You Know You're Lucky When....

You know you're a lucky girl when your future hubby:

• tells you everyday just how beautiful you are and how lucky he is to have you
• when you're having a rough day and you're trying to figure things out and you can hear him in the other room trying so hard, to play the hymn that you said has helped you through so much, on the piano
• when you're crying in the car and he pulls off the freeway just so he can only pay attention to you and focus on getting those tears to stop
• when you're walking through Walmart and looking at movies and he has a bunch he wants and without realizing for awhile, he's grabbing the ones you claim you love while he puts his back
• Sends you flowers while you're between 600 and 1800 miles away.
• Buys you dinner and has it sent to your house
• When you're staying at your aunt's house and you come out of the bathroom from getting ready and find that he made the bed that only you slept in
• When he has the greatest family that a girl could marry into
• when you don't have to worry about asking him something or stating your opinion because you know his will be the same or he'll listen and accommodate you in every way
• When he'll sit in the dressing room for over an hour just to help you pick one outfit, and doesn't complain one bit
• When he not only doesn't complain about doing wedding planning, but gets really excited for it
• When the only "arguments" you have are because you won't let him do what you want to do, and that's only because you want to do what he wants to do
• When he sings your favorite songs for you, even when they're out of his range
• When he sings to you just to make you smile, and will even sing poorly if that's what will do the trick
• When he makes you laugh like no one else can
• When he sends you a thousand texts in the morning just so you can wake up smiling
• When he drives several hours just to see you, almost EVERY weekend
• When you get to marry this amazing man in 87 days

You know you're a lucky girl when you realize that there are way too small things this guy does to post them all and when you realize that these small things show more love than "I love you" could ever say.

Surprises:)

If you know me well, you know I have a love/hate relationship with surprises. I love being on the receiving end, I hate anticipating them. I love thinking of surprises and planning them out, I hate having to keep them. As a matter of fact, I'm awful at keeping them. I sent Derek a package and wanted it to be a complete surprise. Not even two days later, I told him to be looking for something in the mail... awful I tell you, awful. I get too excited and I ruin it. EVERYTIME. Except this time:)

We said goodbye Friday night, June 1st. Saturday morning I flew out to Florida for my dad's wedding and I'd be home Monday and we weren't planning on meeting halfway until the next weekend, so two weekends from when we said goodbye. On Monday I realized I had Friday off, I really wanted to see him, I wanted to head out to Cali to meet his best friend and see where he grew up, so... without too much thought, I decided I was going. After a few text messages and acquiring the help of his oh-so-helpful-can't-imagine-how-I'd-do-this-without-her-sister Tiffany and his super cool best friend Brett, it was on. I was going to Cali! I booked my flights out there on Tuesday and had to sit and wait and be so careful about my words. I wasn't about to ruin this one! Although, I almost did. And the worst part, I almost did it on purpose, it was SO hard! BUT I managed to not only not tell him, but to also steer him in a completely different direction! I made him feel bad that we weren't meeting in Vegas that weekend and told him I'd be ok and that I'd just spend lots of time with my roommate and best friend. I thought I had done a great job until he started asking so many questions Friday morning! My flight was leaving at 2 and I started getting ready for all of it around 10... he asked me what I was doing... "Getting ready for the day", and hour later he asked what I was doing then... "cleaning my room" (lie), two minutes later he asked what I was doing after... "Hanging with my roommate" (lie), next question was what I was doing with her... "Seeing a movie" (lie). I thought for sure he was on to me. DANG it! So the plan was for Brett's brother and sis to pick me up from the airport and drive me back and I'd probably have a lot of time to just wait... didn't turn out to be the case. We were in the car for two and a half hours! But it was fun! We got there about 15 minutes before Derek did and we had to hurry and figure out our plan of action! We had so many different ideas and it wasn't until his car appeared in the driveway that we decided on one! I was going to hide in one of the bedrooms while they took Derek back to a bedroom in the back next to the family room. As he went back to the back and I quietly followed him, I began to freak out! I was so excited! I sat down on the edge of the couch and it seemed like he was in the bedroom for so long! Finally Brett's dad told him to come out and look at something. When he walked out he was smiling and laughing at something, but the second he saw me, his face dropped. Not exactly the response I was expecting. ( Later he explained that he was just so confused and had a hard time processing the fact that I was in his best friend's house:)) I ran to him and jumped into a big hug and then we sat on the couch while he processed what just happened. I loved it! I successfully pulled off a HUGE surprise! Afterwards we went and got dinner and played games and such for Brett's birthday. I loved meeting all the people Derek grew up with and watching home videos:) He then took me to where I was sleeping and we said goodnight. The next morning, we drove around everywhere and he showed me all of his schools and churches and we stopped and met old family friends. I absolutely loved seeing where he grew up, but it was so weird to think that he wasn't always in Utah. Afterwards we went to the big giant mall in Ontario... one of the craziest things I've ever seen! And then! We went to the beach! We went to Huntington Beach which is both of our favorites! The waves were huge! And so much fun! Hands down the best beach trip of my life! We drove back and hung out and played games and it was just so nice being in his arms again. He dropped me off with only a few hours until we had to be up again so I could catch my plane. Saying goodbye in the drop off lane at the airport was the hardest thing ever. My recommendation? Don't do it. You will cry the whole way in. That's what I did at least! But it was so worth it to spend the weekend in California with my man and see what his world was like when he was younger. Love that guy... more than words can say.

Our Story: Chapter 4.The Proposal

Monday, May 21, 2012 and I had no idea it was coming.

Background:
Like I said, we knew it was a matter of "when" and we'd talked about getting married, but whether or not it would happen while he was here the first time wasn't totally certain. I was with him every second up until he popped the question, so there was no way he'd already bought the ring. I wasn't sure when it was happening, and if you ask my roommate, I was too excited about it to think about it. I didn't want to be living on the edge of my seat expecting it. I just knew it wasn't going to be that day. She and I even talked about when it would happen THAT morning.

The Story:

We had had plans for several days to meet his sister Bec at Boondocks for lunch. We were meeting her at 10:30, I figured we'd eat lunch at 11. I didn't want to wait until 10 ish to see him so I asked if I could meet him earlier that morning. I showed up at 9:30, he'll probably tell you I was late, I probably was. So maybe it was 9:45. We quickly got in his car and he slowed down slightly like he just had an awesome idea and said "Hey, since we're early, do you wanna walk around Draper temple for a bit?" This was totally normal and I was really excited for it! It's our temple! We've both loved it since it started going up! We started driving up, and looking back, I should have known something was up, he got really quiet. As we were going through the roundabout up near the temple, Derek began to freak out about how he forgot to call Sergeant L. about being his assistant. He calls Sgt. L right then and I thought it was weird how informal he was being, but didn't think too much of it, I don't know how formality in the Air Force works ya know? He got off the phone, we parked, and began walking. We walked along the south wall of the temple, and when we reached the back, we stopped and stared at the valley. I figured we'd continue walking around and go down the steps, but he wasn't up for that. He quickly pulled me away and made me walk back the way we came. I was so confused and then, sticking out of one of the little alcoves, was a little round thing, and at the same moment I realized it was a camera, Derek was holding both of my hands and facing me. He dropped down on one knee after pulling that little black box out of his pocket, and all I remember was him telling me he wanted to spend forever with me and I remember him asking me to marry him, I don't even remember if I said "Yes", but I must have! I did, however, have a momentary happy freak out (if you've seen the video, you know what I mean;)). Afterwards, we hugged and he explained that his phone call with Sgt. L had actually been a phone call with Bec and Bec was recording it! I'm so grateful it's on film, that moment is so surreal and your head just spins and it's so hard to remember exactly what happened! We talked to Bec for a bit, snapped a few pictures, held the niece and nephew there, and then we were headed to Boondocks while I made lots and lots of phone calls:) It was so fun talking on the phone and telling the story over and over and sending pictures and holding hands and smiling bigger than I ever have! It was the best day of my life hands down! After we ate, we made stops at both of our moms' works to show them and his mom took me around to all of her coworkers which was so great and so fun! We then made the trip to Ogden for flow rider and made it on the news, on the day we got engaged:) so great! Afterwards, we saw a few friends on our way back home and that's the end of my favorite day:)

Our Story: Chapter 3.The BEST Two Weeks of My ENTIRE Life

I know the title sounds a little extreme, and it might be, but it's true. The two and a half weeks following the end of my last post were hands down, the GREATEST. Finally being with the man of my dreams was beyond wonderful. Except for those lame few mornings when he had to work, we spent basically every waking second together. My roommates never saw me and my room exploded because I would wake up super early and at the very last possible second, get ready in the dark, be with Derek all day long until the last possible second pretty late, and then I'd hit the pillow and be out. Then I'd repeat that same thing 6, and sometimes only even 5, hours later. It was nuts, but so worth it.

This next part is where I get really super sad that I'm awful at remembering to take pictures. I didn't take very many, and I'm so bummed! GOAL: (for life)- Take more pictures of everything! During our two and a half weeks together, we basically ran from one activity to the next, never really stopping to relax except for a few times. Here's a, hopefully complete but probably not complete (thank you technology for providing the edit post option because I'll need to add more later for sure), list of what we did:)

Not in chronological or even favorite order:

• Ate LOTS of In N Out- Good thing I love it, I had no idea it would be a staple in my diet one day;)
• Drove down to Ogden to do Flow Rider, TWICE. Only did Flow Rider once;) Made it on KSL news at the same time.
• Got caught in a HUGE rain storm at Hill Air Force base with his family. This is where pictures would have been great because all of us, drenched, running for what felt like forever, was hilarious. 
• Got ENGAGED (if ever there was an event worthy of it's own post, this one is it;))
• We had a big family BBQ with both of our families, which was SO fun!
• Had a Pizza date sans Skype!
• Played softball on my mom's team, and we played GREAT! well... he did. He hit it over the fence, I just caught a fly ball and got too excited and forgot that the game was still happening. 
• Registered at Target- let me tell you what. That stuff is a blast! But by the end, we were so dead!
• I nannied and he was my "manny":) We had fun with my kiddos and he was so great with them! They loved him! I'd walk in some mornings and without even saying hello they'd ask "Nessa, where's Derek?!?!" Loved it!
• This included lots of time on the trampoline and lots of pictures taken of the kids and their typical sleeping in the car poses.
• Spent tons of time with family! Watching movies, making dinner, going out to dinner, going to church, going for walks, laying in the hammock, playing football, chasing nieces and nephews, laughing, you name it. 
• Took engagement pictures! So fun! We took them in Mainstreet Park City and had balloons! Walking around with a huge bunch of balloons and a huge smile on your face does wonders for other's moods... I could tell:) 
• Went on a few great double dates! I met lots of his awesome friends and he met two of mine! Sorry for those that we didn't get to see:( there wasn't a lot of time! 

That's probably not even all, but that's what's coming to my head now.. Editing this post may just be necessary. 

I loved those two and a half weeks:)

Our Story: Chapter 2.Or So I Thought

So while we'd been skyping, we counted down to the day we'd actually meet, which was May 17, OR SO I THOUGHT. I was counting down the days until he was coming home and about two weeks before, my best friends Lexie and Hannah decided they wanted to go shopping at City Creek the Tuesday right before, May 15,  to find my outfit that I'd wear to meet him on Thursday. They picked me up, which should have been weird, and kinda was. And then we got to City Creek and slowly moved through the big department stores. They were going really slowly and wanted to look at everything. We left one big department store and as I was walking, Lexie and Hannah lagged behind slightly and as I turned to see why, they were whispering and sharing text messages. I got so bugged! Derek hadn't been texting me for several hours, not to mention he claimed he had 6 hours of briefings that morning, which I thought was bogus, and then he claimed he had 3 hours to text me, but didn't have time to charge his phone when it was going to die. I got really bugged at him too, so me and my temperamental self that day put my phone in my purse and got huffy and puffy at Hannah and Lexie. We then walked into Sephora and Lexie asked what was wrong, and I told her I was ticked that they were being all buddy buddy. So childish of me. Lexie just brushed it off, which made me more mad and almost demanded we go to H&M and said we had to find it by taking the downstairs route. We walked out and ran into her husband and as we turned around to start walking, out jumps Derek from the Restoration Hardware store! I looked at him once and thought, "no way" and then all of a sudden, he's running at me and picks me up in the biggest hug of my life! All I could say was "you're not supposed to be here!" good one ness, good one. I then introduced him to Lex and Alex and then they all left. We sat on this little rock outside the store and he explained everything to me, like how he tried calling me twice to get me to come out, BUT since I was mad, I didn't feel it in my purse so the girls had to do on the spot scheming. Thanks again girls:) We hugged so tightly sitting on that little rock. He kissed me then, the cutest and best kiss ever! And to be honest, I don't really remember much of what else was done or said on that cute little rock. He asked if I wanted to go to Tooele to see his fam and after I said yes, he told me he had no idea where the car was! So grabbing my hand, we ran and kissed, and ran some more trying to find our car in Downtown Salt Lake. Once he figured out kind of where we were, he swept me off my feet and ran, with me in his arms, all the way to the parking garage, and then... a bit more kissing happened;) driving out to Tooele, all I could said say was "you're home!", I really don't remember saying much more than that, maybe some "I love you"s? I was still in shock. It was so great to be with him while being with his fam. I had spent a lot of time with them, met almost all of them, without him there. Definitely not normal, but they took me in and I loved it! After his sisters party, we decided to leave and we were starving! So we got Carl's jr and since it was so late, we had to eat it on the curb! So fun! We drove back to my place and saying goodbye was so hard! Maybe one of the hardest goodbyes I've ever done! He was home! He was all mine! I didn't want to leave his side, not for a second.  But that night started THE BEST TWO AND A HALF WEEKS OF MY ENTIRE LIFE.

Our Story: Chapter 1.The Beginning:)

Our story is a different one, but I wouldn't trade it for any other story. It kinda started 2 years ago, give or take a few months, probably more take than give however, when his sister Tiffany wanted to set us up. I'm friends with Tiffany's sister in law, Hannah and that's how I met Tiffany. Derek was still on his mission at that point and I was dating someone else when he came home, so neither of us knew about this potential set up.

Fast forward a few months, to Septemberish 2011. Hannah was tagged in a picture by somebody I'd never heard of, so what do I do? I did what I do best, and Facebook stalked said person ( not once, not twice, maybe not even just 4 times) and boy, was he cute! (still is by the way;))  I considered asking Hannah to set us up, but failed to do so.

Fast forward to April 2, 2012 when I get an excited voicemail from Hannah saying she wanted to set me up and to call her back. I didn't get it until later that night so I texted her and she sent back "Derek Kramer" and I knew exactly who that was:) I knew it was Tiff's brother and I knew I wanted a date! She explained that he was in the Air Force and was in Mississippi at tech school until the middle of May. Yikes. She said he'd be up for getting to know me before though. I thought "why not?"

He texted me the next day and we texted for a few days after that until we decided we should probably Skype. Skype is scary. I'd never done it before, so I chickened and WITHOUT lying, told him I had to figure Skype out, but could we chat on the phone? We did just that:) and talked for hours! And then the dreaded day of Skype came... Turned out not to be an issue:) and Skype quickly became my favorite iPhone app. We texted and talked on the phone every weekday after he had class and then would Skype every weekday night for about an hour. Weekends were a different story. Friday and Saturday nights consisted of Skype dates that lasted between 6 and 11 hours, non stop. Time would fly so fast and I had no idea so much time had passed! Derek was so cute and thought of having pizza dates over Skype. So he'd order my pizza over the super cool new online ordering tools and then he'd order his and they'd get there about the same time:) dinner dates from 1,800 miles away? Not impossible;) I loved those weekly pizza dates. We became best friends and talked about anything and everything. At first, I was so skeptical about it all- he'd only be in Utah for 2 and a half weeks before being stationed in Cali for several years, it was military, it was starting over Skype- I was ready to tell him it wasn't going to work. But it didn't take long for me to realize that it didn't matter if this guy was sent to Cali, Florida, Italy, Japan, or the space station in outer space, I wanted to be with him. It didnt take long for us to realize it was a question of "when" we'd get married instead of an "if." We didn't need to be together physically to know that we had something special. He was made for me and he makes me so happy. We joke that we're the same person because we have the same tastes, music taste, ideas, views, and preferences that it's almost scary. However, we have a FEW distinct differences that make life fun, for example: he likes hot sauce on EVERYTHING, the way we say the names of freeways (he claims it's "THE 80" when everybody clearly knows its "I-80", and he loves it when I slip and say "the";) be strong Nes!), and he likes top sheets (this will change, I promise). He's the most amazing, kind, gentle, honest, and loving person I have ever met and I don't know how I survived without him. I am the luckiest girl to be his future Mrs I tell ya what! It's crazy, it's fast, but as my mom said "you never know how you'll meet the man who will turn your life upside down." and he has surely done that! I'll gladly keep him:)