The End of My Journey as a Single Woman!

So, Clayton and I went out for Valentine's Day. He thought it would be fun to dress up. SO I just knew that he was going to propose. The evening was great, but not what I had expected. The next night, Clayton came over and we were just hanging out talking. He turns to me and says, "So, hypothetically speaking, would May be too soon?" "Too soon?" "Yeah, too soon." "For what?" "To get married?" "Uh, no..." The discussion continued and ended with us having set May 28 as our wedding date. Still no ring. Still no official proposal. Because it was a holiday weekend that we had chosen, we decided we had better call the temple ASAP.

In the mean time, I was on my way home from work one night and called Clayton like I usually did. We chatted with some "Hang on a seconds" on his end. He asked me where I was and I told him just a couple of miles from home. I heard a bit of panic in his voice, but couldn't figure out why. When I turned the corner to get home, I saw his car parked in its usual spot. I opened the garage door, but my mom's car was gone. Curious. Just moments later, my mom's car turned the corner and I saw her and Clayton in the car. I wonder what THEY could have been up to. Clayton was acting all weird and when we decided to all go out to dinner together, he wouldn't let me sit in the front seat with my mom. So she chauffered us all over town. Very odd. But I knew deep down what was going on.

On March 1, I called the temple and scheduled our sealing, still with no ring or proposal. Clayton wanted to go out on the 4th, but wasn't feeling good. He called the next day and we planned to go out to dinner. He thought it would be fun to dress up "since we hadn't done that in a while." I knew what was coming...FINALLY! So he picked me up and we went out to Pei Wei for dinner. We were then planning to head up to the Fountain Hills/Scottsdale area to a lookout. But when we left dinner, Clayton headed the wrong direction. We pulled up to the Mesa Temple and he told me we should walk around for a while. He walked me over to the east side of the temple on the walkway and stopped. He got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. He had barely gotten out the question before I jumped on him and said "YES!" I couldn't believe it! I was finally, at 27 (and nearing 28) going to get married!

The next few months were filled with planning and getting everything together.

And on May 28, 2005 at 10:43am at the Mesa, AZ Temple, we were pronounced husband and wife. It's been an awesome and sometimes frustrating journey, but I love Clayton with all my heart and can't imagine spending the rest of my life with anyone else! I love you so so so so so much, Honey! Thanks for putting up with me!