I'm Grateful for Tara

I thought this would be a good time to talk about some of the people I'm grateful for in my life. Rather than tell you how much Tara means to me in the now, I'd like to reminisce about the past. Here's my version of how Tara and I first met.

In the Spring of 1996 I was a newly returned missionary headed back to the U to resume my education. I was bright eyed and full of hope that I would meet a girl and get married. Little did I know how quickly that would happen. Like any good RM I was enrolled in two Institute classes, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. I can't even remember the content of the classes, but I remembered my afternoon class because of a pretty, young lady. My friend Dave was the first to arrive to class and he generally sat in the same seat every day. There was an empty seat beside him and that's where I would go. It just so happened that Tara was the young lady in the next seat over.

We struck up a conversation one day in class and she told me that she was also a newly returned missionary. I don't think the class made much of an impression on either of us, but we were starting to make an impression on one another. Each time the class would end I would go home kicking myself because I didn't have the guts to ask her out.

Finally, I decided to play the coy line, "So, do have big plans for the weekend?" I was stunned when her response came back, "As a matter of fact I do have big plans." After weeks of conversation and social ground work I was shot down; I was totally dejected. I assumed it was only a matter of time before she was going to give me the old "I just think of you as a friend" line that I had heard so often as a teenager.

For the next month we talked and kept a friendly acquaintance going, but I was totally gun shy about asking Tara on a date again. I decided to go for broke on the 9th May of 1996 and asked if Tara wanted to go out on the following Friday. Much to my amazement, she said YES!

Tara and I started dating and by the end of the summer things were starting to get pretty serious. I had actually met her parents and they hadn't kicked me out! Before you knew it, March of 97' was upon us and Tara and I were engaged.

The rest, as they say, is history. 11 years, 2 kids, and 1 mortgage later - Tara and I are still in love and our relationship grows stronger everyday. I can't imagine my life without her and I'm still amazed that pretty, young lady said yes when I asked her out on a date.