Love, Loyalty, and Friendship

I love hearing stories about how people met and fell in love, so I thought I'd share ours.  Back in the summer of 2007 I was getting ready to start my under-grad at the University of Utah.  I was working part-time at Gold's Gym and having fun in school.  Charlie was/is in the infantry with the Marine Corps.  He was deployed to Iraq for the second time and was expected to come home in the fall.  

For the past 10 or so years, my uncle Grant would off and on talk about his friend Bryan who was a retired Marine.  One summer evening my family decided to have Bryan and his family over for dinner.  I wasn't too interested until I found out that he had a son my age who was also a Marine and was serving in Iraq.  So, I decided to join the dinner.  However, I didn't learn much about this Marine whose name was Charlie, except that he graduated from a rival high school, was a state champion wrestler, and was going to be stationed in Salt Lake in January 2008.

 A few months went by and uncle Grant talked about Charlie coming home soon.  My mom decided that an appropriate welcome home for him would be to line his house and lawn with American flags.  So, at 5am on the morning he got home, my mom and sister (I was invited, but sleep was much more intriguing at the moment) rounded up all the flags from our scouts and decorated his house.  His dad was wide awake and thought this was the best thing ever.  He welcomed them inside and when Charlie heard the noise, he went down to see what was going on.   

Later that night, the families got together and went to dinner (I went this time!).  Our parents insisted that Charlie and I ride together, and so we went.  I don't remember much else about the night except in the end, I figured he wasn't interested because he ditched me to go be with his friends (in his version, I ditched him for a movie date!).  However, the next day, I was at work when he walked through the gym doors.  He came in to sign up for a membership (that he now claims was just to see me!).  I gave him my phone number and we agreed to go out to lunch before he left back to Camp Pendleton. 

Lunch went great, and he was leaving later that day to drive back to Cali. I was definitely interested, and when I got his phone call a few hours later, I was pretty sure he was too.  On the drive back, he hit major traffic outside Las Vegas, and decided to call me.  We talked for the entire 7 hours it took him to get back to his base.

Over the course of the next month, we talked and texted ALL THE TIME.  About a week before Christmas, he was scheduled to check out of his unit and drive home to Utah.  Since my mom worked for the airline and I could fly free, I decided to make the trip down so he had someone to drive back with.  My parents (mainly my dad) weren't too thrilled, after all, he was a Marine, and everyone knows that Marines are womanizing machines!  LOL not this guy!  What a gentleman he was!  Picked me up from the airport and took me to breakfast and showed me around the town.  We had a blast!  That night after dinner, we went to the beach and he kissed me for the first time.  The next day, he picked me up, had his truck packed, and we hit the road.  

From that point on, we were together!  Totally inseparable.  He got to know my family, and I got to know his.  A total match made in heaven!  We dated for the entire year, and I was devastated to learn that in the Spring of 2009 he would be deployed to Iraq for the third time.  We hadn't really talked about marriage, but I couldn't see myself with anyone else.  I loved everything about him.  He was a hard worker, loved his family, and mine loved him, he not only spoiled me, but genuinely cared about me.  


A few years back when I worked at the front desk of a hotel, I saw a woman with a gorgeous wedding ring.  I had never seen anything like it and I fell in love.  I drew a picture of it and made sure that my mom and sisters knew where it was.  Well, sure enough, unbeknownst to me, he got a hold of that picture and took it to my friend Kristin's dad Steve who owns Payne Anthony Jewelers and had my ring made.  

That Thanksgiving, our two families decided to eat together and boy did I receive the best pumpkin pie ever!  MY RING was in the pie he served me!  Now, at the time, Charlie was doing his pre-deployment buildup at different bases down in California.  He got to come home for Thanksgiving and had to go back a few days later, only to come home for Christmas and New Years, then to report back for the deployment.  We quickly decided that we wanted to be married before he left.  So, I had one month to plan our wedding.  Since I was well connected in the hospitality industry, my good friends at the Sandy Hilton Garden Inn quickly helped me out.  On the evening of  December 23rd, I picked Charlie up from the airport and the next morning we headed to the courthouse to get our marriage license.  At 5pm on Christmas Eve, we were married and our happily ever after had begun.