Background - My husband

Spencer moved to my neighborhood when we were both in Jr High. It was a good thing we didn't meet until 2 weeks before we graduated from high school or I am pretty sure he wouldn't be my husband now. We were so different back then, what am I saying, we are so different now, but the time was right that we were able to make things work.






















We were both in AP Chemistry classes our Senior year of high school and at the end of the school year they did a field trip to Lagoon (the local amusement park). I think we were supposed to do some sort of ride the rides and write a paper about how science was involved, but really it was just a day off school that we got to go to an amusement park with friends, no parents.

Somehow all through high school Spencer and I had been friends with the same friends and never met. There were 8 of us riding rides together which was perfect because some rides you had to ride 2 together. I, unfortunately have horrible motion sickness and after riding a few rides I was getting more than a little queasy. I decided to sit the next extremely fast loopy gut wrenching ride out. Spencer having grown up going to "much better" (his words) amusement parks decided to sit the ride out too. I was so grateful for his company. I hated holding the others back, but I didn't think I could handle one more twist, turn, or bump. The rest of the day we talked, we made fun of our friends for their horrible sunburns, laughing that neither of us was burned at all. I had no idea that he was painfully shy. I guess I must have taken the lead in our conversation, but he was so easy to talk to, funny, just an all around nice guy.

On the bus ride back to school we were talking about a party that was at our English teachers house that night. Spencer didn't have enough gas to go because he was going skydiving the next day and had a major gas guzzling car. So I offered for him to come to the party with me. By that evening I think we were the two that were the most sunburned and the tables were turned.

After graduation Spencer moved out to California to work to earn money for his mission. I didn't even know that he had gone until after he was back. We weren't really friends or anything, he didn't have any reason to tell me he was leaving. We hadn't even been on a date. After working in a factory for 3 months making windows he had had enough and moved back to Utah.

The week after he was back, our friend (one of the people that we went to Lagoon with) invited us both and a few other friends to an institute dance at the University of Utah. Honestly, it was the lamest dance I have ever been to. We sat out in the foyer and parking lot for a lot of it. My friend (who was a senior in High School that year) had come with me and she was disappointed that she hadn't danced a single dance so I asked Spencer if he would ask her to dance, just one dance. The entire way home my friend talked about what a nice guy he was, how cute he was, just how great. A few weeks later there was a Halloween dance at her school and she really wanted to go, and she really wanted to ask Spencer. So I found a date and she took Spencer and I went with my friend who had invited us to the institute dance.


Spencer and my friend are both so shy they didn't have a lot to say to one another. They had fun, mostly because we had devil costumes and the two guys were having a dual with their pitchforks the entire evening, but they didn't really click. I on the other hand thought he was smart, and funny, and easy to be around.

Two days later my cousin (who was also a senior in high school at the time) called me trying to find someone to go on a double date with her. Her parents had a very strict rule of no single dating while they were in high school. That week was called "Wacky Women's Week" at their school and the girls were supposed to ask guys on dates I think it was every day and there was a them for each day. She had gotten up the courage and asked a guy that she really liked but her friends weren't able to go the day that he was. I made a few calls and had no luck. Finally I called Spencer and asked him what he was doing the next night. He told me that he was sleeping. I told him that sleep was highly overrated and that he should come with me.

The theme for that night was something like "Grandparents and Games" I THINK. All I know is that we went to my Grandparents house and they showed Spencer and my cousin's date all sorts of old pictures of us, we played domino's then went to my cousins house for dinner. We ate dinner on the floor at the coffee table (I am not sure if that was part of the wacky women's week or not). That was probably one of the best dates I had ever been on.

On the way home from my cousin's house we started talking and I was telling Spencer about this old car that we were selling. My parents had an old 1983 (I think) Dodge Colt, think Geo Metro they let us drive it while we were in high school but after we graduated we had to get our own car. They had a few years before my younger sister would need one so they were selling this one and would get another when they needed it. I had just bought my first car, a candy-apple red Chevy S-10 pickup. I had been adamant that I wanted a truck. I had always tried to be tough, and to me a truck was tough, even a tiny wannabe truck like that.

Spencer came over and talked to my parents about it and decided to buy it. He was getting 8 miles per gallon in the car he had and this one got 30-35 miles per gallon. When he bought it I told him that it smoked so he had to be sure to add an oil additive to it so that it would pass emissions, I even left a bottle of it in the trunk for him. He thought that meant that I had added it. The next day he called me at work cussing that it hadn't passed emissions. I was so angry I thought he was so rude and such a jerk. I asked him if he had added the oil additive and told him if he didn't want the car to just bring it back. That night I told my parents if I never saw him again it would be too soon!

Background - Growing up

I was the world's biggest geek growing up. Thick glasses, retainers and everything. I am glad that I didn't realize until I was older what a geek I was. I may have been scarred for life, now I just look back and laugh. Probably because I am still a geek and just don't realize it.

In a large family you always have instant friends, so I always had someone to play with. I have 4 sisters and 1 brother, and we have so much fun together. I am the second oldest, one older sister, me, then two sisters after me then little brother then one more sister. I would have to say that I talk to my sisters more than any other friends. Maybe it's because I truly am a geek and don't realize it, but I love talking to them. Who else can you call at 11:00 at night because your husband is still at work and you are scared?? (Thanks Warwa, love you!) They are some of my best friends.

I grew up in a pretty normal middle class life growing up. But really what is normal? Nothing truly extraordinary or catastrophic. We have lots of silly stories to tell and as I think of some I'll have to share. With 5 girls in one house there was a lot of silliness. My poor brother didn't have a fighting chance, he was so picked on. Even now he fears his sisters. (I think that's probably wise with all the tormenting he endured.)

I think we were all a challenge for my parents in different ways. My older sister never really pushed the boundaries and I tried as hard as I could to stretch them as far as possible without getting in too much trouble. I loved collecting friends in High School, my mom would always comment that I didn't really fit into a group. I brought a few friends in from each group, which made for some rather interesting parties. I guess I didn't realize that you were supposed to pick a group a stick to it. There were so many great people in all of them, how could I choose just one? I was always looking out for the underdog, because I had always been somewhat of an underdog, I knew how it felt, and didn't want anyone to feel left out. That is how I made a few of my best friends.

The summer between 6th and 7th grade a new family moved into our neighborhood. They had three daughters and a son. The oldest was my age. The first time we met she told us that they had moved something like 10 times so far in her life. To me this was unfathomable. I had lived in the same house since I was about 3 months old. She was very reserved, and didn't like to make friends because they wouldn't be there for long, they never were. All summer I tried so hard to become her friend. By the end of the summer we were inseparable. We would ride the same bus to and from school, after school we would get off the bus, and pretty much spend the rest of the afternoon together. I think she was my first "Best Friend." Every weekend we would have sleepovers and it was so nice to have someone you could be silly with, talk about guys with, and share your deepest darkest secrets.

They lived there a little longer than most places. They stayed all through Jr High then the summer between 9th and 10th grade they moved to California. I was so sad I thought I would never have a friend like her. Through the years we have kept in touch, I don't think it will ever be the same, but hope that we will be friends forever.






























After High School I had no idea what I wanted to do. I had taken a dental assisting class my Senior year of High School and I was working in a dental office, and was happy with that. The week that classes started at the community college I decided that I wanted to go to school. I had enjoyed working in dental field, so I decided to go into dental hygiene. After taking 3 semesters of classes, I found out that the wait to get into the hygiene program was about 2 years. When I learned this I became very discouraged. I took a semester off and decided that I wanted to go to school for cosmetology instead. I found a cosmetology school in the area (International Institute of Hair Design) and started going to classes in the evenings. I was still working at the dental office during the day. I had been moved to front office (receptionist type position) when the two front office women just didn't come back to work after our Christmas break.