I Heart Paul

Paul and I met in Provo about 5 years ago. I cannot believe how fast the time has gone. I was thinking about how we got engaged and it made me laugh so I thought I would share our story with you.

Paul and I were really good friends from the moment we met at the end of April 2003. Right before we met he started dating someone a week before she graduated and moved to Texas, so he was in a brand new relationship and a long-distance one all at once. We both agree that that was most likely necessary to make sure that we got to know each other before jumping into something.

We hung out constantly with one of my roommates and one of Paul's roommates. His girlfriend broke up with him about 3 weeks after we met because of the distance issues (big surprise).

To make a long story short, he chose to date me instead of my roommate. About a week after we started dating in the beginning of July we went to Arizona with Paul's brother to visit his sister and my parents. The trip was planned months before and was supposed to include our roommates, but they didn't want to watch us playing kissy face all week so they declined the invite.

While there, Paul went out to dinner with my family. My family was really impressed with Paul. They were even more surprised that such a great guy would want to date me. The next day when we were about to go back to Provo, my dad pulled me aside and said to me, "We're going to be out of town for the next few weeks, and I want you to know that if you decide to marry Paul while we're gone that's fine with me". I replied, "Dad, I've been dating the guy for a week and a half, you're crazy."

On the way back to Provo, Paul told me that he loved me for the first time. Two days later we were sitting on the couch in my apartment watching tv while my roommates were in the kitchen and he was being uncharacteristically quiet. I asked him what was going on and he said "nothing". All of a sudden I had the thought that I really wanted to marry him. I asked him again what he was thinking about, and he said 11 words that would forever change my life "I want to spend the rest of my life with you", without pausing I said, "I want to spend the rest of my life with you too." Immediately, my roommates came in, clueless about the words spoken moments before and started talking about something. We said we had to go.

We went outside on a porch swing and I asked "We're not engaged, are we?" and Paul said "No, no of course not". Relieved, we started talking about our goals for life, children, financial goals. It was almost weird how aligned our views were on so many things. After about five hours, night started turning into morning and Paul made the astute observation that he thought we might be engaged. I agreed.

I know our engagement was quick, we only dated for two weeks. It's funny how your spirit just seems to know certain things. One of those things for me was how much I loved Paul. I don't even remember wrestling with the decision to marry him, everything just fell into place and I have never regretted it since.

Oh, and my dad is always right :)