah....

It was like a one page entry and had very little detail or dates or information.

Then I kept reading bits and pieces of my journal to Kambree and the girls and realized what a HORRID journal keeper I've been. (I so wish blogging was around back then.) I skipped NINE YEARS at one point. Yep. All the funny cute things my little said?  I wrote in my journal the day before Austin was born, then the day before Devree was born and then nine years later?? What the what?

So in an effort to document some of the missing chunks of my life, I'm going to have a memory Monday:

Our Courtship

I remember when I first met James that he seemed like a fun guy but I wasn't too interested - I had a boyfriend. James claims the first time he met me, I was sitting on my boyfriends lap in the lobby of the church where we both attended the same singles ward. I don't remember that encounter. I'm guessing this was February or March of 1990? 

Anyway, he started attending my FHE group on Monday nights around the end of May1990. I was a FHE leader. He was not assigned to my group but came anyway.

 For one activity we went up to a lodge in the mountains to hot tub and use someones time share. James rode with me and I was driving my little Ford Escort. He wore glasses. BIG glasses but that night in the hot tub he had them off and I noticed his very blue eye. (I thought he had two very blue eyes but I found out later that it was the ONE very blue eye he has that caught my eye - the other is hazel - which is awfully nice - if I get tired of one color, I can look into the other!) Anyway,  I remember thinking how very blue his eye is an how very cute he is. That same night he remembers me doing the dishes. Yep, he was drawn to me by my fabulous housekeeping skills!

On the way home he was quite concerned about my car and that I was burning up my brakes? (He has since taught me how to shift down when coming down a mountain instead of using my brakes the whole time.) He made me pull over to let them cool off. I think he checked my engine too?

The next thing I remember was a  ward camp out and making tin foil dinners together. My boyfriend was still around but I was losing interest. Little did I know that James saw me kiss him goodbye out in the parking lot before he arrived to make tin foil dinners with my roommate Kristin and me. 

He had brought me some gasoline treatment for my car, he claimed my car was "talking to him" and that my car really wanted this special gasoline treatment?  (Yes, he started taking care of my car BEFORE we were officially dating.) I would guess this was sometime in June 1990? At the camp out he made himself scarce and disappeared. He was pretty ticked about seeing me with my boyfriend. (I didn't eve know about it until much, much later!) He left me to fend for myself with a creepy guy named Jerry. He and his creepy roommate were hitting on Kristin and me all night long. I remember finding James the next morning and asking where he was all night? Fishing. Then we went on a little hike with Kristin and he taught us how to make a whistle out of a reed. We found a little stream and dipped our feet in. 

On the way home we both had an allergy attack and had itchy watery eyes and for some reason I remember feeding him grapes?  We were riding in another girls car? I think her name was Connie? And I was feeding him grapes? And this girl that was driving was giving me the stink eye because apparently she liked him too? It's all really vague. 

Oh and there was another girl that liked him too. I visit taught a gal with cerebral palsy and she had cartoon picture in her scriptures that James had drawn for her and she admitted that she had a crush on him. (James had no idea.)

Anyway around the end of June he started riding his red Honda Shadow motorcycle to and from our FHE activities. As a group leader I felt responsible for his safety and asked him to let me know he got home okay. He'd call my apartment - back in the day before cell phones - and he'd talk to whoever answered the phone - Kristin or me. It was all very casual. We weren't' sure who he liked - it was that casual.

I remember sitting in the bath tub in my apartment hollering to Kristin:

"Hey, do you like that James guy?"
"I don't know....why?"
"Well, because if you don't, then I think I'm going to go for him."

I could tell she was thinking about it for a minute then said,

 "Ok. Go ahead"

 Ha! I remember asking because I felt like I should give Kristin first dibs since I had a boyfriend already.

On June 25th James offered me a ride home on his motorcycle from FHE. I made arrangements for my friend Jed to drive my car home and I rode home on the back of his bike. Before hoping on, I asked him if he had a license to drive this?  He replied, "Yes."

He gave me a ride home and it was a fun, quick ride. 

The next day I was working at The Shed Restaurant (I waited tables there) and he showed up at my work. He wanted to show me that he had a motorcycle license. He DIDN'T have one the night before and had lied to me about it and felt so bad, he went out the next day and got one. Ha! 

I had some money in my apron from waiting tables and asked if he'd mind picking up some cat food and going to feed my cat, Miss Otis? (I think now what a dumb thing to ask but my cat really did need cat food and besides, I was hoping he'd stick around and we could visit later?)  I gave him my key and then finished out my shift. When I arrived home he was sound asleep on my living room floor - and I couldn't help thinking how very cute he was. (Little did I know how many times I would find him taking a cat nap on the middle of the living room floor.) He woke up and we talked and talked ALL NIGHT LONG. 

In the very early am - I think after the sun came up - he kissed me on the cheek - only after asking me "What about your boyfriend?" I explained it was basically over and that I planed to break up with him. Which was true.  

I did break up with Paul.

I think the very next day?

Only because what I felt with James was so right. I felt excited and giddy but at the same time I felt such peace and calmness. I just knew whatever happened, everything would be alright. 

When I broke up with Paul, I tried to be kind. We had been dating for 18 months and he had been attending the same singles ward. (Although he didn't live in the boundaries.) I didn't want him to have hurt feelings if he saw me sitting at church with James so I told him I was interested in someone else - thinking he'd stop coming to our ward?

That didn't work out so well. He showed up the next Sunday in a very nice suit and pulled me out of sacrament meeting. I was sitting next to James and he had on bright turquoise pants.  Yes. Turquoise.

Paul waked me out to the parking lot and with tears in his eyes got down on one knee and proposed. Right there in the parking lot! I had been waiting for this for 18 months. The ring was beautiful. Paul was crying and I looked down at him and thought about James sitting in the chapel in his bright turquoise pants and there was no question in my mind. It was like black and white. I wanted to be with......James!

I had such a witness from the Holy Spirit that this was the man for me. Had we talked about getting married? Not really. Did I have any sort of commitment from him? No. 

I just knew.

We both knew. 

James later shared about sitting in the chapel so nervous about what was going on. 

I felt terrible turning Paul down but knew I was doing the right thing.  (He even offered to let me keep the ring - but I didn't.)

I returned to the chapel and I've never looked back.

We dated for a month. SOLID. Every day we saw each other and we'd talk for hours in person or on the phone.I'd make him dinner. He'd bring me a flower. I took care of him when he was sick. I remember one time he just went on a run from his home in West Valley (he lived with his sister and her family) to my apartment downtown to see me. Who does that? (I apparently didn't have friends into running?)  We just did everything together. I remember even going to work with him on the Tom's truck filling vending machines for 9 hours straight.

One of our first dates was with a group of his friends.We went to the movies and for some reason I was in the theater before the show started and he had excused himself to get popcorn or go to the bathroom? I don't really know. I just know he wasn't there and his friends all told me I wouldn't last. That James is known for dropping girls fast. I remember not even being phased by this. They didn't know what I knew.

The first time he met my parents we had stopped by to grab baseball bats and mitts for a FHE activity. It was super brief but I wondered if my parents could tell just how special he was? That he would be their future son in law?

We went to look at rings on July 11th. 

No big deal. I've looked at rings with about 3 or 4 guys by now but this was the first guy that put money down on a ring!?

I remember riding home on the back of his motorcycle from William Jewelers and holding on to him so tight -  just blown away that he was more than just talk - he actually put money down on my ring!

He went with me and my family to Bear Lake at the end of July for a family vacation. I guess he formally asked my dad for my hand at the Chevron on 53rd South in Murray on the way there? We were gassing up the boat and James jumped out to help. (Oh, yes - my family liked him - he's always the first to jump in and help or dive into the water at Lake Powell to anchor the boat during a storm.)  I don't know exactly what was said but my Dad consented. (Not a very romantic place but we still get our gas there - even when it's slightly higher in price because that's "our Chevron".) I don't think I knew about it until later?  I did  know he couldn't finish paying for my ring for about a month but little did I know he got an advance on his paycheck and had my ring hidden in his bag. 

This is from my handwritten journal:
"On Saturday July 28th at sunset he took me on a hike up a small hill and across a plowed field. The sunset was beautiful, all peach with fluffy clouds, the sun was setting behind the mountains and the lake - it was just beautiful. He took me to a tree at the edge of a plowed field and told me to look under a pile of rocks. Buried in the rocks  was a box, in the box there was a big, white, fluffy teddy bear with a sign:
"My insides are stuffed with trinkets of care 

Now untie the back of this cute little bear."

The back of the bear had been unpicked and sewn back up. In the bear was a bag of Gardetto's snacks, and an Amy Grant tape. (I thought that was all. That all this was just a little sweet surprise.) He told me, "There's something else." I pulled out the ring and screamed! Then he asked me to be his wife!!"

I wish I had written more. I  do remember we were covered with mosquito bites as there was some sort of infestation under that tree and we itched for the rest of the trip! I also remember that first night - all night long -  I kept touching my ring and thinking my diamond had fallen out and having to get a flashlight to make sure it was still in there.

We got married three months and five LONG days later.
(We wanted to get married October 11th =11/11 but my Dad advised him "Even though we can all miss the deer hunt one season. But every year during your anniversary, Wendy will be upset that you'll be out deer hunting." Which is pretty good advice?)
11/11 is a very significant number and still is. But that's a memory for another day....
 

We were married November 2nd 1990.

 We were sealed in the Salt Lake Temple and I remember very little about the advice and words the sealer said but this I remember this, he told us that the Holy Ghost had witnessed to him that we were suppose to be married. 

He had witnessed it to me with that first kiss on the cheek. 

And as a further witness here we are 5 kids and almost 23 years later......