Paul and Mignonne

Here is another post in honor of Valentine’s Day. It is how Paul and I met and fell in love. I want to thank Emily Kate for suggesting that everyone share their love story. I had never written it down before and it will be good for the kids to have. Warning, this is epic and I don't really expect any of you to read the whole thing. I am just putting here for my posterity. LOL!

The beginning here might be sort-of hard to follow and seem irrelevant and for that I apologize.

When I moved to Utah in July of 1994 (side note, my first day of work was July 5^th which is Paul’s birthday. Awww!) I was so excited to be out on my own I picked the first apartment I toured. I signed a lease at Raintree Apartments for summer, fall/winter and the following summer. The stream and ducks it had running through it drew me in. It wasn’t long though before I realized six girls in one apartment was going to be a challenge for me.

I went on a date with this cute guy (he was a total tool but that’s besides the point) who hit on me while I was shopping at the Copper Rivet. He took me to his apartment and I was shocked. He. Had. His. Own. Room. I honestly hadn’t known this was an option. I knew that the minute my contact was up I was moving to King Henry. In March the fall contracts went on sale and I was there. I signed up and all was good.

Now we are going to go back in time a little bit. It is now towards the end of the first summer that I lived in Raintree. I see from my balcony, a blonde stud out by the pool. He was amazing. I threw on my bikini and wiggled my little rear (yes at the time it was small) right out to that pool. By this time he had gotten in the water, which was perfect. I could innocently put down my towel right next to his and it wouldn’t be the least bit obvious that I was doing it to be near him. He got out of the water and ignored me completely. A little while had passed and I asked him if he knew what time it was. He told me he didn’t and he didn’t even try to make conversation.

I went inside defeated. A few days later we got a package in the mail. It was addressed to a male but had the right apartment number on it. I called the office and asked where Mike lived and they told me the correct apartment. I went right over and knocked on the door. Guess who answered? Blonde stud. I asked for Mike, he said that he was Mike; I said this is yours; he said thanks and closed the door in my face. Clearly he was not the least bit interested. I found out on Sunday that he was in my ward. He proceeds to ignore my all the way through December!

At our Christmas party at the bishop’s house all of a sudden Mike comes over, squeezes right next to me on the couch, and starts taking to me. I am shocked! The next thing I know he is asking me if I would like to ride with him up to the airport right then and there. I say yes, of course, and go off with him. We had to stop and his grandma’s house where I then meet his ENTIRE extended family. We play games and sing songs. I find out he has the same birthday as my brother and the chemistry is so there! (He never did tell me why he was so cold at first or why the sudden change of heart. One of lives mysteries I suppose) It’s obvious that we are meant to be together, right?

We date, however not exclusively, for the rest of the school year. He leaves to go home for the summer. He invites me to come to San Diego to visit him. It goes well. We cool it a bit while we are apart and he makes it very clear that while he does love me we are to see other people, which I had been and continued to do.

It is now the end of summer 1995.

I was getting ready to move to my new apartment, UVSC had already started it’s classes, BYU had not. I had an obscenely early math class and one morning while I was getting ready I heard, in my mind, clear as day, “Move to Old Mill”. Now I knew of some other people who had signed contracts there so I chalked this up to the power of suggestion. I tried to put it out of my mind. It was all I could think about during class. It was haunting me. After class it was still so early I knew that none of the apartment offices would be open so I went home. I still felt like I needed to move to Old Mill.

As soon as I could I called Old Mill and asked if they had any rooms left. They had one. I hurried over and signed the contract. I now had to two legally binding contracts for two different apartments. I called King Henry and asked what I had to do to get out of my contract. They said that I could sign a release and once they had sold all of the other rooms they would put mine up. I asked how many were left and they said three. I was number four in line. I hurried over to sign the paper and when I got there one of the girls was on the phone. She said, “We have someone signing one away right now.” In the time it took me to drive there they sold three apartments and mine was sold the minute I signed on the dotted line.

Everything was working out just perfectly right? Nope. I found out that I had to be out of Raintree one week BEFORE I could move into Old Mill. I was homeless for one week. I was upset and talking about this at work with my manager when my brand new co-worker Lindsay says, “you can stay with me”. My response? “I don’t know you”. Nice right? I take her up on her offer out of desperation. I had to rent a storage unit and live on her floor at Liberty Square Apartments for a week.

She was great. One night she came home and said, “Get ready. We’re going to the canyon.” I said I couldn’t because I had too much homework. Anyone who knows me knows that this is by far the funniest part of the story. Me? Worried about homework? Bwahahaha! She had a hot guy she was after and knew he was getting together with a bunch of people from his mission and by golly she was going to be there!

Finally I relented and off we went with another girl from across the hall. Now keep in mind I was still hopelessly smitten with Mike. He was playing hardball though and dang it so was I.

We arrived at someone’s home. It was the place where we would meet and then car pool to the canyon. (It was pretty obvious at this point that the object of Lindsay’s desires, Zane, didn’t exactly welcome our presence) I scanned my options and chose Paul as the cutest one there, the one I would flirt with to keep from getting bored. He went off with a carload of girls and we got stuck in an Army truck with a guy name Nate. So much for that plan.

Later that night Lindsay and I were sitting by the campfire talking and laughing about how her neighbor was still pegging and rolling her pants, I mean that is so 1992, when Paul asked if we were laughing about her pegged pants. Hold the phone, a guy who knew about fashion? I perked right up. He then went on to say how he loved shopping and would go often to the Mall of America. This had to be too good to be true right? We enjoyed each others company that night and at some point I guess I touched his knee. This was apparently pretty exciting for him seeing as how he had just gotten home from his mission.

Some time went by I figured I would never see Paul again. Mike and I were still dating even though he still had no plans to commit. If nothing else I’m persistent.

By this point it was late September. I was at school one day and I see Nate from the canyon. He re-introduces himself and says, “Hey a bunch of us are going Latin dancing tonight.” To which I reply, “Have a great time. I don’t Latin dance.” His next words were, “Paul’s going to be there.” To which I replied, “what time are you going?” He got my number and told me Paul would call to set up a time to come and get me.

I went home and was actually hanging out and probably smooching with Mike (yes Paul knows this) when Paul called and asked when he could pick me up. We decided on a time and Mike left so I could get ready for my date. LOL! See what happens when you don’t commit?

Paul picked me up and we went to The Palace. I had told him that he better stay close to me because I was scared to be Latin dancing and that I was afraid of whom might ask me to dance. I did have to dance with one older stranger but Paul did a good job sticking by my side.

We danced our first dance to Selena’s I could Fall in Love and that is just what happened. He and I were stuck together like glue for the rest of the night. Some of the other people in the group even made comments like “Whoa, what’s going on there?” We were inseparable from that time forward.

A week later we were watching Some Kind of Wonderful. I had told him how the practice kiss in the gas station garage is the best movie of all time. After that scene was over I looked at him and said, “See!” That is when we had our first kiss. I knew from that kiss that he was the one, and that no other kiss could ever compare to it. I also knew I would never kiss anyone else again and I haven’t!

Now my poor sweet mother had been there for me through every failed relationship and broken heart. I was determined not to tell her I was in love, again. I mean it was getting a little embarrassing. This time felt very different though, but I wanted to be sure. Paul was mentioned casually but when we started making plans for a trip home together I thought I had better come clean. I called her one day and simply said, “Guess what?” She said, “You love him.” I asked how she knew and she said that the first time I said his name her heart leapt and she knew.

We went to California and talked about marriage for the first time while driving on the Golden Gate Bridge. (Even though he had booked my ticket as Mignonne Gardner, Ahhh the scan cut it off. I might need to fix that) We were both feeling it even though he didn’t want to. He had only been home a short time and was pretty resistant to falling in love. Some more time passed and it was still undeniable. We both had been thinking of dates and I knew in my head I was thinking April 30^th. Finally he said that he thought if we did get married it would be on April 30th.

That was it for me. At that point I called the Salt Lake Temple and made a reservation for 11:00 am. I let him know what I had done and he was a little shocked. It was just a short time later before he bought the ring and actually proposed.

He had cleaned my room, had bouquet of balloons and told me to pop one of them. It had a note that read look in my pocket. I did and there was a ring box. He got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. That was December 12^th 1995. The first time we had to be apart since the night we went dancing was when he went home for Christmas shortly after proposing. It was really hard to be away from my best friend. I wrote him daily while we were apart.

The new year brought wedding planning and a lot of firsts. We celebrated our first Valentine’s Day and created a tradition that we still carry on to this day with pizza and Martinelli’s.

He was there with me while I picked my dress and the bridesmaids dresses. He was my rock when I found out my photographer committed suicide (I hadn't me him yet, picked him based on his work, so don't blame me!) He was a trooper. We went through the Jordan River temple together three years to the day from when he took out his endowments in the same temple.

I will never forget sitting in the Celestial Room together on our wedding day. It seemed like we had to wait forever before we could go in with our friends and family. Once we were able to kneel across the altar and look at each other it was confirmed again that I had made the right choice. We were sealed for time and all eternity and then we got in trouble for kissing too long.

If I hadn’t listened to that voice, if Lindsay hadn’t been prompted to ask me to move in with her, if she hadn’t taken me by force to the canyon, if Nate hadn’t asked me to go Latin dancing and if Mike had been willing to commit I would have missed out on the best thing that has ever happened to me.

I will tell you that I called Mike a year or so after my wedding while I was back in Utah as a bridesmaid. He confessed that he wished he had committed to me, he was hoping that I was calling to give him a second chance and that he felt like he had really lost out. HA! You snooze you lose buddy.

I hope everyone writes down their love story and blogs it! It was so fun thinking back to the old days and looking through the pictures and scrapbook pages.

Happy Valentine's Day.