Tiffany's and my little (Eternal) get-together

I met a fun-loving Tiffany walking home from Church near her apartment where she had recently moved in with Erika, to whom I had been a home teacher. I received a calling in the ward to pass around notes which people in the ward had written to one another. I liked the calling for two reasons. First, it was a fun way to keep up on, and create a little, ward gossip. Second, it was an excellent excuse to stop in on a particular apartment, Chatsworth Center 7. In that apartment I learned to play speed scrabble, I watched a little bit of Pacers' basketball, and I learned about many types of grapes in a word search.

Most importantly, I found Tiffany to be an excellent friend and generally wonderful person. I loved her playfulness and funness. I loved how naturally beautiful she was and how genuine her personality came across.

The end of the Spring Term came and she needed a ride up to Salt Lake. We borrowed a car, Tiffany drove it up to her friend's house, and I drove it back to Provo. Then came a summer of a wonderful growing friendship. I checked my email three or four times a day to see what Tiffany had written, knowing full well that she worked long hours at Camp Belzer.

When we got back to Provo in the Fall we hiked up Y-mountain for our first real date, though no one paid for anything and Erika drove us, so some controversy has regrettably arisen on this point. Then we went on a few other dates and finally decided to date exclusively right after the dates that we had already agreed to with other people. We dated exclusively for a short time, were engaged for a short time and got married for a long time. I love that I have been so blessed to have Tiffany in my life. She brings happiness and peace and love into our home. She holds us together, and is the awesomest mother and wife I have ever known.

Halloween Memories

I promised my wife that I would write this, and though it is late, here is a memory. My parents attempted to make us less interested in trick-or-treating by having a family halloween party. In the weeks leading up to Halloween, we made our own pinatas, filled them with candy and then broke them at our party. Then we would watch a scary movie like boogie man, or Charlie Brown's Halloween special.

Later on in life, I grew back into trick-or-treating. By this time the goal was to cover the maximum amount of ground in an optimal time. Costumes at this stage had to be complimented by roller-blades to be able to move faster. I also carried two pillow cases: one to show how little candy I had, and the other to hold all of the candy I had. We especially liked to get to the houses that wanted to go to bed but still had a lot of candy that they were getting rid of.

How Erika became a Pike... in 10 minutes or less

So it was Fall 2003 when I ventured from NYC and the land of people full of themselves to DC and the land of people just a little less full of themselves. When I arrived at the Barlow Center (home for all non-married Washington Seminar participants), the Sister Missionary (Missionary couples run the show there) told me and one of the Rachels that had already arrived that two boys were already there. One was someone I don't remember and the other was Mason. Why do I remember? Because she told us how she remembered. Mason Pike was his name and he brought a bike. So he was "Mason Pike with a bike"... get it? It rhymes, people!

Later that evening I went down to the basement with ?Rachel? and sort of met Mason for the first time. About a week into the semester I had a small crush on Mason Pike with a bike as he had joined my crew on numerous outings in the D.C. area. We attended the NFL kickoff together, with a bunch of other people, but Mason had the inside info on how to get closer up, so he and I ended up together without any of our fellow interns. Hmmm, I wonder how that happened?! ;)

So when I couldn't see over people's heads and Britney Spears did some move that everyone gasped at, I asked Mason Pike with a bike what happened. He said, "I'll tell you when you're married." Little did he know he'd really have to.

Mason was healing the wounds of sending a girl he wasn't really in love with on a mission and I moved on to other crushes. We maintained a friendship, though, and Mason says he started liking me a little bit at the end of the semester.

I text messaged him Happy Birthday when I was in Indiana and he was in Illinois over break. He didn't respond. He apparently even CAME to Indianapolis, but "forgot" his cell phone - so he couldn't call. Not that he would have anyway since he was with his brothers who still didn't think it was cool to hang out with girls. He did call me before we got back to BYU to ask if I could turn in his final paper for him as he had so wisely planned to fly in the day AFTER it was due. Oh, I'm so glad Mason has changed his ways (even if I had to force him to do so).

The winter semester began. All of us who were back in Provo from DC got together. Mason liked Erika. Erika liked LOTS of people. She went on a really weird blind date with Tiffany's math teacher. She also asked Mason out on a date - the evening started off as just friends (well, Erika didn't know Mason liked her), but by the end Erika leapt into Mason's arms. Okay, really, she slipped on ice when they were hugging goodbye and fell into his arms, but still... there was a connection :). Mason finally asked Erika out on a date and then they just kind of dated. Erika dropped the other crushes, but Mason was a super sleuth in making their "dates" feel like two friends hanging out, so Erika was confused. Thus the blind date with the math teacher was arranged. After that AWKWARD date, Mason and Erika went down to St. George together for Mason's favorite mission comp's wedding (I would explain that whole thing, but I'm really trying to keep this under 10 minutes people.... so read faster!). And that's where they got together (I just realized I switched to 3rd person... weird). So thankfully when the math teacher called back the following Monday, Erika was able to say she was dating someone. Awkward math teacher's response: "That's kind of fast." Ha, but it really wasn't :).

So we dated and had fun and then Mason was all up in Erika's business about marriage (okay, really, he wasn't pushy, but the real story isn't nearly as entertaining). Erika was cool with it at first, then she freaked O.U.T. No clue why. After she came to her senses, seriously, they were all the way down in Hurricane, Utah. She had to go and get them. Once she came back with them, it was a done deal. Other than the fact that she had planned a five week trip to Europe and didn't want to get married in August. So the wedding was set for October, a week after Mason was to take the LSAT. And thus it was that Erika became a Pike.

The Brady's story, the real truth!!!!

So my wife is laughing at my title, even though it is the TRUTH. If I had my way I would just say that I got down on my knee and then she said yes. What more do you realy need to know?

For our courtship, you should most likely refer to Kristen's because she just knows more. That's the honest truth. My first thought of Kristen was that she loooooook gooooooood. I then went to play sports with my ward.

Eventualy I asked her out, even though she thought that she was making me do so, and we had ice cream which she would like while I am writing this. After this, we spent the next couple of years getting to know eachother.

So now that I cant think of anything else to say, we eventually had another date and got engaged, not on the date mind you.

If you want to know more than this, stop reading this one and move on to my wifes!

The Brady Family - Kristen's Version

Well, I feel like I've told this story so much in the past six months or so, but I know it's important to get it on the site for posterity, so here you go:

Shawn and I met in the Mountain View 3rd Ward - a singles' ward. I was over visiting his brother, Bryan, and Shawn walked out of the house. My immediate thought? I wanted to spend the rest of the night with him instead. He convinced me to come to the Ward Sports' Night, with the promise that if I came he would walk with me (since I told him I didn't like to play volleyball or basketball competitively). I came almost to spite him and see if he'd actually follow through - he did! I came a few times, and I enjoyed walking with him and talking, but then it became too cold, so I stopped coming. We remained friends, but nothing really happened. In May 2005, we were both at a midnight movie showing (his brother Darin put the group together), and ended up talking and joking around. He was complaining about not dating, and I made some comment about never asking me out, and he said, "Fine, want to go out with me?" and I said, "Fine, I will.!" Turns out (this came out WAY later) we were both trying to trick the other person into going out with us. We went out later that week for ice cream cones at Artic Circle and to see The Pacifier at the Dollar Theater. It was really fun, and we were both interested in each other, but too afraid to do anything about it. Now we come to one year later... I was living with Tania Finn at the time. She was serving as the Relief Society President and felt like she should go to Sports' Night to support the ward, and, since summer was coming soon so I could stay up later, I decided to go with her. I was fully prepared to play basketball, volleyball, or just chit chat with whoever. However, when I walked in Shawn asked if I wanted to go walking. So, I'm no dummy - I said of course! My crush on him immediately came back, and it got stronger and stronger. We would walk every week (except when I was in Europe and when I was on the Church History trip) for about an hour. Sometimes others would join us, but most of the time it was just us. During all those hours we got to know each other very well, and became very close. Meanwhile Shawn was called to serve as my new Family Home Evening co-group leader. Near the end of September Shawn started emailing me for things other than FHE stuff, and he then asked me out in October. Our second first date, as we like to call it, was like three dates rolled into one - we went to Panda Express for dinner, then went to Hollywood Connection to Mini-Golf and play games, and finally ended up at the Dollar Theater to see Step Up. We spent a couple weeks where we were just dating, but not seriously, when I (it's true, it was me) asked Shawn what we were doing here, and was he interested in me. He thought he'd been obvious (I see now that for him - he was!), but I was so confused. We decided that we were both only interested in dating each other, and thus began our almost six month courtship. We're both very busy people, but we made time to be together whenever possible. We started discussing marriage in February, and I felt good about it, and Shawn felt we should wait. Then in March he felt good about it, and I felt we should wait, finally, in April, we both felt that we were ready. We became engaged at the end of April. Shawn took me to the Veteran's Memorial Park in West Jordan. This is a park that has a lot of meaning for us because we'd spent many special times there. He took me walking around, and, although I was pretty positive he was goig to propose to me, he got me scared there when he started talking because he started saying things like how freaked out our relationship made him, and how he'd done a lot of thinking. I was almost surprised and very grateful when he finally said that after much thinking he'd realized that nothing would honor him more than to have me as his wife. He then got down on one knee and officially proposed. (Funny story though - around this time a cop car pulled up in a nearby parking lot and just sat there with his lights on; we didn't know if we were being watched or what, but decided to leave just in case!). Shawn and I were married in the Jordan River Temple on Saturday, July 28, 2007. Every day I'm more grateful for him, and I feel so lucky that I was able to marry my best friend. I love you Shawn!

The Story of the Bishops

Tim and I met in the Spring of 2004. I had moved in with Erika into Chatsworth and Tim was in the ward. We were walking home from Church one day and Tim was walking nearby, so Erika introduced us to each other (thanks Erika!). I asked Tim where he lived and he said he lived in Miller Apartments. I then told him that my sister had said not to bother with those boys (which Erika had said). That's what I remember from that conversation.

We got to know each other a few other times at ward things and just passings. Then Tim conveniently (I only learned this after we were dating) would save our place for last when he would be handing out fliers for ward activities (he was the head of the friend shipping and service council). I started to like him, but it was about the same time that Jordan was going on his mission so I wasn't really sure what to think about things.

For the rest of Spring Term we hung out quite a bit and did little random things together (like Tim helped me clean our apartment for cleaning checks). Then I went home to Indiana. One of the first nights back I hung out with Aaron and Kevin Anema and their dad. Their dad used to be a member but no longer is. It came up how I had turned in my roommate for cheating and he started on how self-righteous most of the BYU Students (including me) are. I was really hurt and I missed Tim. So I went home and wrote an email to Tim about how bummed I was. He wrote back and thus started our summer of emails. We wrote back and forth a lot! A few weeks after I left Provo, Tim also left and went home to Arizona. He didn't have a job, so my emails were kind of the highlight of his days (at least I tell myself that). I would receive his email when I would get home from work (I was working at Cub Scout Camp) and then I would write him back that night. We talked a few times on the phone over the summer but it was mostly emails.

Yes, I did start dating another boy that summer. This is the part of the story I like to forget. I wasn't interested in this boy a whole lot, but he sure did pursue me and I was very flattered. I had never had any pursue me that much before. But every time I would think about anything long term with this guy, my mind would turn to Tim and I wanted to be "available" just to see if anything would work with him.

So we both returned to Provo for the Fall semester. We were no longer in the same ward, but we live within a block of each other. I called things off with the other boy and Tim and I "hung out" A LOT. I think this is where Tim and I differ on what was our first date. I considered a lot of our things just hanging out but he considered them dates. Finally I asked him on a date and I made it clear that it was a date and we went and saw You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown with Erika and Mason. Unfortunately, rough times were ahead (okay, looking back they weren't so rough, but at the time they were).

There was a girl in Tim's ward who all the guys liked, but she liked Tim. From what I've gathered from Tim, he liked us both, but he liked me a little more, but he didn't want to risk not getting me? Does that make sense? Anyways, he started to do more with this girl and I was crushed. I started to pray to Heavenly Father that I could stop liking Tim, but it wasn't working. We still hung out but not as much and nothing was really an official date, and he was going on dates with this other girl.

So I had an intramural soccer game one night that Tim came to. I was driving and afterwards I dropped a friend off at her house. Becca Pike (my roomie) wanted to see her place so she went inside for a little bit, which left Tim and I in the car just talking. I don't remember how it came up, but I started telling him about a girl in our ward who would pretend to rip her heart out and stop on it every time a boy would make her feel anything but happy. I told Tim how I had started doing that sometimes as well. He asked if he had ever made me want to do that and the honest answer was yes, so I told him so. He wanted a further explanation and so our DTR began!

At some point Becca came back and we went back to BDA. Tim and I stood outside talking for maybe an hour or two and we both admitted that we liked each other and that we were going to start dating. We both had dates that weekend with other people, but we decided after that that was it. This was all the night before Erika's wedding.

So we started dating and I was in the clouds! Sometime around the middle of November the m word (marriage) came up. Tim said he had always wanted to get married in February, but that was way too quick. We decided that we would start thinking and praying about each other in an eternal sense.

We got engaged about a week before Christmas. Tim was in Indiana visiting and we had gone caroling. Apparently he wanted to propose while we were caroling but it never really worked out. On the car ride home I could tell something was bothering him but he kept saying that it was nothing. So I started to get frustrated with him. Some time after we got home we went to finish a chess game we had started earlier. Tim said it was my turn and I told him I really didn't want to play because I was upset that he wouldn't be honest with me. Then he proposed. Turns out he had the matter of popping the question on his mind and that's what was bothering him. I was no longer frustrated (if I could go back in time though, I would change getting upset - I hate that part of this story).

Then it was time to decide when to get married. I didn't want to get married right after the semester because I thought that I would be too excited to take finals and because EVERYONE does that. Tim and I both preferred not to wait until June, so we decided it would be February! We went upstairs and told Mom and Dad and then called people and that was that!

I love you Tim!

NEW SUBJECT

November's writing topic is: Your Courtship & Marriage, Proposal & Announcement! Let the fun begin!