#2- The History (Jenny's Version)

I have a friend who has started posting about the history of her and her husbands story from them meeting, to dating, and then to getting married. I am going to start doing the same so I don't forget and can share with our kids when they grow up. (Sorry for copying Sarah- I hope you don't mind :-) )

My history: I have never had a boy friend. Some may say I did have one, but I don't count holding hands 3 times with a guy actually dating and given the holding hands did not happen consecutively. I definitely had crushes, but nothing close to a boyfriend. It wasn't that I didn't want to date anyone seriously, I just stuck to having really good friends. To this day, J.D. and I are really close to many of them and their wives. So in college I went on SO MANY first dates. No second dates-literally. I had so much fun on the first dates though. :-) I moved down to Orem in 2006. This was a changing point in my life. I roomed with my sister Kortni, and we lived in the same complex as my brother Choc. We all were in the same ward. Naturally, like a wonderful, protective older brother would do; Choc announced in sacrament meeting that if anyone wanted to date his little sister Jenny (he then pointed me out), they would have to ask for his permission. In my mind I was thinking, Thanks Choc...I won't ever get a date in my ward now. And it was true, NO ONE in our ward ever asked me out. :-( So I spent my summer working, and realizing who I wanted to be.

Like I mentioned, this was a life changing summer. I spent a lot of time with my sister Kortni, going to Utah Lake, doing crafts, and playing softball. Every Thursday I had a brother-sister date with Choc. We would go bowling at Fat Cats and eat Costa Vida. It was the best dates EVER! We never missed one Thursday until I had my first date with J.D.; which was October 5th, 2006. I spent a lot of time to myself that summer and kept having this weird feeling that something big was going to happen. I wrote in my journal on June 14th, that I got a message/strong feeling that something BIG was going to happen and I needed to basically straighten up. I wasn't doing anything bad, but I just didn't really read my scriptures, pray often, or even go to church. I started going to church on my own and actually wanted to go on my own. I went to all my meetings and loved it. I can honestly say I truly gained a start to my testimony that summer.

Now, school was going to start soon and I hadn't figured out my financial aid all the way like I thought. It turns out I had to pay tuition and I didn't think I could finish my financial aid. School was extremely hard, I didn't like any of my classes. I had transferred from the U of U and being an architect to Utah Valley University and MAYBE try photography. This was a wrong path for sure as far as photography. My sister Kortni was having serious medical issues. My work was overwhelming while going to school. There was SO much that went wrong in the month of September except-I met J.D. I consider him the only good thing that happened that month. But even that didn't turn out in the month of September. It wasn't until October that things started looking somewhat UP. Please watch the date and times in my time line and you will see that September was just not my month and October changed my life even more.

August 9th-J.D. returned home from his mission. I didn't know this at the time, but I put it in the time line so you can better understand how fast this was for him, but how slow it was for me.
September 2nd-I met J.D. at a reception, however he was with another girl who had written him his whole mission and they had dated before his mission. Naturally-I didn't look.

September (A bunch of STRESS and drama)

September 12th-I see J.D. at munch and mingle for institute and we exchange numbers. (I thought this was good until I received a phone call on ...Sept 24th.
September 24th-J.D. calls to set me up on a blind date with his buddy to go to conference.
September 28th-I received my answer that I was not supposed to go on a mission. I had prayed and fasted for 7 months about this. I also couldn't understand how someone could get an answer "no" about going on a mission.
September 30th-My blind date picks me up at 9 AM, and we head to conference...did I miss something.. I thought we were going to the afternoon session. OOHHH wait a second, we show up at this girl's house (the one who was with J.D. the night I met him). They open the door in their pj's!!! AND we watch the morning session at this girl's house and then we head up to the conference center for the afternoon session. We don't sit next to them, which was super awkward. First date and conference didn't really mix good..to me anyway. At the end, before meeting up with J.D. and his girl friend, I said goodbye to my date and rode home with my roommate.
*they wanted me to hang out with this girl while the boys went to the priesthood session that night. UMMM I don't think so! 2 girls liking the same guy hanging out.. I didn't want to, so I left.

To make up for my not so good date, I went clubbing that night with friends.
September 30th @9:30pm-J.D. left a message on my phone asking me to go on a date. Of course I missed the call because I was clubbing.
October 1st @ 2:30 AM- We head off to The Pie to eat and I saw my message and missed call from.....(drum roll).. J.D. I seriously freaked out with excitement! Without thinking about the time, I called him back instantly. J.D. was sleeping, but he lied and said he wasn't...haha! He asked me to go to a Utes game (I'm a big fan, cuz that was my school). I of course agreed and we talked for about 30 minutes. I went to bed grinning that night.

Here is my journal entry from December 19th. I wanted to put it in here because I think it's really neat to know what I wrote back then.

"Well I have a long story for you. It's about my true love, J.D. Stevens. On September 9th, I met a guy at Troy Jolley's reception. I had driven down with Devan Stevens who lived across form me during the summer. Both Troy and Devan actually lived across from me in the summer. The reception was at Devan's parent's house in Holden. That night I went on a date with Devan to go bowling. Juste before it, I met a guy named J.D. I didn't take a good look since he was with another girl, Lauren. Well J.D. and Lauren went to the movie and we were supposed to go with them, but we decided to go bowling. So anyway, that was a Saturday. On Tuesday, juste barely sitting down in biology, this guy looked at me and said, "Jenny right?" My first thought when  I looked up was- Who is this HOT guy that knows my name.... Well I did remember after he reminded me that we met at Devan's at a reception. He didn't tell me his name. I remembered. After checking him out as he walked out I was like... he's so mine. But I thought he a a girlfriend. Well then thursday came, then tuesday came.. then Thursday night he saw me at institute. He got my number and I got his. I also found out he didn't have a girl friend! He called Sunday night! I was so excited. But come to my dismay, he set me up with his friend Jefferson Coats.... ya... what the heck?! I thought by that he just wanted to be friends. What else was I supposed to think.so 1 week later we all watched conference together. We watched th morning session at Lauren's house.... ya.. that's what I was thinking, this girl again!? Well, then we went to conference at the conference center Saturday afternoon. We didn't sit by each other. Afterwards, the guys were all gonna go to the priesthood session. I did NOT want to wait. So I left with shannon. God thing my roommate was there. I didn't want to wait at Lauren's house because I liked J.D. too! That would have been weird. So me thinking we're just friends.. that night I went dancing at Studio 600 with friends. Afterwards, we went to The Pie to eat and I noticed on my phone that J.D. had called at 11:30. It was 12:45AM so I called him back. He called to ask me out to go to a Utes game. So at 12:45 AM I called him back and we talked for 30 minutes. Anywho, Thursday came. We went to eat at Rhumbi's in Salt Lake. It was so cute because he paid with cash and opened all my doors. We went to sit down and there were no empty tables so we sat with this guy. He said to us, "So how long have you two been married?" I laughed and said, "Ya J.D. how long have we been married?" J.D. choked on his food and said, "Actually this is our first date." The guy about died.

Anyway, we got to the Utes game and we didn't want high seats, so we just sat in a random spot. At half time he gave me a hug and I dropped my hands AND HE GRABBED MY HAND CLOSEST TO HIM!! I got cold chills all over!! So we held hands, he put his arm around me, and walked to the car holding hands. It was so CUTE! I had an experience on the date. I thought 'Could I marry this guy' and I had feeling come over me. Some said, "You are going to marry him." So on the walk back I asked, "Okay Lord, if you want to marry him, let me know if he's right. I'm coming to you for confirmation. This is the guy I want to marry, is it right?" Again, I had this profound YES. Right when we got to the truck he pulled me into his arms and kissed my forehead. I was going to marry him. We cuddled up on the truck on the way home and from then on it's never stopped. He didn't kiss me goodnight that night. Sunday came and he came over to watch a movie because I called him and invited him over. Well had to finish appear for his English class. When he got done he held me in his arms and I looked upend he kissed me on the lips! Wetotally made out and oh my gosh... he was the most amazing kisser ever! Had butterflies for sure, but it was a mixed feeling because I was head over heels for him and wanted to kiss him. It was in the middle of a movie called Glory Road. Thatnight I told him that I called why mom and told her we were getting married. I wasn't scared to tell him because Knew we were really getting married. That was October 9th. First kiss, October 5th was the first date. Then that Tuesday we went on a walk down provo river. It was so sweet. Anytime there was a sound in one direction or a scary something he would switch hands and put himself in between me and the sound. It was the sweetest thing and he made me feel safe and protected. That weekend was fall break. Friday night I drove to Holden to meet his parents and stay the weekend. I was freakin out and I wanted to turn around. But I got there and he was dressed up cowboy. He was so dang cute! That night he took me on a horse ride up the canyon. About 45 minutes later his family showed up and we had dutch over, amores, and just had fun. We got back, showered, 7 went to watch a movie called8 Seconds. I had my head across his lap and he said, "Jenny." I looked up and he said, "I love you." I melted. I had waited my whole life to have someone love me for me. I wanted torch, but instead I waited and then told J.D. that I loved him too. He held me until I fell asleep that night. I felt so protected.

J.D. is so wonderful.He always opens my door, has a smile that makes me want to smile.  The most amazing part is his love. When I look into his eyes and he looks back at me, I just feel it all over. My heart just beats so hard.

End of Journal entry.