Running To Her Destiny!

As fast as she could!

Many years ago in a far away land a young woman did some running on a cold winters night...okay not really. It was night time and it was cold and it feels like it was many years ago. In fact almost 5 years ago.

This is a shout-out to Anna...Hi Anna! Anna (hope that is how you spell your name) has never heard the running through the Kimball building story. I would love to share this special moment in Melissa Brubaker's life.

While in school at BYU-Idaho I participated in many clubs/organizations. This story takes place on the second meeting of my first club/organization I had joined. Unfortunately I don't remember the club/organization's purpose...knowing myself so well I would guess it was something to do with saving the world!

Melissa and I had been dating for a long time...approaching 2 months! Remember we are talking BYU-I standards. She was so head-over-heals for me that she insisted on coming to my meeting. I told her that was fine with me but there was to be no lovey-dovey in the meeting. This was business! I don't think she liked that.

The meeting lasted a whopping 30 minutes. Being the intellectual individual that I am I immediately noticed something was wrong as we left. When we got into Melissa's car she asked why I wanted to be in the club/organization so bad. I said that I wanted to save the world (something close to that anyway). Melissa had much more devious notions than this.

I endured the next 30 minutes of "You just want to go to the meetings for that cute blonde manager!" and "You sure were nice to her!". After trying to explain that all I wanted was to save the world (or something really close to that) I had had enough.

Quick background information. Melissa had been all over me from week one. I don't blame her a bit. After a grueling 6 weeks of courtship and 6 months of email while I was in Iraq I had decided that she was the woman for me. I had two options in my mind. Option #1 was to club her over the head and take her back to my cave. Option #2 was to ask her to marry me. After much deliberation I decided to go with Option #2. See paragraph above...intellectual individual! For the woman that couldn't keep her hands or eyes off of me she dodged the marriage bullet like a pro! Twice!

Back to the story...I told Melissa that she was mistaken. I had no interest in the blonde manager of the club/organization. I had a long day and did not want to play this particular game...there were other games on my mind. Well she told me that she didn't want to play either. I said "well I am done and now I am leaving" she said "fine!".

Phewww...long story! I got out of her car...she squealed the tires and left at 60 mph...Melissa only has one speed in a car...60mph. I just so happened to be in the Kimball parking lot at the time. I walked through the parking lot and into the building. The whole way I was thinking to myself "boy what a mistake! 6 weeks of dating? What was I thinking! That blonde is kind of cute...maybe I would have a chance" (that last part was a joke!). When I had made it to the far side of the building and almost at the doors I looked up and in the reflection of the glass doors I saw Melissa! She was running down the stairs as fast as she could!

My first thought was "wow she left the parking lot at 60mph and must have ran back at 90mph!" I turned around and she gave me the cutest sad puppy dog face I have ever seen.

To make this long winded story end I will just say we spent the next hour breaking up, making up, eating at Mill-hollow Yogurt and finally making-out!

5 years later I have been married to the love of my life! The only cute blonde that I know! Well she thinks she is blonde but really she is a brunette! ;)

Some kind of wonderful...

The last 5 years have also been the best 5 years of my life.  And no it's not because I've been married to Ben. 

Haha!  JK! Of course that's why!  Had you going though didn't I?

He was a take charge kinda guy from the beginning and anyone who knows me knows how I feel about a man with a plan.  Plus I'm a total sucker for a man in uniform.  Can't help it, I was just born this way!  There's something about camouflage that attracts me...I wonder if it's my incessant need to use the "hon, I can't see you joke"  Ha!  Cracks me up every time.  I never get tired of using it!

I knew I was in trouble when after our first date/meeting he called me up and invited me to lunch the very next day.  This was no ordinary invite.  The typical guy would say something like 'so are you busy this weekend?  Wanna hang out and do something?'   Boring!  My automatic response is no, followed by some back tracking from saying no too quickly.

This man knew what he was doing...he had a plan.  He gave me an ultimatum.  Little did I know this man with a plan was full of ultimatums.  This particular one was between to restaurants that I got to choose from for lunch. 

Confession: neither place sounded good at the time I was half tempted to suggest something else...but I was so intrigued by his clear cut objective that I couldn't resist choosing one of the options.  It was kind of like being on a game show and having to choose between door #1 and door #2.  I racked my brain about which one to choose!  Thank goodness there were only two options.  What a brilliant man!  How did he know I was so indecisive?? 

After choosing door #2, unless of course it was actually door #1,  we ended up spending an entire day and evening together.  I dragged him to the mall with me where he duped me into believing he was 'a holder' and actually enjoyed shopping with me.  I believed that wholeheartedly until the truth came out after we were married, and I never went to Idaho Falls again.

That's ok, silly man, thought I liked football. Pft haha!  Sucker.

After 3 wedding proposals, one dramatic break up involving a running scene through the kimball building, followed by an equally dramatic make up scene...we finally tied the knot.

Looking back on the past 5 years some of my favorite snapshot memories are:

Ben lowering a fridge over a balcony with his brute strength, chasing me in circles in our Sunrise Apt, picking both me and his cousin Megan up and locking us outside, throwing me over his shoulder and running me up 2 flights of stairs to our Aspen Apt, chasing me at my parents house while saying things like 'if it moves, I chase it!'  fighting over a bag of cheetohs, calling my sister Marie after a fight in which he told me I was selfish, his emu farm idea, his beekeeping idea, his candy machine idea, his alpaca idea, you get the idea.

The list goes on and on.

After 3 short weeks of marriage we moved to Alaska.  Ben went a few days ahead of me to find a place for us to live.  I remember over hearing him telling someone after the fact that he was really stressed those few days in Alaska trying to find a safe/nice place for his new wife to live.  By some stroke of luck Ben found a place for his new wife just an hour before she flew in.  The new wife had no idea he was so worried about providing her with a nice safe place to live.  I guess an army guy like him could live anywhere, but a new wife is a game changer ;)

Those few days apart seemed like forever and I was elated to see my very young handsome husband waiting there for me at the airport.  He took my luggage from me, I hopped on a ferry for the first time ever and we headed off for the remote island that was our new home.

Alaska was love at first sight.  The way the mountain islands popped out of the ocean was breathtaking.  I had never seen anything like that before.  There was wildlife everywhere.  I got used to bald eagles swooping down from the sky right in front of me to scavenge for food.  On my morning walk to work I would see humpback whales waving their tales at me, and I would hear reports from the tourists about all the bears and killer whales they had seen that day.

A picture of us camping as we made our way back from Alaska.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

“When our friendless standards were first unfurled, who were the strangers who first mustered around our staff? And when it reeled in the light, who more brilliantly sustained it than Erin’s generous sons? Ireland, thou friend of my country in my country’s most friendless days, much injured, much enduring land, accept this poor tribute from one who esteems thy worth, and mourns thy desolation. May the God of Heaven, in His justice and mercy, grant thee more prosperous fortunes, and in His own time, cause the sun of Freedom to shed its benign radiance on the Emerald Isle.”






-- President George Washington in a letter to the people of Ireland

Ginger Steak Salad--The After Shock

The explosion of flavor also created an explosion on my lip!  I woke up this morning with a gigantic cold sore!  Ugh!   I'm so glad the one day in years that I get a cold sore on my lip, I get to have my picture taken for work and then talk in front of a bunch of people.  Yikes!  Ok so it wasn't that bad.  My friend Jess let me do several do-overs on my picture and gave me adequate time to pose. Which is saying a lot.  Plus I got a new title, I am now a specialist instead of an assistant. Ben said I'm almost a seargent! ....more like a seargent major if you ask me.

New Beginnings was tonight and I had a nice time. I was impressed with how nice the program turned out.  I had  a small speaking part.  I had to give an overview of the personal progress program, which is funny because I still kind of have a mental block on it.  Good thing I have a life line that I can call for situations like that.  I called my sister Marie from the church right before the program started.  Thank goodness for life lines!

I missed Benjamin's skype call this morning, after waiting for 40 minutes I gave up and went to work feeling totally dejected.  I hate when I miss his calls.  I plan my whole morning routine around them.  Get my hair perfect, make up on, cute outfit, perfume, the works!  Gotta look good for my morning date!

So there was a microburst today and it blew out windows in different locations around town.  It was really scary.  Especially when they announced over the loud speaker at work that there was an external disaster.  We were all a little frightened.  I thought it was kind of ironic since I blogged about a tornado yesterday and last week.  I have been stocking up on supplies since that time.

It was interesting watching the clouds moving so fast in such an ominous looking sky.  It was frightening.  I'm glad it's over and that the weather has turned calm again.

I'm also glad my speaking part is over.  I used to enjoy speaking in public, but now I prefer to watch from the sidelines.  I'm not as comfortable in front of a crowd as I used to be.  Not too mention I feel a bit vulnerable when my husband isn't around to reassure me.  I miss that man.

Parasitic wife latches onto husband

Ben asked me recently what I am most looking forward to for his R&R.  I said finally someone to open my jars again!!!   Just kidding. I didn't say that until tonight when I realized that I can open most of the jars all by myself now.  They say that deployment makes you stronger...'they' are right!

I told Ben that I am most looking forward to just holding his hand, looping my arm through his and just having the comfort of my strong sturdy husband by my side again.

Really, I plan on latching on like a parasite and not letting go until the very last minute!!  He's probably going to be one of those guys who misses his flight.  Because when he tries to break free of my iron jar opening grip I'm going to trip him and make him break a leg so he can't go back.  Oops I just revealed my diabolical plan on my blog.  This is top secret information so don't tell anyone ok?

Let's talk food storage for a minute.  So last Thursday before the tsunami hit Japan we had a freak windstorm here in town.  I thought for sure a tornado was coming.  So being the ever prepared confident career driven successful woman that I am, I frantically called Maren and told her we had to hurry to Walmart to beat the stampede of people desperately trying to purchase last minute supplies.

As we were hurrying into walmart I saw a guy carrying a vacuum out of the store...I thought to myself...that is not going to cover it buddy!  So after a frantic search at walmart...ok so the panic wore off when I got inside and started listening to that soothing elevator music they are always playing.  Whoa sidetracked!  Anywho I realized most things with a shelf life are carb loaded, and so opted for 5 boxes of mac'n cheese.  I'm covered.  If anyone's hungry during the next tornado come on over, but please bring milk.


On a side note--I decided to start making my post titles more like a news headline.  Fun huh?  Maybe it will last, maybe it won't.


P.S. I made the most delicious Ginger Steak Salad that I got off of http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/03/ginger-steak-salad/

It was full of flavor!!  So refreshing to my tastebuds!  The chile lime orzo soldier soup is like yoga for your mouth, so I would have to say this salad is like pilates for your mouth.  

...and you marry who you date!

and John Wayne...apparently:

Yeah that's him the guy in the blue shirt that says "Stunning looks and brains too".

 

He feels the need to advertise it.

 

(By the way thanks Maren for letting me use your mug...My hot chocolate tasted extra delicious in it!)

Confessions...

Ben confessed to me last night that he was disappointed that I never became a nurse.

That's ok.  I was disappointed when he didn't follow through with International Relations.
I was so looking forward to living in foreign countries and meeting all sorts of diplomats and dignitaries!

In just the first few days of knowing eachother Ben and I tagged along with one another to get all of our school stuff in order.  He came with me to meet with teachers, counselors etc.  Unbeknownst to me at the time he was already mapping out our future and had decided me being a nurse would really benefit our future family.

 Funny, because as I was tagging along with him I was thinking International Relations would be awesome because we would get to live in foreign countries!

Along the way our goals and our dreams changed as so often they do in college.  I vaguely remember being disappointed about the switch from International Relations, but he was always so excited about the next thing he was working on I couldn't help but be happy for him.  I know he felt the same way about my change in interests.

On a side note-- in that first week of getting to know eachother in person (after 6 months of writing) everywhere we went people would ask us if we were married.  All of Ben's counselors/teachers would ask if I was his wife...we had no spoken commitment of any kind at that point.  I do remembering perking up when he was hesitant to say no. It seemed like more of a not yet instead of a no. 

It put a little bounce in my step--like 'hey I'm this cute guy's future wife!'  Or so I hoped!

 When I brought him home for the first time after 2 weeks of pal-ing around together my sister Becky asked him when he was going to propose.  He told me later he was thinking any day. 

I love my soldier! 

 

 Hmmm...I wonder if he is really surprised that someone is taking his picture?

It looks like he is taking it of himself...maybe he caught himself by surprise?

That's gotta be it.