j & j parker and company: BEST DAY. EVER.

(FYI: longest post in the history of blogging.)

FEBRUARY 24, 2010

The day that my life changed forever.

(other than the complete 180 turn my life took on Dec. 24, 2009 :) )

It was our anniversary. 2 months to be exact.

Not long enough by some standards.

But it felt like an eternity for us.

We had known for quite some time. In fact, it had been 11 days since we had gone ring shopping.

Only my mom knew we were going. Ok, and my favorite little brother knew shortly after also.

We went straight to meet my Dad at the BYU basketball game after, acting like we hadn't just been out shopping for wedding rings. It was tough.

Ok, I'm getting side-tracked.

Back to the BIG STORY :)

We had tickets to go to the Jazz Game on the night of the 24th, and it was fitting, because that is also what we did for our first official date.

Joey called on the 23rd, and said we should also go to dinner before the game.

That was normal.

He also said that we would be going to a little bit nicer place, and that we should probably dress up a little bit.

This was out of the ordinary.

I asked him the time and he said he had made reservations for 5:30.

Reservations, I thought. Must be a big deal.

That whole day, while at work, I was completely giddy with anticipation.

He usually came up on Wednesday nights, so I was used to that. And we had been to plenty of other Jazz games.

But NOT on our anniversary. And definitely NOT after having gone RING SHOPPING!

I got off work early. I went to the store and bought water-proof mascara.

I showered. I made sure my hair looked PERFECT.

I sent pictures to my bestie JO to ask her opinion on my outfit.

We could tell this was going to be a BIG night.

I of course was ready over and HOUR ahead of schedule and was way to anxious to wait alone in my apartment. So I went upstairs and hung out in the kitchen with Olga and Tory, trying to contain by obvious anxiety, and not letting on about what I thought the night had in store.

Joey called and told me he would be late.

More waiting.

Joey called back. More waiting.

Finally, he was calling me from around the corner, and my heart about leapt out of my chest.

I was at the open front door before he was probably even out of his truck. We hugged and kissed, and wished each other a happy anniversary and swiftly got on our way.

As we started driving down South Temple from my Apartment (in the avenues)

I knew right away where we were going. When he asked where the parking for the

Joseph Smith Memorial Building

was, I was even more certain.

We parked and went up the elevator to the top floor, and got to the entrance of

THE ROOF

I had never been and was way excited. We of course got seated with an AMAZING view of the temple,

and sat across from each other, just beaming. Dinner went off without a hitch, and we took some photos,

and were on our way, as we were already late to the game.

Walking into the game, we started heading to our usual seats, nosebleeds in portal JJ.

What Joey didn't know, was that my brother-in-law had been offered GREAT seats, and wasn't going to be using them, and so graciously offered them to me.

Joey asked where we were headed, and I of course said, ' to our seats.'

he realized we weren't going up any stairs, and was a bit confused, just as we got to Portal M.

I told him to follow me and led him down to our seats for the night, on

ROW 11

We were right behind the home basket after the second half, and right in the action.

It was awesome, and Joey was loving it.

The Jazz won, and my streak of never being at a losing game continued.

Walking back to the car, it started raining. We had planned on walking around Temple Square after the game though, and had planned accordingly. When we got to the Temple, the rain had quickly turned into freezing SNOW. I didn't care. I changed into my boots, and put on my coat, and we braved the storm.

In walking around, I was showing him my favorite places and angles to take pictures from, and he wanted to show me his. We began walking across the lawn toward the pedestal at the end of the grass, and I KNEW it was coming.

As we got there, we stood hugging, and trying to keep warm through the wind and snow.

My hair was ruined.

My cute outfit was covered with a winter coat.

I was wearing UGG boots with TIGHTS.

Not a look I would like to repeat.

I WAS WITH JOEY.

We told each other how much we loved each other, and lots of personal things I will keep to ourselves.

The next thing I knew he was down on one knee.

He asked me to marry him.

I said

ABSOLUTELY.