It's MAY!!!

This month I am dedicating almost every post (I say that because I can't promise I won't sneak in some kid stuff too :)) to my wonderful husband Jake! He has accomplished so much and I want to highlight his achievements and his life this month. He will graduate next week with his LPN and will celebrate his birthday on the 24th, so what better time than to dedicate some words to him?

I have decided that since this is pretty much my journal of sorts that I will go back in time with some of these posts just so I can have it in writing when I eventually make this into a book.

This first "Jaker" dedicated post is about our courtship--warning, this will be long, as I said it's to preserve memories and I don't want to leave much detail out, so you can stop reading now if you don't have a few minutes :)

I first met Jake in February of 2001. I always met my friend, MeDynn, after religion since we had it at the same time and rarely got to see each other. This particular day she was accompanied by a guy-who honestly I didn't remember his name after she introduced him. She was the type to always have a boyfriend so I automatically assumed it was one of her new boyfriend's even though she said he was visiting the class with his brother. (come to find out later it was the same day he had returned home from his mission, no wonder he was acting a little on the weird side).
The housing unit that I lived in for the fall and winter semesters did not rent to students in the summer because of EFY, so I needed to move-I decided to move up in the same housing unit as MeDynn and see her a little more often (she was the girl that I came to Rick's with and wanted to be able to spend my last semester at Ricks with her). I moved to Hillcrest Apartments in May and lived in the apartment behind MeDynn. During that first month of summer term (there were 3 5-week terms to equal one summer semester) I was so anxious to be done with school that I didn't really try to involve myself like I had in the past semesters, so on the weekends MeDynn and I would make excuses to be out of town (we were from the same home town) so as not have to really participate too much at church :) (I know that is not the way it should have been, but we did it anyway).
Eventually we got tired of being gone, so after that first month I finally went to my student ward in Rexburg and met the bishop and people in the ward that my roommates had been talking about. Well, I looked over and saw this guy and immediately asked MeDynn who it was...she said he was Jake and was really funny...something seemed familiar, but I didn't know what...well, MeDynn had been going to the mission prep class and since it was actually my first Sunday there I just tagged along and lo and behold this Jake fella was the teacher...a little weird, since I wasn't really there to "prepare" for a mission as 2 people were...the rest were girls that all had crushes on him and only went to the class to be closer to him. I quickly came to the conclusion that he was a very cocky and arrogant person-I did not want anything to do with him, albeit I was intriged by his mannerisms.
Throughout that first block I pretty much stayed away from him. He was known to visit our housing unit almost on a daily basis and visit all the girls that he knew (which was pretty much each apartment in the ward).
The next block I was in a chemistry class (I know who would take Chemistry 105 in 5-weeks, well, someone who wanted to graduate and get out of Rexburg!) and it was kicking my trash, so I pretty much called my mom everyday crying and telling her that I just didn't know if I would be graduating and that I hated it here. She kept telling me to get involved more in the ward and that things would work out. So I decided to start doing Tae-Bo to get all me stresses out.
One afternoon I went to MeDynn's to get her to come with me (yes, I didn't do Tae-Bo alone) and her door was open so I just walked in, well her and Jake were sitting on the couch and there was a bouquet of flowers sitting there...um, talk about awkward, I could totally tell they were in a serious conversation and here I am in shorts and a t-shirt looking ready to kick butt. What immediately hit me was that I was jealous and I got mad at myself-what did I care, he was arrogant and he liked MeDynn! So I left and went for a very long run up to the water tower instead! Within the week our FHE group had changed and I found out that MeDynn would be staying in my group, but the local boys were added which meant that Jake was in it-okay, I decided I was officially boycotting FHE now too!! I learned that he was a CNA at the local nursing home and that he didn't get off until 8pm, so he would rarely be making it to FHE-I went anyway, my roommates were new freshman and I couldn't be that negative about FHE.
First week he didn't show, whew. Next week, we are in Rigby area and doing skits, just as we are about to start he comes in-okay I start sweating because I have to remind myself that I don't like him-he's too cocky. I survived. The next week we are having a movie night outside in Sugar City-I kicked and screamed and swore that if he showed up I would be walking home. Well, I am in the house popping popcorn for everyone and getting things ready while they figure out how to get the TV to work and things are just fine. I come out with the last bowl of popcorn and see my roommates staring me down, I look around and there he is in the back of the group just laughing with his buddies, so I sit by my roommates and pretend he isn't there.
The movie starts and they all of a sudden have to "move to see better" which leave me sitting right in front of him all alone! I was so mad, but I didn't want to make a scene so I just sit there. Next thing I know he's sitting next to me trying to make small talk and get me laughing at the movie, which was funny, but I couldn't get myself to laugh-he was making my heart beat so dang fast! After the movie, he asked if he could drive me home, I said no, my roommates left me, so I ended up having to ride home with him and the little stinker conned his way into having me sit right next to him in his truck! Holy cow! I was boiling mad at my roommates and at the same time totally on cloud 9 because he was paying attention to me and not the other girls I thought he was interested in! We got home and talked with some mutual friends and then I stomped home and tried to yell at my roommates but instead was so giddy I didn't know what to do. I had one engaged roommate (Jen) at the time and she looked at me and said, I think you're falling for him, you're going to marry him by the end of the year. Whatever!
Well, the next week (the end of June) Jake's brother got married (the same one he was visiting in February in religion class) and MeDynn was the photographer at the reception. The reception was in their backyard. I had to work that night (I was a dance security person), but on my way to work MeDynn called me to bring something she had forgotten. I hurried there dressed up (not knowing anyone, but MeDynn) gave her the thing she needed and tried to bolt away, but instead Jake followed me to the front yard and took me back into the backyard for a picture with some friends that had just shown up that were from the ward and during the picture he put his arm around my waist and I about fainted! I know that his family saw (especially his brother) and not one of them knew who I was or why he was touching me that way! I bolted for the gate! What to think now, huh? Well, I think that I was hooked by then.
He left for a week to the reception in Texas and I actually missed him the entire week. One night (in early July) we were having a movie night in the lounge and I figured he was still out of town and I was not interested to see the movie (Matrix-not my kind of show) anyway, so I was leaving to go "study" Chemistry (I didn't get anything in that class that was taught!) and he walks in. I about melted. I started to leave and he invites me to sit by him on the couch in the very back, I agreed insisting it be for just a minute. Well, a minute turned into the entire show and during that time he held my hand and asked me out for the next night.
It was a Thursday night and we went to a movie-in fact it was Gone in 60 seconds-come to find out he is obsessed with cars. I actually watched the movie and enjoyed it, but I think it was because he was the one sitting next to me. Now, you need to know, in the two years I had been at Ricks I had been on maybe 5 dates and they were all lame. This one had my heart beating so fast I don't think I said anything that made any sense at all. I called my mom the next day and told her I knew who I was going to marry and that we would be getting married soon (even though he didn't know it yet).
We ended up going out every Thursday night after that and he would come visit me on his lunch break at my apartment every afternoon. I managed to pull a D in Chemistry and by this time didn't even care because I just had to graduate and that was good enough! Jake would visit me every time I worked, which was almost every Wednesday, Friday and Saturday night. In fact one night he brought me a flower just to have an excuse to see me. The next block I was in American Heritage-with the most boring teacher in all the world and managed to pull a C-, but again didn't care because Jake was there to make things all better.
He was quite the ladies man and the girls were so mad that the "new girl" would be the one to date him. They had all been fighting for his attention since he got home from his mission in February-needless to say, I was not very popular at all in the ward, but I didn't care. He actually liked me and it was nice to have someone care about me! My birthday is in the summer and my birthday present from him was my first kiss-I am pretty sure that I melted right then and there and knew for sure, without a doubt we would be getting married. I know that sounds super sappy, but that is how I felt and I was on cloud 9 from then on!!!
We dated for about a month and we started talking marriage, but that is for another post.
Jake-thanks for sweeping me off my feet! I am so glad I followed my mom's advice and got a little more involved in the ward by actually attending Sunday meetings and not totally boycotting FHE! Oh and honey, if you see that I missed some details or you feel you want to tell your side of the story, feel free :)