It was May and I had been home from my mission almost a year. I was living in Northern Florida with my mom. I was getting ready to move back to Utah to live with my sister. I was a return missionary and wasn't dating anyone with "eternity potential." I loved being in Florida. I loved hanging out and with my little sister. We would go get smoothies and spend our afternoons at the beach. Sometimes her little "boyfriends" would come along. I will admit it was a bit of an ego booster when she would inform me of how HOT they thought I was. But even compliments like this from fourteen year old surfer boys can only sustain you for so long. And you certainly cannot date them! I was saying my prayers quiet fervantly and wondering what I should do.
I was at work. I bagged groceries at the commissary (military grocery store) on Eglin AFB. This young airman with the cutest smile came walking in the door. He had cute wavy hair and just looked so happy. I could not stop looking at him. I watched as he went through each of the aisles. Trying to catch glances of him as I bagged. (All those years of Tetris had paid off, I could make groceries fit perfectly in bags with my eyes closed!) "Please come through my line, please come through my line." I thought. This way I could see if there was a ring and I could bag his groceries and walk with him to his car. He only bought a few things and went through the Express lane. Darn! Well, airman come and go through here all the time and I was sure I would see others that I could watch down the aisles. Very disappointed I walked my customer out to their car, loaded their groceries and began walking back to the store. Little did I know the Heavens were about to open and a light would shine down on a little blue Mazda truck. It was him! The cute wavy haired, smiling, so happy airman. And on the back of his truck window for all the world and for me to see was a Pantera sticker and a sticker in the corner with three letters LDS.
In June my mom moved to a new house that just happened to be in the same ward as cute wavy haired airman. I could look at him every sunday. Not talk to him, just look. I later found out he felt the same as me. Just look don't talk. We both knew the outcome if we talked. We knew we were going to marry each other. And well that is just weird to know that before you even talk to that person. That is what you see happen in 70's church musicals like "Saturday's Warriors". Not in real life. Especially not MY life. Because people that do that are wierd. And I was not one of "those" people.
Thirteen years later I have come to terms with the fact that I was indeed one of "those" people. I had him over for his birthday. My family had a little a party for him. That was June 30th. On the 4th of July we were discussing what kind of ring I wanted. On October 23, 1996 I found myself smiling outside the Orlando Temple surrounded by my family taking pictures of me and cute, smiley, wavy haired airman. My husband.
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