How the last crazy 8 years began...

Dating Days...

Our Story.

Coby and I met at the UofU.  On campus.  We passed each other at 5:15, no one was around... I was getting off work, he was heading to play basketball.  He was on his phone, I was tired.  We didn't speak to each other, just passed by. 
My thoughts:  "He's cute, and seems so normal.  But, he's probably talking to his girlfriend on the phone..."
so I kept walking.
His thoughts: "ugh, I should've just hung up."  (he then turned around to talk to me, but, I kept walking)
he then went home that night and said to his roommates:  "I saw the perfect girl for me today."

The very next day:

Literally, he ran up to me and started conversation. 

I had left a class early to make it for a test in another class clear across campus.  He was down in that area for free donuts due to student elections.

Disclamer: we never ran into each other on campus, before that, nor after that, our classes were in totally seperate areas, and we couldn't even work it to meet for lunch when we were dating...)

He said:  "Hey, you look familiar, we've met before..."
I said:  "Really?... Nice line..."
Both laughed.
I actually asked him to give me a call so we could figure it out, because I was interested, and in a huge hurry to get to my class...

That is not the end of the story...

Wednesday night... two nights later, when I came out from the Temple I had 11 messages on my phone...
one of them was Coby.  His was the only one I called back, because when I heard his voice on his message, my heart skipped... (cheesy, I know...but, true)
We talked for a while and here's part of the conversation:  (don't worry, it's good)...

C:  "yeah, I served a mission in the philippeans"
B: "Oh, really? so do you speak Tagalog or Cebuano?"
C: " I speak Tagalog.  and how funny, you are the second person who pronounced that correctly, most people say it how it is spelled..."
(I'm thinking, huh, it must be difficult, cuz he's not the 1st person who said that to me..."
C: "you served a mission?  Where?"
(I had been home for 3.5 mos at this time)
B:  "I served in the Anofagasta, Chile Mission"
C:  "you know, I don't even know where that is, but, I met someone else recently who went there, that's funny..."
B:  " hmmmf, how funny."

Here's the good part: We discovered on our first date, through talking about other people we knew that WE HAD ALREADY MET... and it was 2 months earlier... I was dating this guy who has a sister that always talked about this awesome boy she wanted to date, so we did a group date with her and him.
He showed up in a UofU sweatshirt, and he was so good looking, and we ended up talking a lot that night...
about our missions.
(while we talked I thought  "this is the type of guy I want to date...what am I doing?..." and I broke up with my boyfriend that weekend)
Anyway, if it wasn't clear, my boyfriends' sisters' date was...
Coby.
(funny situation at our wedding...cuz we invited them...)
~and he still has that sweatshirt, and it's my favorite one, and I've had to mend it a few times already in order to keep it around... (did I just say "mend" ?.... ok, grandma...)

So, I was the second person, and he was the other person we had been talking about concerning our missions!

K~ on Saturday we went on our 1st date...

He took me to some mexican restaraunt with his friend John and some girl in Provo.
We had a "Seinfield" experience there:  where Coby went to the bathroom and one of the cooks was in there and didn't wash his hands when he left!  Gross!
At dinner I blurted out something (because, as anyone knows, I'm not the most tactful person alive)
something like "man, I feel like I've known you forever, I'm so comfortable with you!"
His buddy John looked at me like I was crazy, and gave Coby the "wierdo" eye... but, later Coby told me, it wasn't wierd to him, cuz he felt the same way...

Our Funny 1st Date Story:

We then went to "Extreme Sports"  it was a huge place with tons of activities... ropes course, boxing ring, rope pull and bounce, javeling... it was so fun...
We did boxing towards the end of the night...
The huge boxing gloves were so hard for me to hold in my right hand because I injured my shoulder the saturday before while snowboarding, so lifting it up -hurt... let alone while holding onto a huge, heavy boxing glove, I mean, it was the size of my garbage can...
I told him this, while in the ring...
He got closer to my right shoulder and said  "oh, that's too bad" and acted like he was going to look at it..
then as I looked down at my right shoulder too...
He decked me in the face! and threw my flying...!!!
I was so stunned and laughing so hard I had tears!
(he later told me that because I was laughing he knew I could handle him.... crazy kid)

We saw each other every day since then, and found other circumstances and ways that our paths had crossed through other people as well...

Ok, actually, we saw each other every day until we'd been dating 5 months... he went home to Denver and didn't invite me to go...
(I'd been already 2x with him to meet and visit his family, who I thought, and still think is awesome!)
So, I was a little bummed  that he just up and went and barely told me he was going...
no big deal though. 

A couple weeks later we started school again, I was totally stretched with time and energy, I worked full time and had a full load of classes... so I was thinking since we hadn't even talked about the {M} word that I needed a break... and I was going to break up with him on our hike we had planned for that Saturday...
We hiked 4 hours in to this awesome lake... but, the hike was a little long so I laid down on a rock by the lake... he went to use the bathroom...
Then he shouted  "hey, come check this out!"
(I thought maybe he saw a moose, because we were just talking about how he'd never seen one...)
I caught up to him... he pointed under a huge log and said, "I found something, but I can't reach it, maybe you can..."
I reached in and pulled out a black box.
"What?! somebody left their box!" I laughed... "how funny" and I shrugged my shoulders...
Then he said  "open it.."
Then my heart stopped... open it?  why?  My eyes were probably going to pop out of my head now!
(here comes another tactless reaction on my part..)
"Shut up!  You open it!"     Then I pushed him!
He took the box and bounced down on one knee...

...............................................................................................You know the rest of the story...

{Surprise} of my life... 
                                                           
                                                                       **  8 Years, 4 kids (5 and under), 8 Utah football seasons, 2546 dirty diapers, 30,001,234 hours of deprived sleep, 1 apt, 1 condo, 1 house, 2 cars, a bachelors degree, a doctorate degree and 16 slices of delicious cheesecake factory dessert (tradition) and 800 surprises later...

and he still makes me laugh ALL THE TIME!