New News Not kNown

Alright, I recognize that "new news" is basically anything that's happened since last February. Totally not my fault.

Okay, maybe it is.

BUT. That's not the point.

A LOT has happened since then! I finally moved into an apartment that I've stayed in for longer than a couple months. The roommate situation was awful at first, but the girl's I'm with right now are pretty awesome!

I guess the reason for this post really shouldn't be put off for too long- I have a tendency to write FAR more than you want to read, so I'll keep it as concise as I can. But no promises.

Last October, I went to a ward Family Home Evening in Payson. Brother Paulson (a bishopbric member) has a large amount of land with some chickens and horses. We spent the night carving pumpkins and sitting out by the fire. At some point in time I decided I could really only watch people carve pumpkins for so long without falling asleep, and since falling asleep at a ward function really didn't sound like a great idea... I headed outside to see what else there was to do.

I wandered out towards the horses with my roommate Jenessa, and we spent quite a bit of time feeding the horses apples and talking with a few ward members. There was one guy in particular that was also hanging around the horses, and we ended up spending quite a bit of time talking. (Whether I had planned that or it just happened that way, I'll never admit) (Okay, I'll admit. I stayed there as long as possible to keep talking to him. But you didn't hear that from me.) It got cold after a while, so we went back up to the fire, and he wandered off to go talk to other people and I stayed to talk with my roommates and friends.

In the car on the way home, I admitted to Jenessa that I was considering altering my "No Dating. Ever. Boys Aren't Worth My Time." Policy, but the car was full of boys, so we definitely just left it at that!

I went home and just went back to the regular homework and cleaning routine I had become accustomed to, really not thinking much of anything that had transpired. I had given up on hoping for anything because it really just sets you up for disappointment.

A few days later, I logged onto the ever-wonderful Facebook. (Oh, how that website interferes with EVERYTHING in life... but that topic's for a different post) This boy from the FHE had friend requested me. I successfully fought back the urge to think anything more of it than the obvious: just a friendly ward member with which I made an accquaintance. He popped up on Facebook chat a few minutes later and we started talking a little bit. He asked if I had any good movies to watch, and what I initally thought would be me lending movies to a ward member turned into me taking How to Train Your Dragon and Toy Story 3 over to his apartment to watch them together. We watched both movies, and talked quite a bit. After the movies were over, we spent several hours talking and watching funny clips online until it was far too late for either one of us to be awake. He walked me home, and we spent another hour joking around and goofing off in front of my door before I went inside and he went home.

From that day on, I'm pretty sure we spent just about every single day together. There may have been a couple of exceptions, but I honestly don't remember them. We probably made it official around Thanksgiving time... but you'd have to ask him- I don't remember!

In December, we had quite a few adventures!

He came to the traditional Page Family Christmas Party. For those of you that don't know, the Page Family Christmas Party has some interesting aspects. We always have a white elephant party, lots of food, and Uncle Alan usually does something to make everyone laugh. This party also has a curse, of sorts. We originally thought it was just coincidence, but every single person that has brought a date to this party (I think Mackenzie started it, but I could be wrong) has ended up marrying that person. So... I definitely took quite a ribbing for his presence that night!

A little bit later, he came out to my little brother's choir concert with me. Towards the end of the night I wasn't feeling well, so he drove my car home. The weather was AWFUL, we were driving down the freeway through a huge snowstorm, and all of the sudden we heard a huge THUMP THUMP, and instantly we knew we had to pull over. We had hit a gigantic pot hole and completely blown out both of the left tires on my car! Poor Nick was a mess! He felt awful that he'd hit the pot hole, and he was very concerned because we had pulled off right next to the exit, so there were literally inches between my car and the cars taking the exit. They ended up closing the freeway because of the pot holes, so we had to wait over an hour for a tow truck to come get us! I felt bad that Nick was so concerned, but honestly I had a blast! It was the first time I'd been in an accident of any type, and it was snowing, and it was late at night... to me it was just a huge fun adventure! We eventually made it home, then the next day Nick spent the whole day driving around getting my car fixed for me while I was at home in bed with the flu. I learned from that experience how caring he is, and really saw how he would take care of me no matter what.

In January, just a couple of days before my birthday, and after a considerable amount of praying and a visit to the temple, I felt very strongly that breaking up with Nick was the right thing to do at that point in time. He knew what was coming after I sent him the "I need to talk to you" message, so this man brought over all of the birthday presents he had bought for me so I could open them before we broke it off. I will never forget the look on his face when I told him we couldn't date anymore. It was awful. I actually had to hide the presents he gave me in my closet for 3 weeks before I could bear to look at them. Looking back at it now, I honestly think that we needed this time apart to make sure it was right, and to get our lives in order. I know for a fact that I would have failed all of my classes had we kept dating. So what at the time appeared to be the worst months of the year actually ended up with a happy ending.

Since that moment, I've actually had a few different family members tell me that at this particular point in time, they were rather disappointed that the Page Family Christmas Party marriage streak was over. It's a good thing I didn't weigh that into my decisions at the time, talk about pressure!

Even though we were no longer "dating" we still spent time together as friends. It wasn't easy for either one of us, but I secretly think Nick was determined to keep his foot in the door until I came around. After a while, it easily came to the point where we really just didn't want to see anyone else. While it was never really made "official" again, it became clearer and clearer each day where things were headed.

We took a weekend trip to go meet his family a few weeks ago, and spent the night at his parent's house. (Seperate bedrooms, of course!) While sitting in the family room, looking at the scrapbooks his mother had made, I realized that I could already picture taking my family to Grandma's house and ending up at this place.

Two Wednesdays ago, Nick drove to South Jordan and asked my father for his permission to marry me. I wish I could have been a fly on the wall for that conversation. He came home and told me what I had done, and I'll be honest, it scared me a little! All this talk of weddings all the sudden was becoming a real thing! Saturday night, we went to go look at another apartment, and on the way back he suggested we stop and pick up some dinner. We grabbed some Chinese food at one of my new favorite restaurants, @12, and then drove to Rock Canyon Park to watch the sunset. We trekked up to the top of the hill and sat on a bench and just talked while we watched the sun go down. Eventually, he started telling me how glad he was that I had given him a second chance. He told me he loved me, and that he was so excited for the future we were planning. Then he got down off the bench and asked me if I would be his wife. I was completely speechless! I laughed, I breathed, I laughed some more, then I finally said "yes". He handed me the ring, then I handed it back and reminded him that it was his job to put it on. Then he got back on the bench, and I admitted that I had closed my eyes for the whole thing! I was so excited that I had shut my eyes and missed the entire proposal! He asked if he needed to do it again, and I again said "yes", so he got off the bench again, waited till I could pry my eyes open again, and proposed a second time.

Driving back from the park, I took a picture of the ring on my hand, and sent it to my parents and to Brittany and Lauren. My mom called me almost immediately and I could hear lots of cheering and screaming behind her, then I heard Matt going "Nick! Nick! Nick! Nick! Nick!" it was so funny! I was informed that it didn't matter what time it was, that we had time to drive to South Jordan and talk to the family. So we headed to South Jordan, and spent almos the whole drive on the phone with various family members telling them the news. I actually spoke with Nick's Grandma Dennis for quite a while and found out that the ring on my finger was the same ring her husband had proposed to her with back when they got married. How cool is that!?

Anyway, I failed at keeping this short! Sorry! But... that's my story and I'm sticking to it!

More details to come! Love you all!