...of wedded bliss. And on Friday, it will be one thousand eight hundred and twenty six. Five years!! A little early for the post, but Jake has the camera with the pictures for the post I intended to write, so you'll have to wait for that. Instead, I'm going to write about me. Shameless narcissism. Most of you reading this already know our story, but I'm writing it down our posterity. And for the lurkers. And because I like talking about myself.
Jake and I met 6 1/2 years ago. I was in my last semester at BYU. He came over to my house with some of his friends to hang out with my roommate, Jenn, whom he worked with. My cousin, Jeff, had told me he had a roommate that he wanted to set me up with, but nothing had come of it. When I met Jake, I put two and two together, and realized this was the roommate. Anyway, the first thing I noticed about Jake was his eyes. He has very soulful, kind of sad-puppy-dog eyes. Wyatt has the same eyes. The second thing I noticed was that he had a sense of humor. He demonstrated for the group at our house that day, how one does "the booty walk," which from his demonstration consists of convulsing legs and shaking your bum from side to side, while trying not to fall over. I'm still not sure what it was SUPPOSED to look like. But I figured any guy who can make himself look like that in front of a bunch of girls he has just met, must have a good sense of humor, and doesn't take himself too seriously. For my part, I did my best to flirt with him and convince him to ask me out. The result of which was, he never called and asked me out. A few weeks later, I asked Jenn to try and convince him to. She worked her magic, and we had a date shortly thereafter.
Jake picked me up for our first date in his truck with the Texas plates, with a little cowboy hat hanging from the rearview mirror, and country music blaring from the speakers. That was unexpected. I had no idea he was from Texas. I assumed since he was BFF with my surfer-dude cousin, he would be...not such a cowboy. It was a nice surprise. We went to "El Salvador," a restaurant serving food from...El Salvador, which is where Jake served his mission. Gold star for Jake. I love trying new food so that was a hit with me. OK, like every other girl I have ever met, I had a mental list tucked into my subconscious titled something like "stuff about my future husband." As we got to know each other on that first date, I felt like I was mentally going down the list, checking off one item, then the next, then the next. At one point I started to laugh to myself, because it seemed like every thing on the list got checked off! After our lunch, Jake took me skeet-shooting. I had never shot a gun in my like, and now this was part of the date? Hmm. Not the best way to impress this guy who I was developing a big crush on, but oh well. Well, it turns out I am a really good shot. I hit the first five targets, and then turned the gun over to Jake. He was duly impressed. Although, trust me, no one was more impressed by this than me. I am somewhat lacking in the athleticism department, so the fact that I was successful at anything requiring eye-hand coordination is still shocking to me.
After our first date, I knew I was going to marry Jake. While we were eating lunch I kept trying to get that thought out of my head, but I just couldn't shake it. I thought that I was surely jinxing everything by allowing myself to even consider the notion. But after our second date, I was absolutely sure. I came home and told my roommates what I knew. There were several sets of raised eyebrows, and "um, sure, ok" type reactions.
Well, we kept on dating and kept on dating. Jake did not receive the same early-warning notification that I did, so we kept on dating. Looking back, I realize that I needed that assurance from the beginning. I had been through some complicated dating situations, and was pretty cynical and non-commital at that point in my life. I truly believe the Holy Ghost was telling me I needed to be serious about this, give things a chance, and see it through to the end. I did.
Almost a year later, Jake and I went skeet-shooting one morning. He asked me to bring him a new box of shells. I did. Then another. I did. Finally, I saw what he was really asking me to bring. There was a ring box. I brought that over to him, he got on his knee and proceeded to make me laugh, like he has always been so good at.
"Erin, the day I met you, you shot a slug through my heart. I want you to be my cowgirl and ride off into the sunset with me. Will you marry me?" Or something to that effect. I was laughing and crying so I don't remember all the details. ***Jake wants everyone to know that these lines were delivered tongue-in-cheek. Said to make me laugh. Just in case you couldn't tell.***
I said yes.
We were married March 19, 2005, sealed for time and all eternity in the Fresno, California temple. It was raining that day. It was the happiest day of my life.
Jake is a wonderful husband. He is a wonderful father. He still makes me laugh every single day. I love him and I love being married to him. Happy fifth anniversary to us!
