THE DOXEYVINE: The Beginning

I figure, if I am going to start a family blog, I may as well start at the beginning. To be honest, the only time in my life that I was consistent at journaling was on my mission (The time for it was built into my schedule and I was experiencing so many new things each day that it didn’t really require a lot on my part). There are many more memories from my life that I wish were recorded, so I will definitely be jumping back in time now and then to make a record of them, but also am hoping to start being a little more consistent at recording the current happenings of life in this little family of mine.

For now, I’m taking it back to fall 2009…when I first met Reed. I noticed this cute guy at church in passing one Sunday. Luckily for me he ended up speaking a couple of weeks after that, which basically meant I could totally check him out without being caught. I was able to give him my undivided attention for 10 straight minutes, as a considerate audience member, during which time I confirmed that he was indeed attractive and quite the amiable guy. A few weeks later his roommate ended up taking me out on a date and with my luck it just happened to be a double…with Reed and his date. Once his roommate showed interest I pretty much dismissed any chance of us dating ever as to avoid any drama. Over the course of the semester we came to know a little more of each other and that was about it until…February.

It was President’s day weekend and BYU classes were out on Monday, so a group of people from my church decided to get together for a game of ultimate frisbee. Growing up in Florida I had never even heard of this sport and I was quite the novice, but the heavens decided to smile upon me that day and a couple of miracles occurred. One being that I was actually throwing catchable passes to teammates, and another that I myself was catching the frisbee, including a crazy pass that I ended up catching between my knees. When I got home from playing I received a text message complimenting me on how well I had played. After texting a bit I discovered that the message was from Reed, upon which I proceeded to release a giddy and girly squeal as I ran to tell my roommate Annaliese.

A few weeks later I was going out to dinner with my roommates to celebrate my roommate Abby’s birthday. As we were getting out of the car to go into the restaurant I got a call from Reed - here it was! He apologized for calling last minute, but asked if I wanted to join him and a few other couples for dinner that night. I had a few conflicting thoughts like “I don’t want to flake out on my roommate and miss her birthday dinner” and “I don’t want to say “no” and for Reed to think I’m not interested and miss out on this chance” aaaand “My soccer team is playing their first tournament game tonight – how bad would that be to miss??” After the quick flood of thoughts, I just said, “Yes, I’m free.” Abby was a total champ and basically said I had to go, so I ran back home to beat Reed to my house before he arrived to pick me up. We ended up being the only couple in our car, which gave us the whole way us to Salt Lake and back to have some great conversations. We first went to the Cheesecake Factory, and upon learning that the wait was an hour and a half we changed course and went to this really delicious restaurant, The Asian Star, close by. The date was a blast, the conversation flowed, and I remember Reed talking about some of his future interests and plans and that he’d have to of course take his wife’s opinions into account on all of that one day when the time came. When he said that I had the fleeting thought, “What if that were me?” And that was that.

We went on a few more dates and had a great time. The only glitch in the whole timing of things is that I had been going on lots of dates and around the time Reed and I had our first date I had been going on dates with a guy on a more regular basis, but still wasn’t committed to anything. A few weeks after that I grew curious to see where things would go with that particular guy, but it didn’t take long to figure out that, that wasn’t going anywhere. My roommates, Annaliese and Bethany, and I were leaving on a road trip around the time of all of this and they had no idea that I had been having second thoughts about the guy I had been dating and Reed. On the road to San Francisco they excitedly announced that Reed was dating someone and that they had seen them together at a church activity. They thought I would be excited because maybe then I would find some relief from a particular roommate of his who had since given me a hard time about everything. I let them know my thoughts though and I remember saying, “Well, there goes that – Reed and April are both amazing people. I bet they will totally get married.” And I genuinely thought they would even though everything was so fresh.

We continued on our adventure and I continued to have these thoughts bouncing around every now and then on our trip. Finally, we were headed back home to Utah early on a Saturday morning. We left San Francisco around 4am and we each decided to take a 4 hour shift driving. I was first to drive, Annaliese was first to keep me awake in the passenger seat, and Bethany was first to sleep in the back. While we were driving Annaliese and I continued to talk about the guys we were dating and to have a heart-to-heart. At one point I just felt so confused on what to do and I exclaimed, “I just need a sign or something!”…right at that EXACT moment, one of the neatest experiences of my life happened! Annaliese and I looked up at the next road exit sign that we were about to pass under, and read it…Reed Ave. My mouth dropped and we just started laughing and laughing. I definitely believe it was a tender mercy of the Lord…the timing was just too unreal for it not to be. After that I felt that I would get a second chance with Reed – I just felt peaceful that it would work out, but didn’t have any idea how or when.

When we went to church the next day we found out from Reed’s roommate that just the day before (the day we were driving home) things ended up not working out for him and April. I just couldn’t believe it, and yet after what I had experienced the day before, I could. I then started to pursue him. I really needed to make an effort and hope that he would come around and give me a second chance. Eventually he did and on May 4^th we started dating exclusively (which is why our family holiday is that day -national Star Wars day). Our courtship was wonderful and full “butterflies” and adventures, as I assume are most. It is such a treasure to me and I just loved getting to know this sweet boy of mine so much! We were later engaged in September and married in December of that year. Those are of course stories for another day!

Some of our dating adventures: