I thought it'd be fun to write a brief (or maybe not so brief... :)) overview of Brian and I's story up to this point.
So, starts out Fall Semester of 2013. I'm a 19 year old girl determined to get through my whole entire time at BYU-Idaho without falling into the BYU-I-do trap. Not to mention I'm writing a missionary in Japan and at this point I didn't see any reason I wouldn't be here when he got home.
While Brian on the other hand is a 22 year old returned missionary from Uruguay and his intentions in dating were completely different than mine.
New Testament Class-Day 1: I walk into class about 2 minutes before it started and I'm completely focused on finding a seat by 2 types of people. 1: a girl, or 2: a married man. Lucky enough for me there was a spot in between both types of people. I say a friendly hi, and sit down comfortably. Even more comfortably when Brother Baggett informed the class that the seats we were in would be the seats we sat in every day for the rest of the semester.
Brian, on the other hand, tells me when I walked in he was "pretty impressed." He had already decided that the next class he would make sure to sit by me, so his reaction to Brother Baggett's assigned seating remark wasn't exactly as comfortable as mine.
A month passes by, I'm having a blast with my awesome roommates (Two of which I had lived with the semester before- Kyrsten and Bailey, one was a next door neighbor from the semester before- Tiffany, one random pick who fit in perfectly- Amber, and one was a good friend of Bailey's- Candace.) going on a few awkward dates & checking the mailbox often for letters.
Brian is also having a great time with his roommates (two pre-mi's- Matthew & Jordan, and Dylan, an RM who is actually from the same place as Brian.) & going on plenty of dates.
October 9- I walk into class only to realize there's a different type of person sitting in the seat on the left of me, meaning not a girl and not a married man. So naturally I panic a little. I took a step back and surveyed the room to see if maybe seating had been changed. I decided to just be brave and sit down. I sat down and he didn't say anything, so I thought I was safe. A little ways into the lesson Brother Baggett tells us to read a few scriptures and discuss what was going on in the verses with the people in our row. So we all read silently, and then other groups began discussing and no one in our row had said a word... so I said, "Okay so, in.." and this is when it all began.. "Wait, what was your name?" "Tess, what's yours?" "Brian." Naturally, I turn to the other people in our row and ask them what their names are and then continue on, "So, in.." only to be interrupted again, "So Tess, where are you from?" and we made small talk the whole 5 minutes we were supposed to be discussing what we learned.
As we're leaving class Brian starts asking me more questions, if I like sports, if I've ever been skiing, etc.. As we approach the stairs Brian turns to me and asks, "So I know this is probably really weird for you since we just barely met, and you don't have to say yes, but would you want to go on a date with me this weekend?" I was a bit taken back, but I was pretty flattered, I mean he was a pretty handsome guy with killer brown eyes. So I say yes and give him my number.
The rest of the day goes on, and my phone rings that night. "Hello?" "Hi Tess, this is Brian, from New Testament class, I asked you for your number by the stairs today." "*laughs quietly* Yes I remember" "So does Friday work for you okay?" "Yeah that'd be great!" "Okay so I have a couple options, we could go to the Rexburg Rodeo or we could go to [insert some BYU-i on campus production here], it's up to you." "*dying inside because I didn't want to choose* Either sound great to me, I'm up for whatever." "Okay, welllll.... umm.... do you like rodeos?" "*laughs quietly* Yes I do." "Okay, well I've never been to one, so as long as you're up for it, I think it'd be fun!"
Rodeo it was. :)
Friday, he calls me and informs me that he's going to be a little late because his roommates date bailed on him so they were trying to find someone else. They didn't find anyone else. So, the first time Brian and I had every really talked was on a single date to the Rexburg Rodeo.
I'm pretty shy and quiet at first with anyone new, and adding to it I was pretty nervous about this date. The rodeo was good, we laughed a lot and made small talk. Afterwards we went to Cocoa Bean, which might have been a disaster... we ran out of things to talk about and the place was packed. We both felt awkward. Even more awkward as Brian says, "Well, I don't want to keep you out all night."... it was 10 pm on a Friday night... hahaha.
He quickly tries to make up for it by telling me that he's been so excited for the date since he asked me and that he told his mom that he's never been so excited for a date before and that he really doesn't want to take me home, but doesn't having anything else planned because usually he's ready for the date to be over by now. I am pretty quiet this whole time. We pull up to my apartment... "Well.. uh... can you think of anything else we could do?" "Um... well you could come in."
We talked for the next 2 and a half hours about stories from when we were younger and mission stories and conversation flowed pretty well. I even invited him and his roommates to come to the Haunted Corn Maze with us the next night.
Saturday- Haunted Maze was super fun. Brian sang Apple Bottom Jeans, and that might have been a turning point... hahaha :) We played the fish bowl game after & laughed lots. It was a really fun night.
The next week we went to devotional together, I went and watched his flag football game, and we went on a couple of super fun dates. One of which we made tinfoil dinners and even though we were with a huuuuge group, were in our own little world the entire time- laughing nonstop, abs and cheeks sore from laughing. It was SO much fun. Afterwards we went back to his apartment, watched Surf's Up with his roommates, and we held hands.
Sunday comes and we watched Mormon Messages, made pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, and put on the Grinch. His roommates left at 11:15, and my roommates were all in the back. I was dying. I knew we had 15 minutes to spare and I was NOT ready for a kiss, but he had that "era" about him. He began talking and the words coming out of his mouth sounded a lot like he was DTR-ing. I couldn't exactly process anything he was saying. I think I nodded my head a couple times, but I really didn't understand what had just happened. He leans forward and looks at me, and I panic and sit forward and point at the picture on my laptop and say, "Oh family, gotta love them. Welp, it's about 11:30, you have to walk right? You should probably head out." I stand up, he stands up, and lays one on me. It wasn't that I didn't like it of course.. but I wasn't ready for it. I lean in and just give him a hug and then I think I even like picked up his shoes for him... hahaha. He gave me another hug as he was leaving and layed one more on me.
I went back to Candace and said, "I have NO idea what just happened."
The next week I avoided him, slowly at first and almost completely by the end of the week. I was completely freaked out. I had a missionary and dating someone seriously again while he was gone was not in my plans.
Sunday came and I decided I should probably talk to him, so I asked if he had any time to talk. He told me he was with some people playing games and they were going to stadium singing, but afterwards he would stop by. I was SO nervous. I didn't know why I felt like I had to talk to him, normally I would have avoided confrontation and probably just kept blowing the guy off. But with him, it was already different and I didn't want to be rude. So, we began walking and I explained to him that I wasn't looking for anything and just wanted to be friends. He was SO sweet about it, very understanding and extremely respectful.
I walked back in my apartment and just felt kinda weird. Like I thought I would feel better after I explained everything to him, but somehow the pit in my stomach I had been feeling the whole week of avoiding him, grew a little bit. I brushed it off and didn't say anything.
Monday in class wasn't too awkward.
Tuesday, I got asked to get Jamba Juice and go to devo with a kid from my Nutrition class, which was fine. But I didn't want Brian or his roommates to see me with a different guy, even though it wouldn't have mattered. Of course Dylan sat right in front of us. I said hi to him, but really didn't want the word to get back to Brian that I was on a date with someone else. EVEN though it didn't matter.
I was completely confused. I had NEVER been like that before. I legitimately was starting to feel crazy. I barely knew Brian and I had just told him I wasn't looking to date anyone. But for some reason, I found myself thinking about him often.
Brian I think went with a different girl to devo that day and probably didn't even think anything of it.
Wednesday, I slept in and missed my New Testament class. I woke up in a panic because I didn't want Brian to think I was avoiding him. I don't know WHO decided it was a good idea for me to have my phone late at night or early in the morning, but I did what I never thought I'd ever do in my life. I texted Brian like a crazy maniac girl would do and told him that I slept in and that I wasn't trying to avoid him. Right after I sent it I spent the next half hour whining to my roommates about wishing they would have stopped me.
He told me he got the text and laughed because he obviously wasn't thinking I was trying to avoid him.
Thursday, I went with my roommates to the Circle of Love so that we could all see Amber in her wedding dress and on our way out as we're getting back in the car, we see Brian on a run. I think all 6 of our jaws dropped. He looked goooooooood. All my roommates began making comments to me, and we were all giggling because we're silly college girls of course. So we flip around and drive along side him until the stoplight. Kyrsten of course rolls down the window and yells his name, and I am DYING. I wanted to slip right under the seat. But, he saw me of course and just smiled and waved at us.
He didn't think anything of it, in fact, that day he asked a girl on a date for the weekend.
Friday, we went to a halloween party and I was pretty much dying the whole time. I was so upset about Brian and couldn't figure out why. I had honestly NEVER been like this before. I thought about him a lot, but I barely knew him enough to have anything to really think about. It made absolutely NO sense to me. My roommates all split off with their friends and I stayed home and read a talk that helped me incredibly, "Learning to Recognize Answers to Prayers." I felt the Spirit and I knew that I needed to follow what I was feeling. No matter how crazy I felt, or how crazy it seemed, or how scary it was. Bailey came in and talked to me about how I didn't need to take it all so seriously, I just needed to follow how I was feeling and accept the fact that maybe Brian was someone who would help me progress and grow.
Brian spent the night studying.
Saturday I went to the temple in the morning trying to figure out what the heck I was feeling. I left feeling more peace, even though I was still pretty confused. I won't go into details, but I had some really cool experiences after getting home from the temple. That night was Guitar's unplugged and Bailey and Kyrsten were performing. I worked up the courage to ask him if he wanted to go with us. He told me he was already going but maybe he'd see me there. I felt pretty shut down... haha. We saw him there alright, on a date. It was awkward.
He had a fun night, and didn't think anything of seeing me there. He even gave me a little side hug because that's what friends do.
Sunday, I had been talking to my best friend Taylor a lot about what I was feeling through all of this and she was super supportive and was getting frustrated with me that I hadn't talked to him yet. So were my roommates. Everyone kept prodding me to just call him or text him and tell him I wanted to talk. No matter what he said, at least I would get it off my chest. The problem was. 1: I had never done anything like it before. 2: I didn't even know what I wanted to get off my chest, I couldn't figure it out. and 3: I had no idea what I would say & I was scared of how he would respond.
Sunday, he had a game night with a bunch of people from his ward and went to stadium singing.
Monday, I finally worked up the courage to text him.... or more like Taylor helped me form a text and MADE me send it (after reading the text to my older brother and asking his advice, to which he replied, "You're thinking way too much about this, just ask him if he wants to grab some ice cream or something." But I didn't listen and sent some long silly text.)
He got the text and laughed, but luckily agreed to come talk to me.
Monday night after FHE he texted me and said he was coming over. I was freaking out. My roommates were trying to calm me down and laughing about how ridiculous I was being.
He walked in and we sat in the living room. I told him sorry for acting so crazy the past week and he just laughed and said he didn't think I had been acting crazy. (He still says that, but I think he thought I was pretty crazy at the time- probably even more so now:) ) I told him that I just wanted to get to know him more and he agreed and then quoted the Grinch, "So they wanna get to know me, do they?" It was such a relief. He just teased me a little bit because I was so awkward and we talked and laughed for a while before he went home.
I'm not really sure how it all happened from there. Everything just kept clicking and falling into place. Every time we spent time together was an adventure, laughing constantly and talking about everything. Everything seemed like it had been planned out, like everything I had learned up to meeting Brian was so I would understand things in my relationship with him. I made sure my feelings were in check most of the time and was pretty reserved for a while because I wasn't ready to put my whole heart on the line, partly because of the missionary who had been such a great friend for so many years and partly because I am so young, if I wasn't sure about where things were going with Brian. After being apart for 2 weeks over Christmas break, we got to see each other on January 4 and I was reassured in what I had already known for a while.
A few weeks passed by and we talked more seriously about marriage and decided August would probably work best for us. It seemed so long away, but April was the only other break there was for either of us and it seemed way too quick, we also didn't know how our families would react to April.
We both talked to our parents about August and my mom kept hinting at April, but understood our reasoning in both the planning and money it would take.
We went to dinner with Brian's dad and the next morning they talked about an April wedding.
April it was.
We had a trip planned to go to Utah February 7-9, and I went shopping for wedding dresses Saturday morning, before we were even engaged :) Brian asked my Daddy's permission while us girls were gone. We had a fun day of attempting to look at reception places, watching my little brother's basketball game, visiting with my grandparents, and eating homeade pizza. I decided to take him around my hometown of Santaquin to show him where I grew up and he was acting a little fishy, but he told me he was just tired. I took him to meet the residents at Latter-Day Assisted Living because they all mean so much to me, and he was SO sweet with all of them :) On the way back we stopped at Spring Lake and were walking around talking when he got down on one knee and popped the question. I was COMPLETELY surprised. I had NO idea it would be that weekend. It just made everything that much more real and that much more exciting. We were both on cloud 9 and haven't come down since.
Everything with Brian is always so fun. He is so genuine. He's hard-working. He has an incredible testimony and serves wholeheartedly in his callings. He treats me and everyone around him with respect. He is patient, loving, and kind. He is hilarious. He's positive and looks for the good in every situation. He is realistic. He communicates well. He loves people. He may not be perfect, but he is so perfect for me and I am so excited to continue the journey with him and tackle all the obstacles and trials that are to come, as well as all the highs and joys, with my best friend by my side.
He definitely makes life Some Kind of Wonderful :)
