random post but mostly this is for Cara

To echo Cara in all things I too have to put up a disclaimer that this is a really long post mostly interesting to family. All others feel free to stop after the third paragraph! You do have to read to the end of paragraph 3, if you have gotten this far anyway...

The boys have been in school for 3 days. Olivia and I are wasting the days away in the hotel until we move into our house on Feb 2. Then I will have 250+ boxes to unpack and may not have the time to blog such interesting things. So enjoy it.

First up is a confession. Olivia and I are heated game players. And I shamelessly don't let my 3 year old win at Memory. If she does win it is because her skills are that good. All other times I whoop her to loser land. See, shameless. The other games I am admitting to playing are Webkinz. I love Cash Cow and Cash Cow 2. If you do not have a Webkinz go get one and start playing the games! They are a lot better than solitaire!

Second bit of randomness is that I am in need of being thankful again. Sharon told me to make myself think of one thing a day that I was thankful for up here. I still need to get a little journal for it but yesterday's thankful thought was "I am thankful my Wal-mart looks cool." It means that you live in a place that values aesthetics when you have a Wal-mart that is not the standard blue. Eagle River's Wal-mart looks like this.

Nice huh? Remember we are grasping at straws here...

Third bit of randomness for this post is an answer to Cara's tag. (this is where the disinterested can stop reading) You have to read how she and Mitch met Here. It is one of my favorite stories because they truly met in the most random of situations! So her tag was to tell how we all met our husbands. And since JaDee has been in the dog house lately it is time I start letting a bit of that go and reminisce why I do love him.

I was a sophomore at BYU (aka The Lord's University). Carrie and I were desperate to meet people in our new ward. We were feeling like the youngest people ever in our BYU 57th ward. Everyone we had met so far had been in the ward for YEARS! All of these 20 somethings were ancient to us barely 19 year olds. One of our roommates had even lived in our house for YEARS! So we decided to make the best of it and meet the cute guys we had scoped out in sacrament meeting, and threw a Halloween party. We made up flyers and started passing those out to everyone in our ward and everyone from our freshman ward too. We talked the girls in the basement apartment to join in and we ended up emptying ALL of their furniture into the scary garage behind our house, set up a DJ and made that the dance floor. Our upstairs apartment was host to scary movies, food and mingling.

Anyway JaDee's apartment actually invited us in when we knocked on the door with their flyer. Carrie and I chatted with them for 45 minutes one Sunday night and then went to ward prayer with them. I remember him laughing at something very clever and funny I said at ward prayer that night so of course he must be worth getting to know.

The party was a huge success. Our house was perfect and the dancing downstairs was a hit. At one point we had about 200 people there. Carrie and I dressed as hippies with clothes from DI. We dressed our sweet innocent freshman roommate as a hooker...that was from our own wardrobe. JaDee came as Kramer from Seinfeld. His crazy curly red hair was a perfect Kramer-do! We met tons of people from our new ward and had tons of people from our old ward there as well. Carrie is a perfect co-host and we mingled with all and made some great friendships that night.

Our house ended up hanging out with JaDee's house a lot. We all shared a love for Beavis and Butthead, Taco Bell and The Simpsons. JaDee and I didn't start dating until that December. And that is where the real story begins.

My parents had just moved from NY to Texas and I had a boyfriend in both states. A more serious one in Texas actually. I met him at the record store in the mall where I got the job by wearing a really short skirt to the interview. I remember specifically putting it on for that very reason too. I had never really dated a Mormon Boy. In fact I could hardly get a date in Utah but I had them lining up at the airports every break. I was not looking for love in all the wrong places, just not looking for love. I had goals and plans and none of them included a husband and kids. Therefore my non-Mormon boyfriends were safe because I had no plans on marrying any of them.

Then JaDee and I went to Arches National Park. We were going with a whole group including Carrie. But then the morning of our journey Carrie got a phone call that rocked her world. Luckily her dad was in Salt Lake and came right down to fill the need. I went with JaDee and his roommate and about 14 other people.

It was a cool December day and the roommate had gone to chase some girl so it just ended up being me and JaDee hiking around for the most of the day. At one point we were hiking out of some trail and it was getting dark. We were also on a ledge and I recalled that I am really not the outdoor type and had no way of knowing where I was unless I followed JaDee out. I remember jumping from one rock to another and looking at the back of JaDee's head and the thought sprang to my mind "you love this man." What!!!

Well we rode home by ourselves and JaDee must have sensed a change in my interest because he asked me out for the following weekend. We saw the Forgotten Carols by Michael McLean, and then went and saw Mortal Kombat at the dollar movies. I know, I know but look I was still 19 and he was 23! We were not exactly spiritual giants at this point (or any point now that I think about it).

Carrie said she knew the night we got back from Arches that I was a goner.

Now the rest of the story is even funnier now that I have been on the inside of JaDee's family as 2 more brothers got married after me. See Jeff was our 2nd counselor in BYU 57th ward and he and EmRee lived in the downstairs apartment of JaDee's house as newlyweds. Actually Jeff's dad owns that house to this day. I knew EmRee a little prior to my dating her brother. CaMee was in Salt Lake going to LDS BC and EmRee had set her up with Travis, the Elder's Quorum President of BYU 57th ward. Now as the most righteous eligible bachelor of the BYU 57th ward Travis had girls throwing themselves at him. And Travis being Travis he was oblivious to it all. Oh it was a sad day on 6th North when it became public knowledge that Travis was engaged to EmRee's and JaDee's little sister in Salt Lake. I don't even know if any of those silly girls knew Travis was even dating someone.

As a result of that romance CaMee was a frequent visitor to our ward. So one Sunday after Christmas break where JaDee spent every other day in Wyoming on the phone for hours with me in Texas, EmRee grabs me to sit with her in Relief Society. Keep in mind that BYU wards meet in classrooms and we were in built in desks, in the MARB for those of you familiar with campus. I remember CaMee leaning over EmRee's desk to say hi to me. I remember feeling like quite the spectacle as I now know I had every right to feel.

Those (and I should say us now) Moncur women are quite the gossips and boy do they care about who their boys date! Having witnessed what happened with Alisa and Cara as an insider I can assure you that CaMee ran straight home to call her mother to tell her all bout meeting me that Sunday. I can then assure you that it was analyzed within an inch of its life and yes I bet they know what I was wearing (I hope it wasn’t something I dressed my roommate in for Halloween...).

I also know that Grandma McNiven said, "Well we know nothing about this girl. Who do we know from back East?" Oh and let me tell you how scared I was to meet her. Which I got to do very shortly after meeting CaMee as JaDee's date to CaMee's wedding!

Except JaDee was in the line and sat at the head table for dinner and I tried to slide in next to Cousin Cindy (who had also been in the BYU 57th ward at one time) but got grabbed by my unknown future mother-in-law to sit with the parents at table #1. Oh my. Only it was Travis's dad who made me want to cry as he instructed me on how to cut my meat. True story.

Then we went to Wyoming for the reception and met all of Lovell. By this time we were spending a lot of time together and were indeed having some serious talks of our own. I got to stay in the ceremonial white bedroom that has its own bathroom on the main floor of the Moncur house (although only Cara got the full treatment with all of the Nephews being threatened within an inch of their lives if they used that bathroom when she came to Lovell for the first time). This room has been a host to all the future sons and daughters in-law and all newlyweds too. Blake and Jana were the last married and the eternal newlyweds as they get to always stay there when they are at home!

The funniest of that trip happened on the way up to the Lovell reception. It was 1 AM. I was fascinated by all the stars I could see in the middle of nowhere. In fact I could actually see the band of the Milky Way that I had only read about in science class.

Then it dawned on me. How well do I know this guy? I have absolutely no clue where I am. We got off I-80 6 hours ago. He could kill me and leave me for the coyotes. He laughed when I mentioned this to him (and not that evil-you-discovered-my-plot laugh but the you-are-so-funny laugh).

Little did I know that was a foreshadow of our life together. (The being dragged into the middle of nowhere part...not being left in the wild for coyotes to tear apart part).

Anyway, love you Jade! This post has made me smile again for you!

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