A long time coming...

I've been meaning to post a picture of this AWESOME mural Greg helped paint for a looooong time now (they finished it in October). It's on the side of a pre-school in South Ogden (40th and Washington for those in the neighborhood). It was really fun to see it come together and people driving by would stop and ask about it when Greg and his friends were working on it. Enjoy!

One Year

One year ago today Greg and I went on our first date. It's been on my mind today so I thought I would recount the night. It went a lot like this (for me at least):

I already knew I had a huge crush on him and was therefore quite nervous. So nervous, in fact, that I don't even remember what I wore (this is unusual for me--being nervous as well as not remembering what I wore to an "event"). He was very punctual. And sooooo good looking. The theme of the night was uncontrollable amounts of talking/laughing. We went to dinner at the Macaroni Grill in SLC and quickly realized that we have a lot more in common than we previously knew. I had serious butterflies. Not just thoughts of "oh, he's cute," but actual flutterings in my stomach that made me wonder just exactly what I had eaten for lunch that day. My food was literally cold by the time I got around to eating it. I kept thinking to myself, "I can't wait to tell Caleb how right I was about this one." You see, I had been telling my brother Caleb for months that Greg totally wanted me, he just hadn't realized it yet. BUT, someday he would wise up, ask me out once, and it would be GAME OVER for both of us. Caleb had summed it up to total self-absorption, but that soon changed...

After dinner, we went to a Jon Schmidt concert that was sponsored by our shared employer. Greg's boss (aka my previous boss) was there with his wife and I could tell they were wondering about us. We accidentally sat in the wrong seats and an usher had to show us our real seats which were situated in the middle of all our fellow co-workers that were also attending the event. This, of course, lead to more questioning glances. Or so it felt. I had a really hard time keeping quiet during the performance. How could I not point out the atrocious holiday sweater being worn by the man two rows in front of us or the hilarious dance moves of the guest performing break dancers? I knew Greg would appreciate such things. Needless to say, I'm sure the people around us were annoyed by our whisperings.

As the concert neared its end, I began to dread the thought of going home. The night was going far too well to ever end. Greg seemed to be enjoying my company and was at least pretending to laugh at all my jokes. Then I began to worry I was seeing the situation through rose colored glasses and in came such self-destructive thoughts as, "I wonder how many other girls he tried to ask out before me? I'm sure I was at the bottom of his list. Do I have something in my teeth? I knew I should have looked in the mirror after dinner...."

We slid around on the icy sidewalks of the U of U as we made our way back to Greg's car which led to the idea of going sledding. A rather clever thought considering neither of us were wearing sledding appropriate clothes or in possession of a sled. So, we ventured back to Ogden. After many failed attempts to "sled" on the wake skate Greg happened to have in his trunk, we found an abandoned sled and continued the fun until we were completely frozen. Then, instead of getting in the car where it was warm, we slid around on the ice in a parking lot until 2 a.m. I was really feeling the inklings of "GAME OVER-ness" at this point. We talked about everything. I confessed to getting thrown out of the Grand America Hotel (a story for another day) and he talked about his mission, etc., etc,. etc. It was pretty much all on the table by the time we got back in the car.

Then for everyone's favorite, "the doorstep scene." I'll admit, it was a little awkward. We had worked together for almost a year at this point and I really had no idea what he was thinking. The doorstep for the apartment where I lived at the time didn't help the situation either. I just remember thinking (like I always had) that it was the guy's job to lead the doorstep finale. All I really remember is that we didn't even hug. I felt really stupid after for not initiating something but I didn't want things to be weird if he wasn't that into me (although I REALLLLLY hoped he was). It turned out just fine considering he kissed me only 4 days later, not to mention the fact that we have now been married almost 8 months :)

I still get butterflies when I think about that night. Thanks for taking a chance on me my Greg :) I love you.