29 to 30

Michael George Lee I thought it appropriate to begin with the thing i'm most thankful for...my husband, Mike. I think it's pretty common to take our spouses for granted and to forget (as time goes by) the amazing journey we've had and the beginning when it all started. Life gets monontonous and it's so great for me to look back at how it all began. Mike and I met through my cousin and also my sister. It was the spring of 2005 and I remember at some family function my aunt asked me if I was seeing anybody...I was and so she said "well when you guys break up let me know because I think you'd go really well with Tyler's (my cousin) friend, Mike". At the time I was pretty caught up in my current relationship and so I didn't think much of it. Low and behold a few weeks later we broke up. My sister, Missy, was hanging out with Tyler a lot and so she had met Mike and she began to get in on the conversations and she decided a cool way to get us to meet. Together, we organized a wiffle ball (a Wardwell family favorite) game and invited a bunch of friends from our singles ward as well as Tyler and Mike to come over and play. I remember thinking that Mike was cute but it was actually pretty awkward of a situation because a guy that I had casually been dating showed up and didn't leave my side the whole night and another guy that something had kinda gone on with (you know those, the ones where you don't know how to describe it but it was something) was also there...therefore, Mike and I actually didn't hardly speak to eachother. Missy asked me if I thought he was cute, I said yes and that was that. The next day I'm at work and I get this text message from someone whose number I don't know. It's just asking me how i'm doing, etc. I respond with "who is this" and i get this almost panicked message back "oh, i'm really sorry, your sister told me you wanted me to text you". turns out it was mike. he was at efy (as a counselor) that week and so we spent the whole week texting back and forth. he asked me out for saturday and i had already made plans to go 4wheeling with some friends so i invited him to come with us. we went up American Fork canyon and spent a few hours riding 4 wheelers up the trails. i remember he kept trying to turn around and converse with me but i couldn't hear him and it was funny. This was june 17th. we got high up in the mountains where there was still snow and came across a car stuck in it. mike and the other guys all helped to push it out and i was standing with the girls watching. at one point we heard something break and mike turned away from us. i walked over closer to him and saw that the snow around him was covered in blood. he turned around and i almost panicked when i saw the amount of blood there was on his hand and arm. my friend was a nurse and she packed snow on it and then one of the guys took his shirt off and wrapped it around his hand and we put him in a passing by jeep and all booked it down the mountain. it took us about 45 minutes to get to the mouth of the canyon and i still remember riding behind mike and he kept turning around and waving at me with this goofy grin (i know that grin well now) in a way of reassuring me he was fine. we took him to the emergency room and i had to call his parents to get all his insurance info, etc...this was our first date! the nurses all joked about what a great story it would be if things worked out. turns out, he severed 2 tendons in his finger and it was barely hanging on at that point. he had surgery 2 days later. after that, we spent pretty much every day together. the next friday we went to the Lehi Roundup and that's where he first held my hand and later that night had our first kiss. he actually told me he loved me on the 4th of july. we both realized it was crazy that it was so fast but i think we both knew this was right after the first couple of days. he proposed on September 11th and we had planned to get married the following May but decided we couldn't wait and moved it up to December 23rd. i had so much fun dating mike. he gave me butterflies. i loathed the end of the night when we had to go our seperate ways. we spent numerous nights laying outside on my trampoline looking up at the stars and talking. we loved to drive up the mountains to look out spots. he worked for the bball team at the U of U and we spent countless hours together doing laundry and other managerial chores...just because we wanted to be together. i remember the first flowers he sent me. i actually got in trouble at work because i would always leave early because i wanted to go see him. i remember the details surrounding our first fight (thank you myspace :)) i remember spending countless hours texting at all hours of the night. i remember missing him so much when he went on vacation with his parents because those were the only days we didn't see each other during that whole time. i remember how excited we were to go camping with some friends for his birthday because we got to "sleep" together. i remember going to look at engagement rings. i remember him faking me out and making me think he was going to propose one night but actually did it a few days later. i remember being so excited that i got to spend eternity with my best friend. i love you mike!