Years Gone By

On Saturday, Lester and I celebrated our first year of marriage together. As I mentioned below, we spent it with friends and family, and did a low budget date the next day.

As we spent our time talking that night, I asked Lester when he thought he first loved me. While to many of you this may sound extremely corny and cliché [which it probably it is] I have to give you some background. I met Lester at a youth conference when we were 14. We both remember it-there was a slow song and Lester asked me to dance. We both remember feeling so enamored with each other-even with my frizzy hair and braces, and his slicked down, parted in the middle hair and glasses. But we were in different wards, and although we often wondered about each other, never really expected to see much of each other again. Then my ward was dissolved, and his ward boundaries were changed and we ended up in the same ward. After many miscommunications, we found ourselves officially dating one another at 16, and I suppose the rest is history.

While I can remember all these things, I can't remember a time when I didn't love Lester. This is one of the reasons I asked him-because I couldn't remember when I first started loving him. His answer was just as corny as my question, but just as true-he referred me to the song by Brad Paisley, "Then". It goes through the sweet story of a couple and his feelings for his now wife, and how no matter how many years go by, he always thinks he can never love her more. But every year, every moment he looks at her, he realizes that he was wrong-he loves her infinitely more with every day, which he thought impossible. The chorus says, 'And I thought I loved you then." This song defines us. When I was 16, and the first time Lester held my hand, I thought I loved him. Maybe I was a twitter pated teen, but I loved him. When we had our first kiss, I knew I wrong-this was real love. As the years went by and his mission came, and he was preparing to leave, I thought my heart was breaking-and I thought I could never love him more. Again, I was wrong. When he came back, and proposed to me years later, I thought that was it-I could never love somebody more. Now, a year of being married him has gone by. We have laughed, cried, fought, and done all those first year things-but I thought I loved him then, and I love him so much more now. I realize now that it is as that song says- "What I can't see is how I'm ever gonna love you more…but I've said that before."

And now that it is a few days later, it is my grandparents 63rd wedding anniversary, and I look at them and see how much they love each other, and feel overwhelmed with love, gratitude, and excitement for the day when I can love him even more then I do now, although it feels impossible.

So happy anniversary to both me and my sweet, amazing husband, and my incredible grandparents. I look forward to an eternity more for all of us.

PS: This song is numero 31 on the playlist-check it and then ball your eyes out while you think about your sweet significant other!