ENGAGEMENT: The real story

Finals were coming up and I was stressin'.

Gil asked if it would be alright if we went on a date on Saturday. I suggested that we go to DI for our date {I thought it could be fun}, but he told me he would plan it so that I could focus on finals. 

Saturday comes along and Gil tells me to "wear something classy, but something that can still trudge the outdoors". OBVIously I wore a dress with a sweater. classy, yet can trudge the outdoor weather...right?  Gil comes to pick me up and gets a little nervous when he sees what I am wearing. He says. "Um....do you maybe want to go put on some hiking boots?"

 Hiking boots with my dress!? 

Oh gil. 

I just went and changed my outfit completely

  As we are getting into the car Gil puts a blindfold around my eyes.

{This is usually the part where everyone asks, "so this is when you knew he was proposing?"

Actually. No. I had not idea he was proposing until about 3 minutes before...mostly because

I didn't think he had talked to my dad yet & we hadn't gone ring shopping yet}

He tells me he is going to take me to a restaurant we have never been to before!

After driving a couple of minutes he parks, gets me out of the car and leads me along.

{I kept tripping because he would forget to tell me where there were stairs/bumps}

Finally we get to where we are supposed to be. 

He unblindfolds me and I see a beautiful gazebo with a cute table sitting in the middle of it.

fancy serve-ware, homemade meal, and flower petals sprinkled all over.

Immedietly I think, "wow! what did I do to deserve this!?"

It was heaven.

After dining, he blindfolds me again and takes me to the dorm he lived in when we met 2.5 years ago.

We go to the piano room and he plays me the song by Josh Groban: You are Loved.

Sings and plays, mind you.  The talent that boy has...

The last place we went to was a hike up Y mountain.

The whole way up Gil kept saying, "We have to hurry or the sun will set!"

While I would just say, "Gil! don't worry! I've hiked this in the dark plenty of times. Just enjoy the journey... " I made him stop at like every turnpike to look at the view.

{Little did I know his little sister was up waiting for us in the freezing cold}

We get to the top of the Y and talk for a little...

Gil looks behind him and says, "look at that little path...can we go on it?"

I say, "sure"

At the beginning of the path there was a balloon.

Gil was about to pop it, but I said, "Gil! don't pop that...it's not for us!"

Gil says, "No...let's pop it"

I kept telling him not to until he pulled out a rose.

LIGHTBULBS going off in SJ's head. THIS is where it hit me that I could very well be

 proposed to tonight.

We popped the balloon and out fell a message that said: August 25, 2010

The first day we met.

Along the path there were 7 balloons total, each with significate dates in our Gil + SJ lives

The very last balloon said: April 20, 2013.

He then knelt down and asked me to marry him :)

After I said yes we continued on the path until we found a nice rock to sit on as he filled me in on 

all the details of the proposal.

I am so so so lucky to be marrying this boy.

He is everything I have hoped my future husband would be and more.

He makes me laugh more than I ever have before

I know our lives will be far from perfect and we will have many ups and downs,
and I know we are both young,

but I'm glad we at least have each other to get one another through it.
We're just two best friends in love

Gil + SJ

July 2, 2013

ENGAGED. The story Pt. II: The mission

I knew I needed to keep myself busy while Gil was gone. I had this constant fear that he was going to come back and be like, "SJ. You did nothing with your life while I was gone". It was a horrid thought. The first thing I did was an internship in DC the summer after my freshman year. It opened my eyes to a whole new world!

Sophomore year I immersed myself into the dating scene. I dated a lot and it was fun. But I didn't feel like I clicked with anyone else the way I did with Gil. To be honest my roommates always made fun of me for complaining about how much I hated dates.  But I knew dating was what I was supposed to do so I reaaaalllly tried to open my heart up.

I went to Jerusalem and he continued to be a chipper and awesome missionary. We would both write to each other and tell one another how awesome our current situations were...two penpals spread across the globe. Life was really good for both of us.

Writing letters back and forth introduced me to a new side of Gil.  I wrote him about everything in my life that happened and all of my thoughts. Because when you write the only thing you can share is your thoughts. He read my thoughts and I read his. It was awesome.  exceeeept for the whole "reading through the lines" thing. We both tried not to write about missing each other, etc. I think it was for the best, but it sometimes drove me crazy not knowing what he actually thought about me.

 I wouldn't let myself read his letters until my room was clean, my homework was done, and preferably my teeth were brushed. His letter would sit on my bed and silently cheer me on. I cannot explain to you how good it felt to come home and discover I had a letter waiting for me.  And packages...those were the best! I'm not super proud of this, but I cried on Christmas when my parents handed me the package he sent me. I didn't think it came on time so when I saw it on Christmas morning all of my it-is-christmas-time-and-i-miss-gil feelings came pouring out. hahaha oh SJ. I need to learn to contain my emotions. {I cry at the weirdest times and don't cry at times when I should be crying...it'snotgood}

The last four months while he was out I started meeting his companions. Obviously I recognized some of them from pictures. I'd go up to them and say, "Is your name so-and-so?" hoping they would recognize me too. Usually they did and it was great to swap stories. We wrote a lot less the second year he was out. It was probs for the best. And then finally...finally....he came home.

This this and this post also talk about him while he was gone..

To be continued....
p.s. I don't know about you guys but I am thriving off this part 1, part 2, etc thing. heh heh.

I think that is some Swedish word

I took pictures of every Swedish thing I saw

He made it out of like a picnic blanket or something..haha I loved it.

ENGAGED. The story Pt. I: freshman year

I'm sitting down to type this blog post and I look down to see a ring on my finger. it's crazy! Not crazy that Gil is the one I'm marrying (I've only been hoping since our first date), but crazy that marriage is in the near future. The story of me and Mr. Gilbert goes all the way back to August 25th, 2010. So...everyone buckle up your seat-belts cause we are going back in time! (And if you happen to have any 3-d glasses..put those on too)

The day before I met Gil I was jumping up and down with joy....knowing that the next day I was going to officially be a college student. I felt so ready to move on into the next chapter of my life. (not that I didn't love the previous chapter, I was just ready for a new one). At BYU, they put all the freshman in "Y groups" during orientation. I met my group and wasn't too thrilled at the idea of spending the entire orientation with them. So naturally I wandered off and decided I was going to be super friendly and talk to whomever I felt like. GOOD THING I had that attitude. Because the first boy I talked to was Gil's roommate.

It wasn't love at first sight. (sorry...) but it was something I call "I am drawn to this group of boys" first sight. I instantly fell in love with their care-free freshman boy attitude. I wanted to hang out with them because I knew they would have fun with whatever they were doing.  As I continued to bump into them, I began to fall for the tall, blond-haired, blue-eyed, funny yet mild one. I don't even know why! At that point I hardly knew him! But I liked him. I liked him a lot a lot a lot.

I had hoped he would feel the same way too; however, one day he called me up on the phone to tell me about a girl he liked. instant heart sinking feeling.

Awesome gil. awesome that you are telling me about your girl problems. awesome that I was just officially friend-zoned...I don't even know why he told me. We had only known each other for like three weeks. I just remember tossing and turning all night long. I couldn't figure out why it bothered me so much that he didn't see me in that way. I kept saying, "SJ, he is going on a mission anyway...just forget about him!". Obviously that plan failed.

Luckily for me that girl and Gil lasted for like a week. loooong story short (cause I'm noticing how long "part 1" is taking) Gil's roommate told Gil I liked him. I was embarrassed for days and tried avoiding him, Gil seemed to not be freaked out, he would call me to hang out and do things like jump out of recycling bins and scare people. I fell harder and harder. He started coming to my house for dinner every week. He fit with my family better than I could have ever dreamed, and badda-bing-badda-boom he finally asked me out on a date for October 16.

The date was perfection. I seriously think they need to put it in a chick flick or something. We went to a cornmaze and it felt like we had been dating for years.

The rest of the semester I felt like I was floating across campus. I was happier than I had ever been before. Except for when I would think about the fact that he was leaving very soon for his mission.  We kept the mission a pretty common subject. I was his "Swedish teacher" and would give him homework every week. In return, he was my ping-pong trainer. When I think back to that semester I just think of "fun". We had no cares, we would talk for hours outside my dorm...even in the middle of December. And one of my favorite things about him was that our humors just matched up. He just got me. To be honest, we knew we liked each other, we loved being with each other. But we tried to base our relationship on our friendship. We knew he would be leaving soon, so we kept things very casual. I don't even think we ever had a "DTR". Personally, I was afraid it would jinx it.

I remember very clearly the Sunday before Gil left to go back home before his mission. I was kinda mad at him for something so he showed up at my doorstep with his pants tucked into his socks. I said, "Gil, why are your pants tucked into your socks" and he said, "It's because this is what people do when they are sorry". I melted.

He took me on a walk and that is when it officially hit me that he was leaving. I cried and cried and apologized for getting so attached. I honestly don't think he knew what to do, but he hugged me told me I was still beautiful when I cried and that was all I needed.

The rest of the semester I wrote him waaaay too much. So much so that on one of his letters I put a different name on the outside cause I was afraid he would get in trouble for having the same girl write him all the time. Maybe I was over reacting...I tried to keep it at once a week. but sometimes I had something reaaaaaaallllly important to tell him and didn't think I could wait a week. Also, someone please tell me how I ever managed to write someone 16 pages in one letter? I think I was a crazy freshman.

the end of part 1....

If you have any desire to peak more into freshman year with Gil you can read this this this this or this

Congratulations to who ever made it this far in the blog post!

To be continued...
p.s. I'm sorry for all the grammar errors...
p.p.s. Freshman year confession: I wrote down every text message conversation we had

{{Pictures from Freshman Year}}

 Before we barely knew each other my roommates and his roommates went on a motor home trip to Logan

He drove and I sat as close to him as possible without it being too obvious that I was obsessed.
I don't know if I succeeded.

We made a "Pre-Sweden" list of things we wanted to do before he left on his mission.

 (he is the one in all white) 

He and his roommates would snatch as many couches as they could 

in the dorms to provide "stadium seating" while watching movies

 At the Harry Potter premier. (Idk why he was so excited....haha he hasn't even read Harry Potter)

 Our first date after going a week without seeing each other due to Thanksgiving break

 Gilbert playing Santa for my little sister

 yikes

 

I came home on Valentine's day to find these on my bed. 

He was in the MTC at this point...so I think he found a little minion to do it.. 

 

One of my proudest moments. I sent him wendy's while he was in the 

MTC  for valentine's day.

speaking of Wendy's....today we went to Wendy's and our window girl was named Wendy.

Look! I have proof!