When Adam went back to Louth on the Monday after our weekend date we were officially 'going out'. He told his parents about it and also that he was going to move to Leeds. He'd only been back from his mission a week and a half and he moved to Leeds that Wednesday. I don't think his mum was too pleased about that!
He moved in to the boys house in a tiny little room, that was only supposed to be for storage. He just about fit a mattress on the floor and then got himself a huge tv. There's priorities for you :D We spent the next couple of months dating and saw each other every day. It was pretty easy because we lived just round the corner from each other and we all did a lot of stuff together like institute and family home evening with all the YSA in Leeds. There was an institute building that we did all of those things at and also could go during the day between uni lectures and things. It was right across the road from the uni campus. George Jokl was the instate teacher and there was always a missionary couple assigned to the area and they would often be at the institute building.
I have lots of good memories of walking home together through the uni campus after whatever activities had been happening at the institute building. From early on we've always liked a bit of play fighting and one evening we were walking home through the uni campus and nudging each other. Then I spotted my opportunity and gave Adam a big push over a 2 foot wall into a bush and ran, leaving him laughing in a bush with his feet sticking over the top of the wall.
Another interesting incident happened when we were walking home with Lisa and a couple of kids (maybe 14) walked past and spat at us. It mostly got Lisa, so she turned around and shouted at them. She can give it what for when she wants to! Anyway we carried on walking when they turned back and ran past us. We were almost at the boys house when they came back with a group of 10-15 of them, ranging from about 12 to 16 yrs old. They started being quite verbally aggressive to the three of us. Adam was laughing at them, Lisa was pretty indignant and me? Well, having never been in any kind of fight before in my life I was a bit scared and hung on to Adam with one hand and quickly called the boys house with my other and told them to bring anyone who was there. It turned out to be a pretty funny confrontation in the end because it was so ridiculous. Many of them were throwing out verbal threats, but with Adam being there, quite big and fit and just laughing at their pitiful threats, it became quite comical. At one point a small lad, who came up to about chest height on Adam came up to him with a couple of tiny sticks and challenged him to a one on one fight. We also had the infamous Donna Magibbon. We know her name because she told us many times that she was Donna Magibbon and this was her patch! The other guys from the boys house soon turned up and the kids didn't seem so confident any more. We simply walked away laughing at the ridiculousness of it all. Adam says now it was probably the funniest, weirdest situation he's ever been in because he wasn't at all threatened by any of it, although they must have thought that they were menacing in some way.
I've always been glad to have Adam to hang on to when I feel like I could do with some muscle behind me. Sometimes physically and sometimes just as moral and emotional support.
After we'd been dating for 2 months I went to New Zealand for a month. I'd booked the holiday the year before and was gone for the whole of the Easter break from uni. The night before I left we stayed up all night talking and at 6am he held me and said "I think I love you". My reply was "I think I love you too" :) The break went a long way to making our relationship more permanent. Being away from each other, after seeing each other every day before, made us realize just how much we wanted to be together. We sent a lot of emails back and forth. About 3 weeks in Adam sent me one which finished with "PS will you pray about us?". I knew what that meant! He meant think about marriage - he wanted me to seriously consider it and pray for guidance from Heavenly Father. For anyone not aware, we're members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, more commonly known as Mormons. We have a strong belief in personal revelation. Heavenly Father can guide us through our own personal struggles and decisions and help us make the right choices for us.
So in a roundabout way, Adam was telling me he was thinking about a proposal.
Sunday 24 June 2012
Friday 22 June 2012
Our story (part 2) - the first date
On the Friday of The First Weekend (yes it gets capitals) Adam took me out to play pool with a few other friends in Leeds. I don't remember a lot of details from the first night, except that it was easy and relaxed and we just had a lot of fun. On Saturday we went into Leeds city centre. I don't remember where we went or what we bought or even who was with us, but I remember one moment very clearly. We were waiting to cross the road to the indoor market and just as the traffic cleared and we went to move off Adam held my hand. I felt like I never wanted to let go of it again. It was great. And pretty amazing at how quickly we felt so comfortable with each other. There weren't any awkward moments, we were just at ease in each other's company. On Saturday evening everyone bundled into the transit van Adam had borrowed from his Dad to come down and went to Morrisons for some snacks. I got the front seat, being Adam's date and everyone else climbed in the empty back. We went back and hung out at the boys' house and played risk. The teams were cleverly conspired by the boys so that Adam and I had to play together because we had so many people playing. We made an awesome team and won the game. It was a clear sign that I had found someone special when I saw he was good at board games and could match my competitiveness! Matt and Adam walked us home and went back to Matt's house - near the end of our street.
On Sunday we went to church together and spent the afternoon and early evening hanging out before he was due to go back to Louth the next morning. Another day I don't remember much about except the end. We were back at the pink house and Anna and Matt had disappeared into the kitchen, very deliberately I might add, to leave us alone in the living room. We were stood saying goodbye, well stalling having to say goodbye really, when it sounded like Matt and Anna were coming back through. That was the spark to spur Adam into action and he quickly moved in for the kill and kissed me. And from that moment on we were "official". The next morning he drove me to uni in the transit van and dropped me off at the Parkinson steps before he went back to Louth. It had been a fantastic weekend of spending every moment possible with each other and we knew we wanted more of it.
There's a picture of us while we were dating here
On Sunday we went to church together and spent the afternoon and early evening hanging out before he was due to go back to Louth the next morning. Another day I don't remember much about except the end. We were back at the pink house and Anna and Matt had disappeared into the kitchen, very deliberately I might add, to leave us alone in the living room. We were stood saying goodbye, well stalling having to say goodbye really, when it sounded like Matt and Anna were coming back through. That was the spark to spur Adam into action and he quickly moved in for the kill and kissed me. And from that moment on we were "official". The next morning he drove me to uni in the transit van and dropped me off at the Parkinson steps before he went back to Louth. It had been a fantastic weekend of spending every moment possible with each other and we knew we wanted more of it.
There's a picture of us while we were dating here
Our story (part 1) - almost meeting
I'm sure I have this written in a journal somewhere, but it's probably packed away in a box in Mom and Dad's attic back in England. I want to get my memories down somewhere, cos I know I've already forgotten some details and I'd love for our kids to know all about our early years when they're old enough to care :)
In January 2001 I was in my 2nd year of my degree and lived in the Pink House with 3 other Mormon girls: Niki, Anna and Jenette. The house was literally pink - painted salmon on the outside, and we loved that. We had a pink themed house warming party and stuck big sheets of pink tissue paper on the wall with blue tack. They stayed there the whole year.
Anna was going out with Matt, so he spent an awful lot of time at our house. One afternoon Matt was sitting in our living room when he got a call from a friend who'd just got back from his mission. They got to chatting about plans and girls when Matt pipes up with "Hey Becky's here, you should come take her out". I think at that point I avoided the embarrassing situation by escaping to the kitchen. Matt finished the call, determined to set me up on a blind date with his friend, Adam. I wasn't too bothered to be honest - I had only been single a few weeks, having broken up with my boyfriend when he went on his mission and I was still letting myself wallow in 19 yr old heartbreak and self pity ;) So I was willing to go along with the idea of a date for a bit of fun, but was quite certain I wasn't looking for anything serious. My plans were always that I would finish uni and qualify as a teacher and then get married.
Sometime during the next week we were walking into Leeds city centre - a whole group of us from the boys house and the girls house, and Matt got another call from Adam. A little while into the call Matt handed me the phone and Adam asked if he could take me out that weekend. We arranged for him to come over to Leeds and we'd go out on Friday night.
He actually came over late on Thursday night to stay at Matt's house. It was in the middle of my end of semester exams, I had an exam on Friday so I didn't make any plans to meet him late on the Thursday. I'd also been ill (Adam didn't actually hear what my real voice sounded like until 2 weeks later). So, I'd gone up to bed and then I heard a car pull up. I crept to my window to see if it was him and try and get a glimpse of my date for the next day. I knelt on my floor, pulled back a tiny bit of the curtain and peeked over the window sill, because I absolutely did not want him to see that I was looking. Matt got out of the car and so did someone else, but I couldn't see much because it was so dark and was too high up. I then spent the next half hour or so sitting silently in my bedroom trying to hear the conversation in the lounge directly below my room. At one point Niki came upstairs, when I quietly grabbed her to ask what he was like. She told me he seemed nice and was good looking. That was enough and I went off to sleep.
In January 2001 I was in my 2nd year of my degree and lived in the Pink House with 3 other Mormon girls: Niki, Anna and Jenette. The house was literally pink - painted salmon on the outside, and we loved that. We had a pink themed house warming party and stuck big sheets of pink tissue paper on the wall with blue tack. They stayed there the whole year.
Anna was going out with Matt, so he spent an awful lot of time at our house. One afternoon Matt was sitting in our living room when he got a call from a friend who'd just got back from his mission. They got to chatting about plans and girls when Matt pipes up with "Hey Becky's here, you should come take her out". I think at that point I avoided the embarrassing situation by escaping to the kitchen. Matt finished the call, determined to set me up on a blind date with his friend, Adam. I wasn't too bothered to be honest - I had only been single a few weeks, having broken up with my boyfriend when he went on his mission and I was still letting myself wallow in 19 yr old heartbreak and self pity ;) So I was willing to go along with the idea of a date for a bit of fun, but was quite certain I wasn't looking for anything serious. My plans were always that I would finish uni and qualify as a teacher and then get married.
Sometime during the next week we were walking into Leeds city centre - a whole group of us from the boys house and the girls house, and Matt got another call from Adam. A little while into the call Matt handed me the phone and Adam asked if he could take me out that weekend. We arranged for him to come over to Leeds and we'd go out on Friday night.
He actually came over late on Thursday night to stay at Matt's house. It was in the middle of my end of semester exams, I had an exam on Friday so I didn't make any plans to meet him late on the Thursday. I'd also been ill (Adam didn't actually hear what my real voice sounded like until 2 weeks later). So, I'd gone up to bed and then I heard a car pull up. I crept to my window to see if it was him and try and get a glimpse of my date for the next day. I knelt on my floor, pulled back a tiny bit of the curtain and peeked over the window sill, because I absolutely did not want him to see that I was looking. Matt got out of the car and so did someone else, but I couldn't see much because it was so dark and was too high up. I then spent the next half hour or so sitting silently in my bedroom trying to hear the conversation in the lounge directly below my room. At one point Niki came upstairs, when I quietly grabbed her to ask what he was like. She told me he seemed nice and was good looking. That was enough and I went off to sleep.
New Leaf
I'm turning over a new leaf. As with all journaling, things get busy and I don't get round to doing it. I'm going to try to be better.
I'm reading "Heaven is Here" by Stephanie Nielson, author of the nienie dialogues (a blog). It's soooo good! She talks about how she met her husband and the early years of the marriage and then onto the plane crash she was in with him and a friend. She was burned on 80% of her body. They had 4 children then. She is so inspirational and such a strong woman. She is also a great writer and really enjoyable to read. I would highly recommend reading her book.
As for us, we've now moved to Arkles Bay to a house we really love. Only downside is that we'll probably have to move in 6 months. I'll get some photos up soon. I'm really enjoying my job and Adam's doing really well with his too.
I have such a great husband. He works really hard and is so good at what he does. He's great with people - that's part of what makes us such a good team. When I feel a bit out of my comfort zone dealing with new people and situations, he smooths it all over and makes everyone feel at ease in an instant. It's great to be on hanging on to his arm :) He's full of drive and ambition and has been the main catalyst in making us move forward on a lot of our goals through our marriage.
And now he's just gone off to make me a jam and peanut butter sandwich while I sit here chilling on our lovely sofa. Isn't he great?!? :)
I'm reading "Heaven is Here" by Stephanie Nielson, author of the nienie dialogues (a blog). It's soooo good! She talks about how she met her husband and the early years of the marriage and then onto the plane crash she was in with him and a friend. She was burned on 80% of her body. They had 4 children then. She is so inspirational and such a strong woman. She is also a great writer and really enjoyable to read. I would highly recommend reading her book.
As for us, we've now moved to Arkles Bay to a house we really love. Only downside is that we'll probably have to move in 6 months. I'll get some photos up soon. I'm really enjoying my job and Adam's doing really well with his too.
I have such a great husband. He works really hard and is so good at what he does. He's great with people - that's part of what makes us such a good team. When I feel a bit out of my comfort zone dealing with new people and situations, he smooths it all over and makes everyone feel at ease in an instant. It's great to be on hanging on to his arm :) He's full of drive and ambition and has been the main catalyst in making us move forward on a lot of our goals through our marriage.
And now he's just gone off to make me a jam and peanut butter sandwich while I sit here chilling on our lovely sofa. Isn't he great?!? :)
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