First of all, I was set to leave the Friday before my classes start, January 4th. My parents had given me their car, and I had put new tires on it and fixed it up so that it would be safe and pretty for the 700 mile drive to Provo. BUT, the day before I was going to leave, Thursday, my car was stolen. We spent the entire day which we were going to spend as a family going for a day trip instead driving around looking for a rental car for the next day. We did find one finally, and spent the rest of the day together at last. Friday rolled around, and my dad and I loaded everything into the rental and headed off to cross the desert, and my mom went to work. Just as things were going ok, we get a call from her to come back home because she's been fired! What?! At that moment, I started to cry. Everything happening at once was overwhelming for me, and I was worried what would happen to my parents without my mom working and my dad trying to find meaningful work. More than that, it had been my dream to go to BYU and finish my degree there, and I couldn't believe everything was happening at once - it felt like I would never make it to Provo.
So, we went back home, and after talking about things as a family and praying about what we should do, my mom and dad decided that we will all go to Provo. My dad would drive up in my parent's car, and my mom and I would drive up in our rental. However, my mom would stay here in Provo with their car, and my dad would drive the rental back home and keep an eye on our house and pets. And that's what we did! My mom and I switched off driving up into Utah, and it was a pretty safe drive. We stayed halfway with my brother in Las Vegas Friday night, and finished the journey getting into Provo around 7 pm.
Now, what happens after this is pretty important! When I first got to my apartment, the electricity and heating was entirely off! The people who lived in my apartment before had not paid the bill, and the utilities people would not be coming until Monday to turn the electricity back on. So, luckily my parents were staying for a couple days in a hotel before my dad left, so I stayed with them, but I remember standing at the door of my apartment wondering what I should do and where were my roommates. And then, I met my next door neighbors! Krissa, Katie, Elyse.. They were talking outside, and I introduced myself to them and inquired about my roommates and told them about my predicament. They were really nice and invited me to stay with them in their apartment until my electricity got turned back on, and it gave me a lot of hope that Provo wasn't going to be so bad after all.I went to church with them the next day, and when classes started that Monday, I was sure that everything would be fine. Somehow, I was even able to find my mom a job being a live-in caregiver nearby, so we really lucked out.
Now, on Tuesdays at BYU, a devotional is held from 11 to 12. I went a little early because I didn't have a chemistry lab that week, and took my chemistry book to read while waiting. Just as devotional was about to start, I heard someone calling my name. It was Krissa, my neighbor, and with her were two boys. She invited me to sit with them, and I gladly did and sat next to a boy named Cameron. I learned that they had just gotten off of their missions and were identical twins. Cameron had gone to Chile, and Connor, the other brother, went to Argentina. They were both going into science - Cameron was majoring in Microbiology, and Connor in Biochemistry. So, Cameron and I started talking, and when devotional started and it was time to sing a hymn, I noticed that he was a tenor, and from what he has told me, during that song he noticed that I was a good singer. :) After devotional, he asked me for my phone number, and I gave it to him.
It took him three days to call me however, and when he did, I was totally surprised! I had lost all hope there for the couple days that I didn't hear from him and thought that he had either forgotten about me, or lost interest. For our first date, we went on a swing dancing group date that Saturday, eating Alfredo and Philly Cheese Steak Pizza at the BYU grill before with his brother, Jenna, Jonathan, and Bree. Needless to say, it was a lot of fun! At dinner, Cameron and I talked about microbiology together and I wooed him with my knowledge of the RNA converting enzyme "Reverse Transcriptase." While most people rotated partners throughout the night, Cameron and I stayed together to dance, which I was personally glad of. We hit it off right away, and before I know it we kept seeing each other, literally every day. I got Cameron to join choir with me, and we kept going to swing club every Tuesday nights, and we joined a swing beginning team that met Thursday nights. Needless to say, we spent a lot of time together. :)As I was falling head over heels for this guy, I was also facing the dilemma of not knowing whether or not Cam liked me back. I didn't know if he was just a nice guy type of personality that was friendly to everyone, or what. However, that all changed when he took me to the Phantom of the Opera - one of my favorite musicals - when I was really sick. During the song, "The Point of No Return," Cam reached over and grabbed my hand, and gave me a happy, smug look that said, "Yeah, I just held your hand. That's right." :) From there we knew that we wanted to be together, and a few days later, Cam dropped the L bomb after we had gotten back to my apartment from walking around the outside of the Provo Temple.
The first time he mentioned marriage is a day that we happily term the day Cam "threw me off the Ferris wheel." His parents were in town in Provo visiting from Washington for President's day, and they invited me to come with them to their Uncle Randy's house to stay the night. The next morning we had a great day walking around the Salt Lake Temple and going to an amazing Brazilian barbecue restaurant. On our way back to Provo, we stopped at this gigantic sporting goods store named Scheels which housed a ferris wheel in the middle of the store. We took a ride on the ferris wheel, and near the top, Cameron asked me what I thought about going ring shopping with him later that day. I was ecstatic, but speechless! And funny enough, his brother and father were singing, "Sha-la-la-la kiss the girl," to us, although they had no idea what was going on.
(I am writing now on May 5, 2014 about our courtship until we got married):
