Tuesday, March 06, 2012

so young, so dumb, so in love

*the future mr. and mrs. simpson, circa 2002. as reagan would say, "was this picture from before i was in your stomach?" yes, reagan. yes it is. 

ten years ago this week thomas and i got engaged. it's quite the dramatic story. march 3rd, 2002, thomas and i attended a young single adult fireside at BYU. the speaker was Elder M. Russell Ballard and his talk was entitled, "Be Strong in the Lord, and in the Power of His Might". it is an excellent talk and each time elder ballard mentioned dating and marriage and the importance of not putting off choosing a spouse, i would poke thomas in the back. one thing thomas loves about me is my subtlety. after the fireside, thomas and i got into a pretty good disagreement about the future of our relationship and decided perhaps this wasn't the relationship we both wanted. then we both went home. i then rehashed every single minute detail with my roommates and called everyone i knew and dissected every word of every conversation we ever had and we concluded that i was right about EVERY point i made and that thomas didn't know what he was missing out on and that i could do so much better and blah blah blah. so, in my rational and calm state i got out a scrap of paper and a blue highlighter(the hallmarks of a well thought out idea) and wrote thomas a letter telling him exactly what i thought of him. i marched myself over to his apartment a few blocks away and thrust the note in his hands and then walked home. the difference between boys and girls? i'm sure it didn't even cross thomas's mind to to discuss our argument in detail with his roommates. 
the next morning, whilst i was showering, i got a knock on the bathroom door from my roommate saying that thomas was at the front door and wanted to see me. so, i got my wits about me and prepared to put thomas in his place. how dare he come and see me! didn't my blue highlighter note say it all? since i was still in a state of rational thought, i threw on a shirt and wrapped a towel around my waist and went to the front door to commence battle. as soon as i saw thomas, he dropped to his knee and pulled out a ring and asked me to marry him. and i completely forgot myself and said yes(obviously. i'm glad that he finally came around to my way of thinking. i almost typed that with a straight face). and we've been happily ever after ever since.

which really means i can put up with the VERY IMPORTANT PILES:

 and he puts up with my VERY IMPORTANT SHOES:
each and every pair serves an important and distinct purpose. this photo does not include the pairs i keep in the shoe basket by the garage door for easy access or my running shoes/yard work shoes that are kept in a separate location due to stinkiness. 

7 comments:

lrbodine said...

I don't think I've ever heard the engagement story... that is HILARIOUS! I totally remember that devotional - ironically that is when the boy I thought for sure was going to marry that summer, decided we were through. Thankfully for me it turns out!

Emily C said...

I WAS DEFINITELY THERE!! hahaha and perhaps was the photographer for that picture?? hahahahaha wouldn't it be fun to just go and relive one BYU year? i'm pretty sure that would be the year i'd relive, starting summer time at that hot house we lived in when we cut our sleeves on our t-shirts and went and saw fast and furious, and then i later (stupidly) wore the same sliced sleeved shirt on campus to pay a tuition bill and got a honor code warning. wah-wah- waaaaah....

Jessica said...

i LOVE that picture of you and thomas. i don't know if i've ever seen it before. you look so radiantly happy. :)

Will and Natalie Giddens said...

Such vivid storytelling! I feel like I was there! Wait a second...

One detail I don't remember though - was Thomas always planning on proposing that morning? Did y'all disagree the night before as a way to throw you off? Or was your blue highlighter note all the convincing he needed?

Thomas said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Thomas said...

The blue highlighter note had no effect on the process. I'm sure it was a great release for my dear wife, but I can't remember a thing about it.

Paula said...

I totally remember that night. I remember sitting on the floor as you hashed out the conversation. So did Thomas propose with your ring or a different ring and you went later to pick out your ring? Well 10 years later you are still putting up with each other and going strong. Congrats. (great talk-I remember it too)