Let me start at the beginning. One day in December of 2011 I get a text from one of my students saying that another one of my students had found my future husband. I'm, of course, thinking well that's great, saves me a lot of work (little did I know it would actually take a lot of work!). Anyway I find out that my student, Savannah, had had a very handsome, funny, and amazing substitute in seminary that day who she felt would be perfect for me. I kept joking with her and asking her when I was going to meet my future husband. In February she finally got my number to the secretary of her seminary and the secretary called Brendan and told him about what was going on. That night I got a message from him on Facebook asking if I would want to go to lunch sometime. We agreed to meet on Saturday and go to Subway. I am a little bit skeptical about getting set up, especially when the person setting us up doesn't even know the guy, but I figured you can't really go wrong with a seminary teacher. So we met and talked for a couple of hours and agreed to go on another date the next weekend. After that date, I was on cloud 9. I could not stop smiling and I was already falling in love. Well we just started going on a lot of dates and talking to each other on the phone for hours. I realized that Brendan wasn't perfect, but he was about as close as it gets. I was just dying to be his girlfriend, but sadly it didn't happen...
In June, I was getting a little restless with the whole situation so I finally just asked him what was going on. He said that he just wanted to be friends. Stab in the heart. But I was still crazy about him so I would rather have him just be my friend than have him out of my life completely so we still hung out all the time and talked all the time. I got the privilege of hearing about the great dates he was going on and I was really just hating my life at that point. I was going on dates with other guys but no one compared to Brendan. But I was determined to get over him because I knew nothing would ever happen.
So this continued on until October 23. We were just friends and it was miserable for me. Then I get a text this morning from Brendan asking if I wanted to go on a breakfast date. I was ecstatic! I was thinking that he wanted to keep going on dates again!! YAY!!!!! So we go to breakfast and then he suggests we take a walk in the park. I knew something was up because you don't just go for walks in the park... It was there that he asked me to be his girlfriend! The day I had been waiting 7 1/2 months for was finally here! So we started dating.
Our dating life was definitely not easy. We enjoyed each other and we laughed and we played, but I also cried, a lot... I am the biggest bawl baby in the world! You see, Brendan had major issues with the whole marriage thing. I honestly thought that we wouldn't get engaged for another year or so. Then came June 22...
On June 22, 2013, Brendan and I drove up to Park City and went to some art galleries. While we were up there we passed a jewelry store and I made some joke about wanting to go look at rings. He acted the way he always did when I brought up marriage, he just brushed it off and told me that I was going on a mission. On the way home, we started talking about marriage in general, but not about us getting married. We never ever talked about us getting married. Then he took me to Red Robin, one of my favorites!!, and then we went on a hike. I thought to myself that it would be so cute if he proposed on our hike, but I immediately pushed that thought out of my mind because I knew it wouldn't happen. We got to the trailhead at sunset and then started our hike. We were starting down and saw some big rocks and I suggested that we sit on them because I kind of wanted to have a romantic moment and talk about feelings. As we were sitting on these boulders, Brendan said "This might be a little bit cheesy, but I brought some candles for us." I thought it was so cute!! Unfortunately, the wind was blowing out the candles. So we had to look for somewhere else. We found a few rocks that were a little more sheltered just off the trail. We set up our blanket and started lighting the candles. There were so many candles! It was just beautiful and absolutely perfect. But then our perfect night got really scary really fast. All of a sudden we hear something running towards us, crashing through the brush. Please note that it is pitch black and nobody else is really up there. Brendan shines our flashlight towards the noise and he saw two glowing eyes looking at him. I just about lost it. I was shaking and on the verge of tears. Brendan was trying to be manly and brave, but I later learned that he was terrified as well. We had no idea what kind of animal it was so of course our mind goes to the worst possibility, a mountain lion. Basically we're thinking that we are going to die. It was terrifying. Brendan started yelling to scare it away, but we never heard it leave so we were still really nervous. Brendan said a prayer that we would be safe and calm. He then asked if I wanted to leave. I kind of did, but I wanted to enjoy our candles so I decided that we would be ok and we should stay (probably the best decision of my life). We start talking about some of our favorite moments that we shared together and Brendan shared some things that he had never told me before (I don't know if he wants me to publish them to the whole world). It was really sweet. Then he pulled out a card that he had written. This needs a little back story... I am scared of everything. So we would go on Fear Factor dates and I would have to do things that scared me. I always teased Brendan that his Fear Factor date would be to proposed to me because that was the only thing he was scared of. Anyway, he pulls out this card that says Fear Factor on it and on the inside it listed all of the scary things I had done. At the bottom it said something about how I had helped him not be scared of marriage and it was time for him to do a Fear Factor date. I was kind of in a state of shock and I couldn't exactly figure out what was going on. So he told me that I might want to stand up. I did and he proposed!!! I started bawling like a baby and I was trying to figure out if it was real or not. Then I finished reading the card. He had listed about 70 reasons he wasn't scared of marrying me. It was the sweetest thing in the world!
So that's our Fear Factor proposal. It was absolutely perfect! Well I might get rid of the part where we thought we were going to die, but it really is one of my favorite parts now. It totally fit in with our Fear Factor theme. I am so happy to be getting married to my best friend and the greatest man I know. I love you Brendan Clary!!!
