Disclaimer: I am going to do my best to make this story as "cheeseless" as possible but let's just face it, I love the guy, always have.
He was just too funny and cute to resist. September 1995, Jay was a senior and I a junior in high school. He was the ASB President and hosting our first pep rally of the year. This particular pep rally deserves some extra attention as it is really the beginning of Jay and I. Starting on this fateful day in September I can assure you that I have thought about Jay everyday since, mostly happy thoughts.
Now let me just set the scene here, pep rally, very loud, lots of people, most of whom thought pep rallys were nothing more than a good excuse to get out of class (myself included). There I was walking into the hot, loud gymnasium complaining to a friend of mine about "stupid pep rallys" and, since our class was late, being forced to sit on the ground like grade schoolers. At this point I was trying to figure out a way to sneak out and head to an early lunch--but alas I was stuck. An excited calm creeped over the crowd as Jay took the mike and began to effectively perform his duty of making everyone scream. Noise erupted all around me but I was smitten and heard nothing else but Jay's voice as he egged on the seniors. And then at that moment the thought immediately appeared in my mind that I was going to marry Jay. I know, I know, silly little school girl, hopeless romantic. I mean really who has ever heard of actual love at first sight. I was thinking it myself. Even I thought I was crazy but I figured at the very least, he might be fun to date. After much grief and plotting I finally got Jay to notice me around December of the same year. We hesitantly began (he was hesitant--I was not) what was to become a very rocky relationship over the course of the next year, rocky because I liked him a lot and he thought I was "nice." Our relationship was a constant cycling of going out and breaking up usually to my dismay until, near the end of his senior year, I had had enough. I called it quits and didn't look back. Jay however, didn't seem too happy with the new situation and somehow decided that through all the drama of our juvenile relationship he actually cared about me. So now he was pursuing me--I don't think I have to mention that I liked this new turn of events much better, but I will. However, I wasn't ready to jump back into it with my eyes closed, Jay was a little too fickle for that.
Let's jump ahead in our story to my senior year around December. We were still dating, Jay was in school at UCSD so he was local and I began looking at universities to attend the following year. Being a mormon I was interested in attending BYU and so I took a trip to Utah with my family that December. When I got home I decided I was a little too young to be dating just one person and, I mean, it wasn't like I was going to actually marry Jay. So I broke up with him (Jay usually notes here that it was finals week for him and that my timing was terrible). We stayed friends and still spoke regularly but I was accepted to BYU and I was going to be leaving in just a few months. I was feeling very ready to start this new chapter in my life, I would miss Jay, but I was ready to move on--he was not. One night as we stood out at his car talking about the future of things, of us, he told me that he had decided to transfer to BYU in the fall. I was terrified. I tried and tried to convince him otherwise, I wasn't dating him anymore and I was quite certain I wasn't going to marry him, he couldn't transfer! He insisted that he was going to BYU of his own accord and that it had nothing to do with me.
That summer I moved to Utah and Jay stayed behind in San Diego waiting for fall semester to begin. Initially I was enjoying the freedom of living on my own, being in college, being single. But it started creeping in little by little, that thought that I had had almost two years earlier, I was going to marry Jay. That summer felt like an eternity as I waited for Jay to come and join me in Utah. We lived in the same apartment complex for that first year in college together, took classes together and made some wonderful friends. We started to discuss marriage. We knew that we were very young but felt like it was the right decision to make. Don't get me wrong, we were terrified, well Jay mostly, but nevertheless we got engaged on February 14, 1998. We were married that August in the San Diego LDS Temple and we just celebrated our 9 year anniversary. I think it is safe to say that we are better than ever and perhaps there really can be love at first sight.
On our five year anniversary we found out we were going to have a baby. Addison Mae was born on April 24, 2004 in Evanston, IL. She was 7 lbs. 6 oz and 19 inches long.
