Our Love Story (Take 3)

Back when I was way into blogging, I would rewrite our love story every few years.  In honor of our 9th anniversary, I copied it from my now private blog to share again.  Here it is, word for word, with a little addendum at the end.

First written on July 18, 2012 for my Carlie Stories blog--

In celebration of our 3rd anniversary I decided to write down most of our love story.

  

Reposted a second time on 7/18/15.  

It is now 3 years later, and we have been married for 6 years!

Engagement Photo

Coming out of the temple.

Reception

Wedding Day 7-18-09

Seth and I met in Biology at BYU.  It was a couple weeks into the semester when I decided to quit sitting by random people I didn't know, and sit by the guy from my lab.   His name was Cory.  Cory and Seth sat by each other, and we eventually started a study group.  Seth told me later that he thought I had the most "beautiful back of the head" because I sat in front of him before I started sitting next to him.  We still have Seth's old biology notebook that we had written notes on to each other.  

Our first date was roller-skating where I held his hand for the first time because I kept falling.  Like I literally flew over the curb and did a somersault over someone...I figured it was safer to hold hands on a first date instead of breaking something or someone with the roller-skates on.  Afterwards, I made him go through the drive-thru at Burger King because I was so thirsty.  I didn't want anything other than a cup of water (Seth says now that he has been married to me, he understands my urgent need for water).  After the water pit stop we headed over to Sub Zero ice cream.   We continued to go on a few dates.  The dates were fun, but we were nothing serious. 

Instead, we studied together almost daily.  He (Seth) was really good at Biology.  Plus I always thought both guys (Cory and Seth) were funny.  We studied in the No Shh! Zone of the Lee Library.

Over the summer Seth called a couple times to talk, and other times he would text. Eventually he asked me to be in his football group for the Fall.  I said yes so Kelsey, Britt M, and I joined the group.

Once school started again, he started dating a girl who lived in Kelsey's hall. I would see him whenever I would visit Kelsey.  He told that girl another girl broke his heart so he wasn't ready for a relationship. That girl was me (and much drama ensued with the dorm girl). 

Half-way through that Fall semester, I was walking down the south hill of campus and I ran into him.  It wasn't the normal way I would walk, but I walked it that day.  I saw him coming up the hill and told him, "We should have lunch sometime to catch up."  I really didn't think much of saying that, but Seth said that that gave him the courage to ask me out again.  We started going on "dates" again-Zupas and Spark were favorites.

We went to a basketball game in November that was a BYU against Utah State game.  After the game I had him come in and meet my parents to tell them a joke.  The joke was, "How do you fit an elephant into a Safeway (grocery store) bag?  -"Take the s out of safe and the f out of way."  Then the person is supposed to reply: There's no "f" in way.  Get it?  No effin way?  ha ha

I texted him Happy New Year and told him I hope he gets kissed.  Mind you, he was in Texas and I was in Utah so it wouldn't be us kissing.

Then on a date in January to Zupas, I was sitting across from him and I realized I was in love.  I just all of the sudden knew I wanted to date him and be with him only.  Up until that point we had both been dating other people.  From that day forward though, we spent every day possible together.   There was my birthday where he brought me an over-sized box filled with my favorite treats-Toffee and Almond Symphony Bar and candy Orange Slices.  He also made me a mix CD.  He made me several of those when we first became official.

We had a few dates at Spark (a non-alcohol drinking place).  We first really held hands watching the Super Bowl game.  We kissed at my apartment at Old Academy.  Right by the kitchen.   Best first kiss ever!  I was so excited when he kissed me.

We got engaged the first weekend in April.  We had  our wedding date planned for September 19, 2009.  Once I had everything done for the wedding within in the first couple of weeks, we decided to move it up to July (we were living away from each other during this time too).  We were going to get married in the Salt Lake Temple, but they were closed during July.  I think that worked out for the better because I was the only bride at the Jordan River Temple.   I didn't see another bride until we were finishing our pictures, and she was just going in.

The night before our wedding we had a family/close friends dinner celebration (there were still like 100 people) at my dream location-the Joseph Smith Memorial Building in the Empire Room.   There was tons of road construction so that made it interesting for people to get there, but it turned out fantastic.

The wedding day was HOT!   In many ways ;).  We got married on the hottest day on record in Utah that summer.  We were both dying of heat during the pictures.  I remember just feeling so happy that I was marrying Seth in the temple.  I had such a good confirming feeling that it was the right thing.

We had our reception at the Stake Center/Church by my parents house.  The decorations turned out amazing.  We had so many friends and family come to show their love.   My mom's friend Shauna did our flowers and cake.   Another friend of my mom's decorated the church.

After the reception we stopped at Taco Bell in the name of tradition.  That's where my parents stopped on their wedding night too.

We had our first night (Saturday) as a married couple at Little America in Salt Lake City.  It was funny because on the drive down-town we saw a guy in the car next to us that I dated during college.  The other guy had us roll the window down to say hey and congratulations.  The next day (Sunday) we headed to my parents house.  We were going to be leaving for Texas that evening so they drove us to the airport.   Seth had to sell the next day (Monday) because he was managing a pest control team for Berrett back in Dallas for the rest of the summer.

We had a Texas reception a week later.  It was so nice wearing my dress again.  I wish pictures would do it justice.  There are so many little details like the lace opening.

We did our honeymoon a month later (which I highly recommend).  We honeymooned on a cruise to the Bahamas.  It was a great 5 days.

We lived in a house for the first 2 weeks we were married because we were house sitting.  When they came back we moved into a extended stay hotel for 2 weeks until the summer ended.  Then it was time to go back to school at BYU, and because we didn't want a yearlong contract (b/c Seth was doing summer sales and we would move during the summer) we moved into Wolverine Crossing in Orem. Then because we wanted to save up a little money, we moved in with my parents for 5 months (in the basement).  Then for summer sales in April we moved to San Diego for about 6 weeks, and Tulsa for the next 2.5 months.  Finally, after the summer sales finished, we got to stay in one place longer than a few months and moved into our Provo Duplex (Seth's parents and aunts/uncles share ownership of a duplex in Provo which made it really nice and really cheap while we were going to school).  It was nice living in an actual (half) house.   We stayed there until July of this past year (2011), and now we are here in Dallas (moving to Houston now that it's 2015).

We got serious about having a baby in November of 2013 and found out that we will need fertility treatments.  No baby news yet, but when it happens, it will be happy day!

Some fun memories from the past 3 years include (written July 2012):

• Sleeping on two twin mattresses pushed together while doing summer sales
• Graduating from BYU
• 10 day Christmas in Hawaii
• Selling 2 cars and buying new car--living on one car for 2 years
• Seth getting locked in the Law Library and having to call campus police
• Crazy weather experiences with a tornado and hail-including hail damage to our new car
• Our Fool's Cafe Dinners
• Callings-Sunbeam (4-5 year old Church teacher) and YW/YM leaders and Nursery helpers

Now that we can add 3 more years to the list, here are some more fun memories of our 6 years of marriage (written July 2015):

• Living in a leaky apartment that had a over 10 water leaks in a year span
• Carlie teaching 4th and 3rd graders
• Trips to New York and the Caribbean
• Carlie chopping her hair off (probably 12 inches) and making it darker to feel like she could control something (hashtag fertility issues)
• Buying and selling our first home in Richardson
• Seth graduating law school with Order of the Coif
• Meeting for 20 minute lunches or dinners on campus while Seth studies for the bar

First Fools Cafe in 2008

Basketball Game November 2008

The Big Box January 2009

Date in January 2009

April 2009 Engaged

August 2009 Honeymoon

And us today (well in March 2015):

Since it is once again three years later and I am sharing our story for the third time, here are some other adventures I can add (July 2018):

• European Cruise to celebrate law school graduation
• Living in Houston and having the best time being city dwellers
• Finding success with IVF ICSI treatments that gave us twin boys
• Moving back to the Dallas and buying a house in the suburbs
• Owning a van and basically living the life I dreamed about as a little girl

***Today is July 18, 2018.  I have 17 month old twin boys playing upstairs and a baby girl in my belly that will be born in a few short weeks.  I am so grateful for the life we have built and the adventures we have shared the past 9 years.  Things didn't always go as planned, but it all did and does work out, especially with Seth by my side.  I love you forever and always Seth Rasmussen.  Thanks for being you!