When I was attending BYU-Idaho, my roommates and I decided it would be fun to get some friends together to play a game of football. Even though it was November in Rexburg and freezing we had so much fun, and it sort became tradition to go play every Thursday night.
When I came home for the summer to Las Vegas, I thought it would be fun to continue the tradition. So my sister and I rounded up some people and headed to a nearby park. One of these friends was Kalee, who told me her brother "H" just got home from his LDS mission (2 days before, to be exact) and could she bring him..? Now Kalee had told me about this "H" before. She had mentioned that she thought he and I would make a good couple, and although I hadn't really dwelt on that conversation much, who was I to let her down by not at least meeting him, right? I said of course, we'd love to have him come. And because she always called him by the nickname she had given him, "H", I really had no idea what his real name was.
It turns out "H" stood for Harrison...who knew? And it turns out Harrison was a cute, blonde, 21 year old who I figured out pretty quickly that I wouldn't mind getting to know better. I asked him later (much, much later in our relationship) what his first impressions of me were. He said three things: He thought I was older than Lindsay (my sister), he thought I was athletic (and for those who know me best know that of course that is no surprise), and he also thought I must have been a little rebellious for a 19 year old Mormon girl since Linds and I kept the radio on the whole night, trying to win tickets to the
Justin Timberlake concert. It turns out none of those things were true. So he may have asked me out under false pretenses, thinking I was this older, athletic, rebellious girl, but it didn't take him long to figure out the truth. And our first date was the best first date I've ever been on. Simple, honest, and fun. We had a pizza picnic and talked for hours. About everything.
Which was a bummer, really. You see this new guy I was falling for, and I were both leaving for school in a matter of weeks, and we'd be living 4 hours apart. And this guy just got home from serving a mission, and was about to go to the land of LDS single girls in Provo, Utah. But someone was listening to my prayers, because somehow I tricked him into a long distance relationship. And soon I found myself counting down the days until Friday night rolled around when he came up to Rexburg, or I drove down to meet him in Provo. Life was so good. He took such good care of me. I remember one time grocery shopping together and he paid for my groceries. You may think thats silly, but to a poor college student girl, that was sweeter than getting flowers
and chocolates.
We soon had a problem though. This long-distance stuff was hard. We were halfway through the semester and our emotions, grades, and cell phone bills were taking a hit. We found ourselves needing to make a decision: break-up, or get married. Luckily we chose the latter, and luckily it was much more romantic than that.
3 months later I was blessed to get married forever to my best friend. Everyone we loved was there including the matchmaker herself (love you, Kalee!). And if it's possible, after 3.5 years of marriage, 6 moves, 8+ months of being apart, and nearly 2 kids later I love him even more today than I did then.
And it all started with that awesome game of football August 9, 2007.
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