A New Beginning - Part 3 (engagement)

Alright... so now I ended the last one where Kenny and I had gone on several dates and things are starting to escalate. I want to point out somethings that lead to the engagement, tell the engagement story, and then tell a few other things that happened prior to the wedding but after getting engaged.

My mom was sitting on the couch to the left

One night while I was still recovering from my surgery, my mom was sitting on one couch watching "bewitched" on my dad's ipad with one headphone in her ear (she doesn't hear very well so she only needed the head phone in her good ear). Kenny and I were on the other couch (me sitting perpendicular to him on the couch laying to where I could be in his arms but not be laying on him). We were just talking and while we were talking, Kenny asked the question, "Where do you think this relation ship is going?" This was not the first time Kenny had asked me this question. The first time he asked me I knew it was going to be Marriage but I didn't want to scare him off by suggesting the idea so I would always tell him "I don't know". This time when he asked me though I though about it and decided to flip it around and ask him by saying, "You like to ask that question and I want to know if you have an answer to that question...where do YOU think this is going?" At that point Kenny did bring up the topic of Marriage and we were talking in small whispers so my mom couldn't hear. At the point where Kenny brought up the word Marriage, my mom gave out a loud, "NO!!" Both Kenny and I whipped around (both of us were thinking my mom had heard our conversation and was objecting) to see my mom starting at a blank screen on the I-Pad that had apparently gone to sleep. She turned to look at us and laughed saying, "Sorry, I was in the middle of an episode."

As Kenny and I kept talking about if we felt ready for marriage and how things would work out, my mother had apparently been looking at us (still with her headphone in so she couldn't hear us) and decided that Kenny's arm must be getting tired from holding my head up. So she decided to give us a pillow. She threw the pillow at us and it hit me square in the head. I turned, flabbergasted, to my mother right as she threw another pillow at my face. "Sorry," she said, "Kenny liked like he could use some relief for his arm." Shaking my head, I turned back and continued talking.

Later that night, closer to midnight, my mom was looking at us again and found my hand attached to Kenny's at the fingers and thought it was one arms. She had apparently been looking for the fourth hand that should have been Kenny's and finally decided to ask, "Kenny where are your hands?" Both Kenny and I, shocked, threw our hands in the air saying, "We didn't do anything!" It wasn't till then that my mom realized how that must have sounded to us and she laughed and explained herself.

After that night the talk of Marriage was becoming more serious but Kenny was very nervous. He wasn't sure if he was ready to Marry. He was worried financially and emotionally. I told him to pray about it and he kept telling me he had but that he didn't feel like he got a big confirmation. He was surprised when I told him that I actually wasn't freaking out and that I had a peaceful feeling about the whole thing. I told him that I knew a little while back that  he was the one I was going to Marry but that I didn't want to scare him off by suggesting it earlier.

Kenny finally got the confirmation he needed (not sure what it was or when it was but it happened and we decided that we needed to start looking at married housing. We also started looking at rings online. We found a ring pair we liked and decided to order it.  We had been talking about Marriage so much that (I don't think I ever told him this) I was scared that we would skip being engaged all together. But Kenny knew better than that. He had been planning something special. We had done something every month on the 30th (because we met on the 30th). In may it was our first kiss, and now in June he was planning to propose.

On the morning of June 30th, Kenny and I had been talking on Gmail and Kenny had told me how nice the Weather was. I, of course, had looked at the weather and noticed some rain in the morning and early afternoon and told him so. He asked me about how the evening looked and I told him that that would be clear. I immediately jumped to maybe going stargazing since it would be clear and Kenny told me that would be a good idea but he told me he knew of a great place we could sit, talk, and soak up some sun and he wanted to know if I wanted to meet at 7 (since it was out anniversary) and go to this place. I of course said sure and we began talking of other things after that.

Later in the day (closer to 7) Kenny was reminding me that he would come pick me up from my apartment and he add that I should bring my camera...like usual... and I could take pictures of flowers. I told him sure that I would grab it and that I would see him soon and then got off of Gmail to go to the library and pick up two books and then went home.

Kenny came, as promised, at 7 and he was slightly dressed up a little. I was just in my jeans and t-shirt and I commented on how he was dressed up and asked if I should dress up. He told me not to worry about it and that we should go. We got in the car and started driving. We went on Freedom and then turned on 2230 and immediately I knew where we were going. We got there and Kenny and I got out and I started to feel very self-conscious about my clothing because everyone around me was dressed up. We walked around the front for a little while and then Kenny told me it was prettier for flower pictures in the back of the temple. so we made our way around back.

Kenny was so right about behind the temple. I had never been back behind it before so it was all new to me. I took several pictures (I added just a few of them here):

Flowers!

Mountain to the East of Temple

This is the side of the temple with the sun right behind it.

After taking a few pictures, Kenny came and took me in his arms to a hug and we kind of swayed back and forth for a little while and then Kenny started to explain that he didn't just take me here to take pictures of flowers. I told him I had figured that much and to help keep him going I asked, "So why are we here..." At that point he got down on one knee and pulled out my great-grandma's ring. (he had apparently talked to my parents two days before and gotten the ring the day before). He explained that he had talked to my parents two days ago and after my dad roughing him up a bit they agreed to let him marry me. He then brought up how two months ago to the day we had met at the temple doing baptisms for the dead. We now came back to the temple two months later. He explained the importance of the temple to me and how he hoped we would continue to come to the temple and that we would teach our kids of the importance of it and, when they were old enough, be able to take them to it. He then told me how much he loved me and wanted to spend the rest of his life with me and asked if I would marry him.

It was at this critical point that I had been preparing all my life for. Ever since I met Kenny I knew I was going to marry him, it was just the when that I didn't know. I had though I had prepared my self well for this event but when he asked the question, my mind went blank and they only thing I could squeak out was, "Most Assuredly Yes". I immediately felt stupid and wondered why my brain had chosen to pick those words. Kenny laughed a bit and then slid the ring on my finger and enveloped me in a hug and a kiss. We began calling people starting with his mom and dad and then I called my dad and mom and then his brother and sister and then his grandparents and mine. I didn't call my siblings yet because I was going to tell them when we went to the Hot air Balloons on Saturday (two days away). I called my best friend and got one of the best reactions from her. Kenny's sister was the other great reaction. Calling took a while but we finally was able to walk away and enjoy the rest of the temple on our way back to the car.

Ok so that is my interpretation of the story, but I was fortunate to have Kenny's interpretation as well thanks to Sarah. I thought just for fun I would upload that as well but the video is not uploading right so maybe I will put it in a different post later when I figure out how to upload videos.

Alright so that is both of our interpretations of the engagement story. Before I post any pictures from the engagement, there is one major thing I needed to tell you about before. It was a nice Friday afternoon (July 15th I believe) and my friends from high school had invited us to go to the park with them. We grabbed so otter pops to take up with us and then we drove up there and found everyone except TJ. We talked a little bit and ate otter pops while we waited for TJ to show up. TJ finally showed up and she had brought bubbles and a kite and all this other stuff with her. We got the bubbles out immediately and started playing with them. (if you look closely in the pictures, you can kind of see the bubbles we were making. Kenny made some huge ones!)

After blowing bubbles, we climbed a tree (and of course got teased with kissing in it) and then went to play on the park. I took a swing and Kenny decided to come along and give me a nice big push.

After that Kenny wanted to swing too so he took the swing next to me and started swinging. We were both getting pretty high and Kenny decided to jump out. As soon as he left the seat I could tell something was wrong. I watched in horror as Kenny jumped out, kind of twisted funny and landed face first into the plastic tubing around the playground. I immediately jumped out after him (a little more gracefully) and ran up to him. His face was all bloody and he was spitting blood in the grass. He turned to look at me and I saw that three of his front teeth on the top were all jagged and bloody and sticking out in weird places. I keep repeating, "Kenny are you alright?" and "Kenny, why did you do that?"

He was in a lot of pain and we needed to get him somewhere. We grabbed our stuff real quick and then I jumped in the driver seat of the car and we went down to the health center where he had his insurance. When we got there we found they weren't open and were met with this lovely looking sign:

We looked at that and wondered if we should go to the hospital. I think we called Kenny's dad while in the car and then tried his mom and got some texts about insurance coverage. I believe his dad told him to go to the hospital but I remembered I knew someone in my ward that might be able to help. I called my mom and told her the situation and she told us to call Bro. Christensen  and he prescribed an anti-biotic and pain killers to try and keep it from getting infected. We then went to my parents who were two houses down and showed them. My mom wondered if my dentist, Bro Arthur, could help him and we called and he told us to come in the next morning. We filled the antibiotic and he started that and he took some pain killers and we went home. The next day my friends who were with us during the accident brought him cupcakes because they felt bad about what had happened. I thought the cupcakes were very clever

We then had this long process of going to the dentist and seeing what needed to be done, and then finding that none of the teeth were replaceable and that we had to go to a periodontist and get implants.

Poor Kenny... We found someone to take care of this and he now has all those teeth out and filled with some bone to try and help the crack that he got in the bone above his teeth to heal. We won't know anything else till February when he goes in to get the actual implants. Right now he has a retainer with some fake teeth for the time being so you can't really tell.

The reason I tell this story to you is not so everyone feels bad for him. He is doing fine and hopefully everything keeps going well for us. The reason I tell this story is that we were planning on doing Engagement pictures 4 day from when he fell. We then changed that to a week after and we barely got him his fake teeth before the pictures. He was still cut up a bit but our photographer did a great job in photoshopping the cuts out. Thanks Lani! Here are some of my favorites:

Don't look at me in this one... but it is an un-edited on where you can see Kenny's scratches on his nose

Another thing we got to do while being engaged was see my baby nephew, Aaron, get born! He is so cute!

Doesn't he look so small in Kenny's arms? ^-^

We also got to go to lagoon again with my family (holding hands this time ^-^)

We got to feed baby Aaron

 One other fun thing I want to touch quickly on was our hike to Stewart Falls. It was very fun even though I rolled my ankle.

                                                        *Kenny carried me after I rolled my ankle

Well that is all I wanted to touch in this part. Next comes the part of preparing and going through with the wedding. Keep reading and I hope you enjoy!

A New Beginning - Part 2 (dating)

Hey all,

Here is the next part to my last blog post (again the only time I find to write this is in class... hopefully my grades don't suffer ^-^).

When I left off last time, Kenny and I had just become a little more than friends. We both now knew that we liked each other and it was time to get things rolling.

The funny thing is is that we didn't exactly date... we basically saw each other every day so there was no need to go out anywhere. We did go out a few times though. One time Kenny's roomate, Aaron, and his friend, Kyle and his wife, were out swimming and playing marco-polo. Kenny and I were walking by and stopped to watch and laugh as they played. They were getting ready to come out and were going to go get ice-cream and they had wondered if Kenny and I wanted to go with. Kenny looked at me and asked if I wanted Ice-cream and I thought it would be fun. So I went with Kenny, in his car, and we went to cold stone. We got there and found Kyle, Vika, and Aaron and all got in line and were figuring out what we wanted to have. I decided that I didn't want a bowl of ice-cream but they had some smoothies. I saw the triple berry one and wanted to get it and Kenny made an executive decision to make this a date and he paid for my smoothie. ^-^

*the picture is not the smoothie that I had with him but I thought I should have a picture

One of the other dates (which I think was my favorite) was our hike up Rock Canyon. We decided that (I forget the exact date but) Wednesday we wanted to go on a hike. I only had class till one that day so we got everything ready and then got in the car and went up about 6 or 7 pm to the opening to rock canyon. We made sure we had our map and made it there with not alot of problems. We parked, made sure we had our water and cameras and everything else, and then set of. The trail was pretty cool and we found lots of places to climb up into like the picture on the right.

As we were walking along there was this part that I saw that went like straight up the mountain. I turned to Kenny with almost a pleading look and he laughed and said he was going to suggest it to me. With a smile on my face we made our way up. I found on that trial that all the rocks were against me and kept trying to throw me back down the mountain but I also found that the plants were on my side so every time I slipped, there was a tree branch for me to grab. Kenny laughed a lot of the way up because every time I slipped I would let out an "eek"sound as I scrambled for a tree branch. We got to this one part that wound around a little and then went up a little more and we found a nice ledge to sit and look out at how far we had come. As I looked out I had to get my camera (I got several pictures of it but I figured I should only share one) because the sunset was beautiful.

This was on the way up the mountain

This was at the top of the mountain

This was at the top but with my sunset setting on my camera on.

We then realized that with the sun going down we would need to start heading back down the mountain. We decided we wanted to take a slightly different way down but the cliff I lead us too was a little far down for my little legs to reach. Kenny decided he would go down first so that he could test it before I went down. He made it down and then watched as I started to go down. I slipped a couple of times and then I got low enough that Kenny was able to put his hands under my feet and lower me enough so that I could sit on his shoulder and then I jumped down. While hiking back to the main part that we came up on, Kenny found this plant and wondered what it was, but we were running out of light so I took a picture and told him we could look at it and figure it out later.

Funny plant that Kenny found

In haste we started back down the mountain to beat the sun. It was still light for a little while after the sun went down but we knew it wouldn't last for long, and we didn't have a flashlight. As we were hurrying down the mountain, Kenny was ahead of me and I kept slipping and accidentally sliding rocks down the mountain after him but he was good at dodging. While going down the mountain there was a spot in which Kenny stepped on this rock and didn't realize how smooth it was and his foot slipped off the rock and he fell/slid down the mountain a few good feet. I, now in panic mode, hurried faster down the mountain to get to him all the while yelling, "Kenny! Are you ok? Don't move, I am coming!" I finally made it down to Kenny and he had a grim hurt expression on his face. I asked if her could move at all and he tried to stand and his face twisted and he sat back down. At this point I am thinking.... how are we to get out of the canyon before dark!

Kenny had found a stick a little way back up the mountain but had dropped it when he fell so I went back up a little and got his stick for him to lean on... but it was a little short to do any good. I looked at Kenny and realized that I was the right size for a crutch for him! I asked Kenny to stand again but this time to lean heavily on me. He got up and with the stick on one side and me on the other, we moved slowly down the mountain. We got back to the trail that lead to the parking lot and we took a slow pace back. It got darker on the way by since we were on the trail, it wasn't bad. While walking he and I talked. We were very close because he had to lean on me and I found that I didn't mind how close he was to me. The funny thing with having him so close though was that I had to adapt my walk to his limp-ish one because it was hard to walk normal with him on me ^-^.

We finally made it back to the car and Kenny was still insisting on opening my door for me. So I let him open my door, and then walked him back to his door, opened it, sat him in, closed his door, and then walked back over to mine (which was still open) and climbed in. Kenny then asked if I wanted something to eat and I told him yes so we left and he was asking me what I wanted. I told him that with his leg like it was that maybe we should do home and have something at my place. We got home and I think we had some Italian chicken (chicken with Italian dressing) not sure what else but I know that after the hike, the food was really good. He stayed till midnight like always, we did scripture somewhere in there and then I walked him home (still being his crutch) and bid him goodnight.

One of the other dates I remember is going to a movie at one of the other guy's apartments. It was How to Train your Dragon (which is like my FAVORITE movie ^-^). We went together and there was a couch in the front and we took a seat, with his arm around me :D. I remember that before we were dating he was at another movie and he was sitting next to me and I wanted DESPERATELY for him to put his arm around me and he didn't (sad face) but it isn't his fault that he was clueless to me desires. Anyway, he had never see the movie all the way through so it was fun to watch his expression through out the movie :)

Those were the three dates I remember the most. One that I wouldn't call a date but was fun was when my family invited him to lagoon with us. We were so excited! I believe it was May 14th that we went to lagoon for my sister's band concert (it was called Music in the Parks) where their band competes with all the bands in the district. After the concert though we were aloud to go to the park! (during the concert though, Thomas, Kenny and I were playing "slap", and Thomas is wicked good). We got to the park and went on all sorts of rides!

On the Screamer (yes.. I did scream... ^-^)

 

 

Waiting in line for the bat!

On the swings (Kenny is to the right in the picture, behind me)

There were so many times I wanted him to grab my hand while we were walking but I had no success. I wanted to grab his hand but I didn't want to seem too foreword and scare him away. So we would sit with his arm around me but no hand holding.

One thing I feel I should also mention is that A LOT of people like to ask the story of our first kiss. Well here it goes. Our first Kiss was on May 30th (exactly a month from when we met). Kenny had asked me about kissing before that but I was scared. Not sure why I was so scared but I was. Anyway, that day I had two classes (got out at 2) and then I was not feeling good at all. Eating food made me sick and I just wasn't feeling well at all. Kenny had also just hurt his ankle from the Hike and so when we were playing football and Frisbee for FHE, we both went but, both sat out. I of course was stupid and didn't bring a jacket with me so Kenny was rubbing my back a ton trying to warm me up. FHE ended and we got up and started to walk home... me shivering like crazy... and went back to my place to grab a jacket.

My bedroom is to the right in the picture

We walked into my place and I had him wait in the living room while I went in to get a jacket. I grabbed a jacket and as I was walking out, Kenny was right outside my bedroom door. He opened his arms and I went in for a big hug (I was still shivering a little so it was very nice). I then heard him whisper my name, and so I looked up. (I knew immediately what was going on and automatically got scared but when Kenny had asked before about kissing me and I told him not to ask me, but to surprise me... but I wasn't expecting this.) He was right there and our lips touched. I felt a slight thrill and remembered what my mom told me about not being a "dead fish" so I kissed back. It was better than I had expected a kiss to be. I thought it would have been gross and weird, but all it was was a little wet. Well that is the story of my first kiss. It isn't like dramatically romantic, but in the moment it was perfect and grand to me. 

The one major thing that I won't touch too much on, but I believe really strengthened our relationship was when I was in the hospital. I had been having problems with my stomach to where some food really bugged me. I didn't know till I had an attack that it was my gallbladder. We had taken me in for an ultra sound a couple of days before thinking that it might have been my gallbladder but the results showed nothing wrong. After the attack though, we drove me right to the hospital and asked to do what is called a hyda-scan(to check the functionality of it). After the hyda-scans results which came back that my gallbladder was only working 7% instead of 35% -ish, it was determined that my gallbladder was not doing its job and needed to come out. I went in on June 14th to the Hospital. Before being admitted in, Kenny was with me the whole time. He was with me almost every time the food I ate hurt, and he was there during the attack and he even met me at the hospital.

Flowers from Kenny after Surgery

In the hospital I had to put on a gown (it was so confusing to figure out how to put it on) and then I filled out some papers, got in a bed, and waited for someone to come in. My mom was with me the whole time and Kenny showed up right before I was going in. After a while someone came in and started my IV (my mom wanted to try and put it in the middle of my arm and I got a nice bruise from it but it wouldn't work there. We ended up putting it in the top of my hand, which actually wasn't bad). Kenny showed up a little bit before the doctor did so he was there to give me a hug of support. The doctor showed up and asked if I was ready. I nodded and then don't remember anything else.

All after my surgery, I wasn't allowed to lift anything and I had to get up a lot and walk around. My mom stayed with me that week but Kenny was there to go on walks with me and help lift thing when I couldn't lift. He was loyal by my side till the end. I really feel that if I hadn't had gotten my gallbladder out, we wouldn't have connected or clicked as well as we did.

Well that is our dating experience. In the next part I will talk about the engagement story and other things that happened between the engagement and the wedding.  Tune in for the next part of "A New Beginning".