Part Two: 2008 April, May June

He Said:
April – The big month, whopper of them all. This is the month Amber and I made our plans of getting married official with me officially, traditionally proposing to her. What an experience it was, shopping for a ring and my stomach and wallet dropping to the floor wondering if this is really worth it (which I’m sure Amber didn’t appreciate). But I’m in my 30’s and fed up with being single. So come hell or high water I was marrying this dame – even if that meant discontinuing my CPA study to make sure this worked out (thank you Elder M. Russell Ballard). If it didn’t work out I would have given up on dating and would travel the world by getting employed by Boise Cascade in their internal audit function. Anyway, ring shopping was very interesting and fortunately we found a great ring real quick. I proposed to her in the front room of her house and we proceeded to make plans – I even recall my Dad screaming for joy when I told him it was official. Now the Boise temple can send out the letters and we not hide this; I certainly left my mark with that call to the temple. At that point the rest of the month was somewhat of a blur…I think!

She Said:
April: Once Brinton returned home from his audit, that same evening we went ring shopping. The journey started with his parents at Carats. We visited four stores and later met up with both of our parents at Chilies for the “meet the parents” opportunity. This was something that was important to Brinton since we were soon to make our union. A few days later as a part of our family home evening together Brinton proposed at my house by the fireplace as he knelt on one knee. He stated that since we would be beginning our lives together here, he only thought it was appropriate to propose at the place that soon would be our home. The funny thing was I was in the middle of doing laundry and he kept peeking into the hallway as he was waiting for me to return to the living room. I knew it was coming, but really I didn’t know when it was going to happen. We had already gone down town and walked and walked I guess he didn’t muster up the guts to do it down there. He told me it was too windy. !?! He did well and choose the ring that was my favorite when shopping. The planning was underway with seven weeks to get the wedding pulled off!

He Said:
May – Since wedding plans filled this month, not much else happened. I think I took the BEC section of the CPA exam, and didn’t pass of course. Most of my time got occupied in helping my sister and brother-in-law move from West Des Moines, Iowa to Tucson, AZ. That took about a week and happened at the end of the month. I flew back up to Boise a week prior to my wedding date and helped out in whatever way I could. By this time in May we were slowly separating ourselves from the singles branch we met in – not necessarily because we wanted to, but because preparation for the big event required us to. Our friendship was growing and we were anxiously awaiting that big day. I was even moving my stuff in little by little as I could. I guess at this point all we could really do was wait for the day. And as it got closer, I often wondered when I would start feeling nervous…but in the end I never did.

She Said:
May: A busy month of planning and preparation: wedding invites, many conversations with my older sister about decorations for the reception and lots and lots of processing within my heart, of changes that were soon to occur within my life. Here are two very independent individuals trying to mesh as one. I had my fair share of debating in my mind, as well as time on my knees trying to figure out how all this oneness works. This is a thought that returns often still for me. I reflected on thing like, “How am I going to share a bed? I love hogging my queen size bed, all to myself.” Of course that kind of conversation was easy to compromise and get over quickly, “Well we’ll get a king. And hey, you no longer get to sleep alone and have someone to snuggle with!”

He Said:
June – 6/7/08 was the day of reckoning, and yet I was as peaceful as I have ever been. It’s true that you don’t remember anything that they tell you in the sealing room – and even after I had concentrated real hard on what President Coleman was telling us. No, I do remember a few things, but it’s fascinating what I don’t remember even when trying hard to remember. That day started out real funny; at least to me. Our session wasn’t until 1pm, so we had plenty of prep time. So after sleeping in and taking my time to get up and get ready, I went over to Amber’s to change and take us both to the temple to begin our lives together. As I arrived at Amber’s home, so did a Jehovah’s Witness proselyting couple. That was so funny to me, on the day we’re getting married a missionary couple shows up at the door. We respectfully told them we were too busy because we were getting married that day. It ended being a wonderful day – meteorologically speaking. And eternally speaking too! But it was a very nice day. We got to spend almost a week together for our honeymoon. When we returned from the honeymoon I went through the arduous task of moving my stuff in to her, now our, home. I am so sick of moving. We had a few bumps in our first month of marriage, but nothing we didn’t overcome. We both had our moments of taking a few things too personally, but being the mature adults that we are we soon overlooked them. Now we’re living happily ever after!!!

She Said:
June: Call me crazy, but there is nothing more busy than the last week of school. This year at my school the teachers were required to pack up their classrooms to prepare for summer cleaning and painting as well as finish all grades. In my case I had IEP progress reports and other needed paperwork to complete. With the temple being closed for all of July and other conflicts in the month of June we had chosen Saturday June 7th as our wedding day, two days after the school year ended on the 5th. My coworkers thought I was insane. After all no sane person would do this to themselves. To me it was the perfect day. I was also teaching summer school and had previously arranged with my supervisor to take the first week of summer school off so Brinton and I could honeymoon following the wedding.

Earlier in the week as we were preparing to set up for the reception that was going to be held in my brother Tim’s back yard, we were met with rain. Not just dribbly spring rain but torrential down pour rain, with inches of water in his back yard saturating the clay soil. Everyone kept asking me what the back up plan was. I told them we would have to hold it in the third bay of my brother’s garage. Several people didn’t think this was a valid back up plan. I was happy with it. All that mattered to me was that we were getting married and we were doing it at the right place at the right time. I did however offer up prayers asking for the rain to stop and that the ground would dry out in time, stating that my back up plan was the garage. Prayers were answered and we were blessed with the most beautiful mild June day that was absolutely perfect. Brinton and I were calm and collect and the weather couldn’t have been more beautiful.