Do you want to hear a love story?

We made it! (of course we made it) The supposedly hardest first year of marriage has been completed and we're beggin' for more! After a year we still feel like Newlyweds.

Most of you don't really know the story of how we fell in love, and how we knew we should be together. In commemoration of our first anniversary, I've decided to share with you what I consider to be a gem of a love story. (I'll omit the mushy details for the sake of my male readers.)

Last summer ( '07) I was having a blast in the student ward. I had lots of fun with my friends, I was dating some really fun guys, and you know...generally having a lot of fun. Chris had seen me at the student ward and, as he would say, "he could never find me to introduce himself after church." However, as he was living with his parents for the summer, his mother says it was slightly more dramatic than that. She told me about how every Sunday for two months they would hold their breath waiting for him to come home to see if he'd worked up the nerve to talk to "that girl" he saw at church, and every Sunday he would come home disappointed because he hadn't.

In June, my friend Denae Crowley was looking for someone to play a musical number in sacrament meeting for the Stake presidency. She knew I played the cello and asked me if I would put something together for the next week. Now, I don't know if you're aware of this, but there is not much that I dread more than playing for an audience...especially in church. This time though, I was actually pretty excited about it. I was playing a duet with my friend Andrew who is an incredible musician (which could explain why I didn't mind so much).

After we were finished playing (which was gorgeous by the way, should have been recorded) I was standing talking with my friend Christine and Kelly, and Chris came up to us to say hello to Kelly. (I found out later that he had asked Kelly to go talk to me so he could come up and talk to her and she would introduce him...smooth) Anyways, when he came to talk to us, Kelly and Christine got "distracted" by someone across the room and left Chris to talk to me. The conversation literally went as follows:

"Hi, I'm Chris"

"Hi I'm Whitney"

"You did great today"

"Thanks"

"So what was it that you played"

"Oh, it's an old hymn. Come thou Fount of Every Blessing." (I found out later that he was actually asking what instrument I played... Silly boy)

"Oh... You know, I'd really like to get to know you. Could I get your number and take you out next week?"

Now I don't know what it was like when any of you were dating, but this was a total jaw dropper to me. Guys didn't just ask you out like that. Oh no, that was far too simple. There's an epidemic of "hanging out" for months before there's a possible first date. So naturally, I gave him my number and told him I'd like to go out with him that weekend.

Mom and dad were in Michigan for 10 days, so when I got home I called Mom and told her about Chris. I think I told her it was kind of odd, but I liked that he was obviously interested in me. (Chris told me later that when his parents asked if he had talked to me that day, he was horrified at his conversation with me and he was convinced I probably thought he was such a dork...silly boy)

So, the weekend was soon, and Chris called me on Thursday and asked if I would go out with him the next evening. I worked till 10:00 every night, so I told him we'd have to do it some other time. He told me that 10:00 wasn't too late, and we'd just go out for a bite. I was trying to get out of it, but he was persistant. So Friday 10:00 rolls around and I'm nasty, tired, and sweaty from my job which is basically an 8 hour work out, and I head over to meet him at Applebee's. We eat some grub and talk. I thought he was kind of a nerd, but then again so am I. (Did I mention I love nerds? They're the sweetest). We had a lot of fun talking so he asked me if I wanted to go back to his house and play some games. I figured why not, and don't tell Mom and dad, but we were out till 4:00 just laughing and playing. I really wasn't that interested, but I thought he was fun.

The next Sunday at church he said hello and talked to me during Sunday school. He knew I was by myself because Mom and Dad were still in Michigan, and it was Father's Day, so he invited me to the picnic his family was having. I felt a little akward intruding on his family event but everyone was really nice. We stayed out on the front lawn goofing around all night again and when he walked me to the car and said goodnight, he was about to shut my door and he popped his head in and said "Oh yeah, you have the most beautiful eyes I've ever seen...How'd you do that?" Cheesy, but cute. You gotta admit.

On his mission, Chris had been given these little medallions that had his mission seal on them. They were awards for...doing really well...I guess. Anyways, he had been given a few of them, and he gave one to me to keep on my key chain. On one of my favorite dates with him, he took me to go star-gazing (One of my very favorite things.) He brought a little mini grill to roast marshmellows, and he had gotten me an astronomy book with all the constellations. I was so impressed! Keep in mind that at this time, I'm still dating other guys because I'm NOT interested in doing the whole boyfriend/girlfriend thing. One day though, I had an unexpected day off (something about it being illegal to do 16 hour shifts in the health field...) so I had a whole day to myself, and do whatever...but all I wanted to do was be with Chris. That's when I knew that I should probably stop dating other guys and see what could happen with me and him.

So he was working two jobs at the time, and I was working as a CNA and taking classes at the same time. Not a ton of time to be together but we managed. One day, we had a miraculous day off TOGETHER, so we decided to make good on the time we had. We got up to watch the sunrise, and ended up spending 21 hours together. Funny part was it was still hard to say goodnight.

We'd been dating for a few months, spending every spare second we could together, and were completely head over heels for each other. Chris and I had talked about marriage a little, but I really wasn't interested in being that serious because I was way too young, I had too much I wanted to do, blah blah blah. Nevertheless, Chris was persistant. He asked me to marry him, and I told him "I don't know." He was fine with that. He told me I could have all the time I needed to decide, as long as he knew that I was thinking about it. Well, I noticed that I would talk to him about marriage more, and what it would be like to be married, and fun things we would do once we were married, blah blah blah, so I knew that I couldn't just keep dating him and making him wait.

I've always known, though, that I should pray about marriage, even if I know that it's what I want. I needed to know that it was what God had in mind for me, and I couldn't give him a definate yes or no until I had that answer. He had already been to the temple about it and had gotten his answer and he was so patient waiting for me to do the same. I procrastinated praying about it because I was so freaked out by the thought of being a WIFE! I was just a kid for heaven's sake!

Well, Chris and I decided that we would set a day aside to fast and pray about whether or not marriage was the right step for us right now. He was out of town that day, but we still decided that every two hours we would stop and say a quick prayer. We started our fast at 10:00, and I went upstairs to my room to pray. I wasn't praying to ask if Chris was "the one." I don't believe that there is a "one and only." I just wanted to know if it was the right time, if we could make each other happy, if I could become the person God wanted me to be with Chris, if we would be the family that God needed us to be. While I was praying, I opened my eyes and noticed that my keys were on my bed. That kind of surprised me because I always left them downstairs on the table. I got distracted from my prayer (obviously) and picked them up. I looked at the medallion Chris had given me, and I turned it over to the back side. I'd never really looked at it before, but on the other side, there is a heart with the phrase "Strive for perfection" engraved inside of the heart. That's when I knew I should marry Chris.

Now, not that it was a "sign" or anything. I was just so worried because I was so young and this was the biggest and most important decision of my life and I wanted so much to marry someone who would be my partner in putting God first in our lives, and in being wonderfully in love forever, and always helping each other be a little better. When I saw the medallion, I just felt so much peace. I knew that it would be the motto of our marriage. That together with our love for eachother, we would always "Strive for Perfection." I knew that I should marry Chris, and I knew that I would be so, so happy.

And when you know...why wait.

He proposed officially in October. He drove me to the highest mountain in Island Park, where you can see the Northern Lights on a clear night. He took me star-gazing with roasted marshmellows...my favorite date. He even brought along the astronomy book he gave to me before (stolen from my room for him by my roommates) Unfortunately, we got stuck in the snow on the way up to the peak, so we settled for someplace farther down the mountain. He asked me to look up Cassiopea in my astronomy book (My favorite constellation because it's shaped like a W and it's named "The Queen of the Sky.") On the page about Cassiopea, he had typed up a story about how the very normal "King Cepheus" (...silly boy) met the beautiful "Queen Cassiopea" and how they'd fallen in love, how he took her to the mountains one evening to look at the stars, and how he had brought a small token of his love to give her as he got on one knee to ask a very important question...

I'm still in love with that...silly boy.

And the rest-- as they say-- is history.