How We Met

Andrea and I first crossed paths at my Grandpa Stubbs viewing. I remember talking with my family in the waiting area and looking at the oncoming line and seeing this beautiful woman standing next to her parents (who were about 60). It was literally one of those moments out of a movie, light rays were coming down from the heavens and hitting her face just right (and other parts of her body, if you know what I mean). If you know me at all, you know that I am not one to make the first move (or second, third, or fourth), but for some reason I gathered up enough courage to smile at her (as opposed to my usual look away so that she wouldn't think I was gawking). Amazingly, for the first time in my life, a girl actually smiled back. From this moment I knew she had to be the person for me. I was basing this off the fact that this was the most interest any girl had EVER shown in me.

I knew I had to play my cards carefully. I was at a viewing where a lot of the people were family, and I quickly tried to piece together any scenario where a 25 year old WOMAN (I capitalized this because...well, I already told you about those other bodyparts that had stood out to me), would be at a 78 year-old mans viewing, accompanied by her parents. The only thing I could come up with was that she had to be related in some way. I decided to put some feelers out in a non-chelant way, and I asked my 12-year-old cousin who lived in the area, and knew some of the more obscure family members if she knew who the girl in the red-shirt was. Unfortunately I did this as Andrea walked by on her way out of the mortuary. So of course my cousin went running after her and "gawked," she also asked another cousin if he knew who she was-right in front of her and her parents. This commotion drew some attention and some words were exchanged between my cousin and Andrea's parents. I was totally embarassed!!!

Later one of my aunt's came to talk to me, and asked if I was dating anyone. In retrospect I don't know why she even asked-the answer was alway no. I did tell her that I had seen a girl at the viewing that I thought was hot, and began describing what she was wearing. My aunt immediatly knew who I was talking about because she had noticed how attractive she was as well. From there my aunt started spreading the word that Chris thought a girl was hot, and the search was on.

The next day I was at my grandmothers, and this was the hot topic. Someone had been snapping pictures the whole evening and so much of my family had been pouring over the photos in search of the woman in the red-shirt in order to identify who she was. During this conversation my grandma received a phone call from one of her tennants (she owns a lot of apartments) about another tennant that was a malcontent and had not been paying his rent. He was normally never there and was difficult to contact so the tennant was informing my grandma that he was home and she could probably catch him if she came now. Right in the middle of the phone call, my grandma asked this person if she was wearing a red-shirt at the viewing the previous evening. She said yes, and my grandma replied that someone had noticed her... That was it, she didn't say anything else, and she quickly changed the subject. I knew something was not right because my grandma takes care of me (she hooks me up), and she didn't do anything. She got off the phone and the first thing she said was "boy Chris, you sure know how to pick em." I asked what that meant and she informed me that Andrea was divorced with two kids. That was the end for me, I didn't want to here anymore about it. My Uncle Frank was there (he works on the apartments), and he tried to build her up anyways. He said that she was very nice, her kids were cute, and if he was even 10 years younger he would be all over that. I didn't care... as far as I was concerned it was over, I didn't want anything to do with anyone who had been married. Unluckily for me, I had to drive my mother and grandmother over to check on the malcontent. He was already gone so they wanted to go talk to Andrea. They dragged me with them. Andrea came to the door after about three knocks in her towell because we had interrupted her shower, a short conversation ensued with Andrea hiding behind the door, and we were on our way...forever, I thought.

The bad news was, I couldn't get the image of her out of my mind...she was sooooooo hot. After about a month of stewing over the situation I finally gave in. I rationalized to myself that it was just one date, it wouldn't turn into anything more. After all the most I'd ever been out with one girl was about 3 times, and then they all pretty much decided to give up on me. I thought she'll just be a stuck-up hot chick, and she won't go out with me again anyways.

I informed my Grandma that I wanted to call her up. She gave me her number, and I called her on my way to a BYU football game. Obviously the conversation needed to be short, and it was. I told her who I was and that I would like to take her out. She said yes, we made the plans, and I was off the phone as quickly as I possibly could be. This was for 2 reasons, the game was about to start and I didn't want to screw it up. She later told me she thought something was wrong with me because of the abrupt conversation over the phone, luckily for her she still went out with me anyways.

Our first date was to JCW's (a local burger joint), and a movie. We doubled with my friends Andy and Sarah. Sarah walked in the restaurant and she said she knew exactly who my date was just by my description of being "my dreamgirl." We had an alright time, and Andrea invited me into her apartment after (don't worry, no hanky-panky took place), we talked for a couple of hours and I asked her if I could have a round 2. She reluctantly replied "yes."

The next date really went well, and this time we talked until about 3:00 am. We really hit it off from this point on. I told her that I really liked her and that I wanted to kiss her, but that I didn't kiss until after the third date. At the end of the evening I asked her if she would come to my family pre-thanksging party (we had this because my sister was going on her mission soon and she would miss Thanksgiving), she said yes, and made sure to clarify that this was going to be the third date. It's obvious by this answer, that by this time she clearly wanted my body...and I would later find out on our honeymoon, not just a little, but in a big way.

The thanksgiving party was sweet we had a great time, but the best part of the date was after when I got my first kiss (which turned out to be a lot of kisses actually...don't worry still on our best-behavior, unless you consider a little butt grabbing not best-behavior/what can I say I'm a butt guy, just like my father before me, and she's got a GREAT butt).

Long-story-short, it took Andrea about two months to come around to the idea that I was actually responsible enough for her. After about three-months of dating we got engaged, and we were married six-months from the time we first went out.