and the saga continues...

After my trip to the farm we headed back to "normal" life in Rexburg. Well, as normal as a life can with including things like testing centers, chastity lines, milk cartons with names written on them, and 'Boys Out'.

Side note: Have you ever noticed that all of the apartment complexes in Rexburg are named after samething that Rexburg doesn't have??? Ex: Autumn Winds, Birch, Arbor Cove, Pineview....you get my point.

Anyways, I was heading back to Minnesota that fall to work...needed money bad. The day before I was leaving, Ty helped me pack all of my stuff up that I would be taking home and we headed back to Arimo. I was taking the shuttle down to the airport from a little town near where his family was. We stayed up all night just talking. I didn't really know what this all ment but aparently we were breaking up.

We headed to the shuttle in the morning....it sucked. When the van started to pull away and Ty was waving goodbye from the parking lot, I thought I had swallowed my heart. I couldn't say I loved him at that point or anything but I knew I thought he was pretty groovy. I think I spent that whole trip trying not to cry.

For the next four months I worked 80 hours a week! Not something I recomend but do-able if you know it is going to end at some point. Not to mention that if I saved enough to pay the insurace for the next year and enough for gas for the same amout of time, my dad was letting my take his, soon to be my, car! In Rexburg, everyone thinks they need a car. They don't, but you sure are cool if you had one.

So I worked my tail off getting speratic calls from Ty. That was about it. Way to cherish my time huh??

Well, the time to head out to school was quickly approaching and I needed someone to drive my car back out to school with me. Conviently, none of my friends could drive a stick (that is if you don't count my best friend, Linna, but remember this was 'conviently'). So I told Ty I would buy him a plane ticket if he would help me out. He agreed and I counted down the days.

Now realize, Ty was as excited as I was. He knew we were friends but he was adimit that was it. His family gave him crap the night before he left and he insisted that absolutly nothing was going to happen. I think he should have looked up irony in the dictionary before coming.

I picked him up at the airport and speed away. Here is way things get interesting...

While we were talking I felt somthing near my hip. I thought maybe something just brushed against me but then it was on my butt!!! I couldn't believe it....Ty has his hand on my behind! After a minute or two...I asked him what he was doing. He turned bright red and said he thought he was just playing with the seatbelt!!! We warmed up to each other real quick after that one.

That night, we rented 'Rat Race'. Well, it wasnt too far into the movie that we started holding hands. I still couldn't tell you what happened in the movie because I was so distracted by what MIGHT happen. Well, the details are fuzzy and we can't agree on who kissed who first but that is exactly what happened! After four months of 'kissing other girls' , his words not mine, we were back together.

I suppose I should back up a second.....I always (only half jokingly) said I was never going to kiss more that 10 boys in my life. Well, lets put it this way..... I made** it! Wanna know the meaning behind the **? Well, Ty was number 9....good right? Well, when we were broken up, I hit 10. But when I got back toether with Ty I went back to 9 again.....good right? Either way, I made it:)

So we started heading out to school right after Christmas.....so you can imagine the weather conditions. We mad it through MN.....ND.....but Montana wasn't lettin' us in. We pulled into a little town name Glendive, MT around 11pm to find out that the highway from there on out was closed because it was covered with a solid sheet of ice. Our only option was to get a hotel room. Neither one of us were terribly keen on this but we couldn't stay in the car...it was below freezing. So we found a hotel and our only option was to get one room....two beds..but only one room. Reluctantly we took it. Ty told me later that he figured I was worth keeping around because just before I passed out that night I told him 'if I wake up an you are in my bed, I will kill you.' Who knew thats all it would take!

We made it the rest of the way without incident!

We got back to Idaho about a week before school started which was my original intention. I figured I could be all set up and ready to go when class started. Because Ty and I had gotten back together on the trip back, I had no intention of heading back to Rexburg so early while he was in Arimo. He was taking the Spring semester off to work at the ski resort so he would be 2 hours away. The night before I left we were talking and Ty said it.....he said

"You're in trouble"

I asked him "why"

And he told me "because you made me fall in love with you"

Now any normal persons response to this declaration would be 'I love you, too'...right? Not mine! I knew I loved him but I was so freaked out by those words that all I could say was "Ditto!" Ditto!!! Yes ditto from the movie ghost! Its the best I could do. I finally did say it but it felt weird!
(Awful picture...but it was from that night so.....)

Later that month, we decide it was inevitable....we were gettin' married! This freaked me out even more! Not because I didn't want to marry him, but because I could imagine what my family was going to say! My sister had acutally told me (do you remember this, Molly?) that I wasn't 'allowed' to get married until I was 23. I was 21 when we decided this. And I had even told my mom that I would never ever marry anyone in the military seeing how tough it could be for both of my sisters. Boy was I wrong!!!! I was excited but terrified.

You are going to love the story of Ty asking my dad if he could marry me.........next time!