Our engagement

So to continue our story...

Scott and I went to Modesto to visit his family on Memorial Day weekend. The first day, we got in a little late and went to his sister's house and met the family. They were so nice and I felt like I fit in right away. It was very loud and exciting with 9 of Scott's 10 nieces and nephews showing us their favorite dance moves.

The next morning, Scott and I got up early to ride "Bart" into San Francisco and spend a day in the city. I had been wanting to go to San Francisco ever since I had flown over it on the way to Hawaii a few years earlier, so I was very excited.

We started the day out on the wharf, where Scott took me to get his favorite crab sandwiches and clam chowder (in a sourdough bowl of course). After that, we wandered around through the shops. We got a little seashell mobile from this awesome seashell shop and decided we would have a seashell bathroom (it is hanging up in there now!). It had been abnormally chilly in Modesto and San Francisco is usually a little cold in the morning so we had coats on. Scott was wearing a huge black coat. I was carrying mine and asked him if he wanted me to carry his once it warmed up, but he continued to wear it even though it was getting very warm. That should have been my first warning...

After walking around on the wharf, we went to Ghirardelli Square - probably my most anticipated event of the day! We got a delicious caramel ice cream sundae and I was in heaven. I wanted to buy some chocolate to take with me from the shop, but Scott was in a hurry. We had tickets to see Wicked at 2:00, and it was 12:30, so I wasn't sure why he was in such a rush, but when he suggested that we walk by the ocean, I wasn't too suspicious. I had told him earlier that I wanted to walk by the ocean if we had time, so I thought he was just making time to do that. However, it was much more than just humoring my idea!

We walked down a bit pier that curved around. There were lots of people fishing and running. As we slowly walked down, I started to feel more and more nervous. One second I thought he was going to propose, and the next I would tell myself, No, I don't think he is going to do it right now. We looked out at the ocean once we got to the end of it and talked for a while. I was just enjoying the moment and thinking it was very romantic even though he wasn't proposing. Scott suddenly said, "Look, can you see the Oakland temple?" I couldn't and told him. He said, "Oh, I think it's right there! Can you see that glint of light?" I still couldn't see it. He said, "Just keep looking!" and at that moment I could feel his heart beating really fast (he was standing behind me). He knelt down and proposed and obviously, I said yes! We were very lucky because a lady running offered to take some pictures of us. I was so happy and couldn't stop giggling - I was glad I wasn't a crying mess, because that is what I would have expected of myself. It was the perfect, romantic setting, but more than anything I was just happy I was with Scott.

After our romantic proposal, we had to rush to get to Wicked! We took a trolley to the theater while I called my family members to tell them what had happened. Wicked was absolutely amazing but I couldn't help getting distracted by my ring. It felt like everything was too good to be true - seafood, Wicked, Ghirardelli Square AND eternity all in one day?

After Wicked, we were picked up by Scott's dad to go to a Giant's game with the whole family. We hadn't told any of Scott's family that we were engaged because we wanted to surprise them (although Scott's dad knew that we were planning on getting married). We got to the game first and I got more and more nervous as we waited for his sisters and their families to show up. They had only met me less than 24 hours ago and I was worried that they wouldn't like that we got engaged so quickly after meeting them. I was trying to hide my hand once they did show up until I could work up the courage to flash the diamond and hear the surprised screams. Scott's dad even told Jenna, Scott's niece, to look at my hands but all she noticed was that my nails were painted. :) When Scott's sister asked what we did that day, Scott gave the list and then grabbed my hand and held it up. Cue surprised screams. But they were excited ones too. :) And to top it all off the Giants won - by a lot (but I can't remember how much... Scott could probably tell you). And that was the best day of my life up to that point.

quote of the day

Lorren: You're kissing me to death!
Scott: Wouldn't that be a great death?

Dating

Ok, I'm going to switch to first person now. Haha.

Scott asked me to be his girlfriend on December 11, 2009. This date was also significant because it was a reading day. While I'm very glad I started dating Scott, I would not recommend starting a relationship during finals week. It is very hard to focus on studying when you are excited about dating someone! The next day was also a reading day. We spent the day apart and then went for Scott's favorite dessert at Applebees, the maple butter blondie. Then we went to a park and talked for a while, then we went and played smurf with some friends. Everyone thought Scott had already kissed me, and so that was a theme of the night. They were all very surprised when Scott asked me if I had "smurfed" that day and I said no. A little later he dropped me off and went home. But about fifteen minutes later (after I'd already changed into my pajamas) he asked if he could come back over because he forgot to give me something. I already knew exactly what was up. A few weeks earlier, Scott had been looking at my "bucket list" and seen that being kissed under the mistletoe was on it. When he knocked on the door, I looked up and sure enough, there was mistletoe hanging there. He told me he wanted to help me out with my bucket list and kissed me. He was so cute and so pleased with himself. :) He was even cute when he tripped as he walked away.

A few days later we separated for the Christmas break but we talked on the phone every couple of days, a couple of times holding out because we hoped the other would call first! I was very happy when I opened my suitcase because Scott had put a mix CD in there when I wasn't looking, full of romantic or funny songs that seemed to fit in perfectly with our relationship.

When we came back our dating was really able to begin. I always appreciated that Scott made an effort to plan creative dates and ask me on them. Some of the favorites were making painting on canvases, making edible peanut butter play dough, "Italian night" when we made me delicious spaghetti carbonara and then took me to the International Cinema for an Italian movie, and the festival of colors at Spanish Fork. While the dating was a lot of fun, I was very freaked out by the idea of marriage. Scott made no secret of the fact that it was on his mind, but he also didn't push me to talk about it. He told me he was as ready as I wanted to be, and I told him I was NOT ready!

In early March we both participated in the Rex Lee Run. This was a particularly special experience for Scott because he ran in honor of his mom, who passed away from cancer 8 years ago. However, about a mile into the race, I was in extreme pain due to that too-familiar monthly visitor. I tried to keep running, but it was so bad that I had to sit down for several minutes. I felt bad and told Scott that he could keep running. I didn't want to ruin his special race. But he stayed with me until I felt better. At the end, he wanted to run faster and I didn't, so I told him I didn't mind if he went on ahead. He said, "I've gone this far with you, I'm not going to leave you now!" That was one of the first moments when I thought that I could possibly marry him.

A few other changes also had to take place before I was ready to marry Scott. I had been planning on going to pharmacy school pretty solidly. I had gone through most of my undergrad education and figured that I probably wouldn't be married by the time I graduated, so I thought, why not pursue higher education? However, as things got more serious with Scott I wondered if my academic goals were compatible with my eternal goals of marriage and a family. I also started to think about the financial realities of going to pharmacy school. I shadowed a pharmacist and found myself envying the nurses as we rounded with the doctors. After talking to my roommates (who were nursing majors) and some other personal experiences, I decided to change my post-graduation plans and apply for a spot in U of U's accelerated nursing program (It is a fourteen month program where if you already have a bachelor's degree you can quickly complete another for a BSN). It was a very hard decision and it freaked me out (even though I knew it was the right one) and so I couldn't think about marriage for another several weeks.

However, there came a point where I knew that I felt how I wanted to feel. I was still really scared (and continued to be really scared up until we got married) but I knew that Scott fulfilled every hope I could have for a husband and that I felt strongly enough about him to be in love with him for the rest of my life. I wasn't sure what to do once I came to this realization because he knew I was freaked out about marriage and was hesitant to bring it up. One Saturday morning after going to the Provo Farmer's Market, after hugging me for a long time I asked him what he was thinking about. I felt his heart start beating really fast and he said, "I want to marry you, Lorren." I felt so happy and said, "I think I want to marry you too but I'm not sure how to be sure about it!" But we started taking steps forward. He asked if I wanted to go ring shopping before or after we visited his family in California (a trip that had been planned for a while and was coming up in a couple of weeks) and I freaked out. But a few days later I told him I was ready to go ring shopping. We did and it was super weird and super fun. I wanted to try my ring on again so bad but Scott wouldn't let me see it. Then we went to California... and I was left wondering if we would end up engaged at the end of the trip or not!

To be continued of course!

How We Met

But first... quote of the day!

Scott: I'm cold.
Lorren: Is that why you're wearing socks?
Scott: No. I was going to put shoes on because it makes me more productive.

And now, the story.

Once upon a time, Lorren had to do her visiting teaching, but when she went to her teachee, Kellie's, apartment, she was informed that Kellie was not there but was in fact playing games with some new guys in the BYU 138th ward who lived in apartment D213. Lorren and her visiting teaching companion decided to just stop by for a few minutes because Lorren had been out of town for 3 weeks and they would not be able to visit Kellie at any other time. Kellie was a good sport about it and came outside for a few minutes. She told Lorren and April about how she had a big crush on one of the boys inside, Steve. Lorren and April felt guilty for interrupting the evening and let Kellie get back to playing games.

Unfortunately, when Lorren returned to her apartment, she found that her roommates had left to go hot-tubbing at Glenwood. Lorren did not have keys with her and was not sure what to do, so she went back to apartment D213 and asked if she could play games with Kellie, Steve, and Steve's roommate.

The game was Scattergories and Steve and Kellie were enjoying the competition. Steve's roommate, Scott, was sad because he could not remember very many
good words in English because he had recently returned from a mission to Italy. At the end of the night, Lorren and Kellie went back to Kellie's apartment to wait for Lorren's roommates to come back from their hot-tubbing adventure. Kellie asked Lorren if she thought Scott was cute. Lorren said yes because she liked his glasses.Throughout the summer, Lorren would occasionally hang out with Kellie's group of friends. Kellie and Steve started officially dating, and so the group always included Steve and his roommate Scott. Lorren began to notice that Scott was very fun but also a very deep thinker. She liked the way he took important things seriously and wasn't ashamed to analyze the meanings of deep things. She also enjoyed being at dance parties with him because he was a crazy awesome dancer. However, she was a little distracted because she was dating the wrong boy. A few weeks later when the wrong boy broke up with her, she hung out with Kellie, Steve, and Scott and they tried to cheer her up. Steve told her that she should date Scott and she laughed it off because she was tired of dating. However, she did think Scott was cooler than anybody else she hung out with that summer. Unfortunately, on one of the last nights of the summer, they all went to a movie and Scott put his arm around another girl. Even though she couldn't explain to herself exactly why, Lorren was annoyed by this and hoped that the relationship wasn't too serious.
The fall semester started and Lorren dated another wrong boy. She also was put on service council, which Scott was the council chair of. Lorren also wanted to start a kickball team, and Scott helped her put it together and became the team captain. As they spent more time together, they became better friends. When the wrong boy was out of the picture, Scott and Lorren had a long talk about relationships and why dating was frustrating. Lorren suggested that they do something fun together to get their minds off their dating situations, and Scott invited her to watch the clean flicks version of Slumdog Millionairethat evening with a big group of friends. Lorren had a great time and couldn't remember the last person she had that much fun with. Still, she didn't want to have a relationship due to the tumultuous summer of dating wrong boys.

A few weeks later, Lorren got sick with the swine flu. Scott came over and brought her hot chocolate and they talked about music and personality tests. After a few evenings of "hanging out" they asked each other to go to BYU's acoustic night (it really was a simultaneous asking... kind of funny). After that, Scott took Lorren out amost every weekend. Her feelings for him kept growing, especially after sh learned more about his life and his testimony. They started spending more time together to plan the Sub for Santa auction, a big activity held by the service council.

One of the items being auctioned off was dinner with Lorren's apartment. At the auction, Scott got in a bidding war with someone and ended up buying the dinner for $80. At this point, Lorren started to feel like maybe it was time to move from being just friends. However, she was very nervous about dating someone exclusively. She and Scott went on a couple more dates and then one very cold night when they had been studying together at the library past midnight, Scott held Lorren's hand. A few days later, on a ward temple trip, Scott asked Lorren to be his girlfriend officially on a bench in Temple Square, surrounded by falling snow and the Christmas lights. Lorren said yes.
To be continued!!

Quote of the day

I think this is an appropriate way to start the chronicle of our life together:

Scott: You are my wonderful waffle-batter-eating princess queen wife adorable person.