Happy Birthday to my love!

Okay, so this is 4 days late... oops! Anyways, we celebrated Burt's 24th birthday on August 22. I had school that night, but I had the whole day planned out: Wake up at 5 AM and drive out to Red Rock, watch the sunrise, and do an 8-mile hike. (I bought all kinds of fun treats for our hike.) Then, stop off at Purple Penguin on our drive home. Go home, shower, get ready. Go {finally} see Batman.

Things didn't go as planned. We woke up to pouring rain! It rained ALL day long. We ditched the hike idea and just hung out at home instead, per Burt's request. We had a birthday breakfast, watched the rain all morning, and Burt opened his gifts. It was a laid-back birthday, but super cozy! We did go see Batman, and loved it. Then I went to class and Burt went over to his parents' house. As anyone who is reading this probably knows, Burt has a twin brother, so they did a joint-birthday celebration. I got there in time to eat dinner and watch Burt blow out his birthday candles!

In honor of my love's 24th birthday, here are 24 things I LOVE about him (in no particular order):

1. He loves kids and they always love him!
2. He has a strong testimony of the Gospel.
3. He constantly boosts my self-esteem.
4. He is always helping people.
5. He treats others with kindness.
6. Booty.
7. I LOVE his smile :)
8. He tells me I'm beautiful every day.
9. He loves to cuddle.
10. He gives me massages.
11. He is a hard worker.
12. He is a kid a heart- we always have fun together!
13. He doesn't gossip.
14. He is smart.
15. He says the sweetest things to me.
16. He always says thank you.
17. His arms.
18. He listens to people.
19. He always kisses me before he leaves.
20. He always tells me that he loves me.
21. He wants to make others happy.
22. I love the gap between his teeth. {He wants to get it fixed- it makes me mad when he says that!}
23. He puts up with my drama and my crazy ideas.
24. He treats me like a princess.

Happy birthday, babe! I'm so lucky to have you!

Love Story Chapter 6

Fast forward to my 22nd birthday (May 6, 2010). My mom and sisters took me to Serendipity {yummm} for my birthday lunch. When I got there, I noticed a missed call from Burt and a voice-mail on my phone. He left me a "happy birthday" message and asked if I wanted to go to lunch. Of course, my mom and sisters immediately asked what the message said when I got off the phone. I told them, and they suggested I invite him to our family dinner that night. So, I called him back and did just that. 

When Burt showed up to my house, he brought roses. Red roses. Ladies and gentlemen, this was a miracle! It was the first romantic and somewhat forward gesture made by Burt. Shock and awe describe my emotions at this event. After placing the miraculous roses in a vase, we headed to Terra Verde with the fam. At dinner, it felt like we were a couple, and the thought made my happy. When we got home, we had cake and I opened my gifts. 

All of the partiers went home, except for Burt. He and I played on the Wii and chatted. Around 1 AM, I suddenly noticed how late it was. I started feeling tired and hinted to Burt that it was time for him to go home. I said something like, I'm getting super tired. Twenty minutes later: It's really late. Fifteen minutes later: It's probably time for you to go home. Then came to conversation that made me realize why he was dragging his feet to go home.

Burt started by saying something like, I've known you for a long time, and I really enjoy hanging out with you. I think you're a great person. And I have, um... been thinking, that, um.... maybe... ya know... we could, well... Okay, I knew where this was going, and I tried to let him get the words out, but he was taking forever, so I interjected: I know what you're trying to say. You want to date exclusively. The whole, boyfriend, girlfriend thing, right...? I saw a look of relief on his face. Yes! That's what I'm saying. Don't you think we should try and see if it works out? I happily agreed.

We talked for a few minutes and then walked outside. Burt said some really sweet things to me. He finally gave me a glimpse of his feelings for me. He told me that he remembered the first day he saw me, that he thought I was the most beautiful girl. He told me that he had always wanted to date me. And he told me other mushy stuff. We were outside for quite a while. Again, I tried to hint that it was time for Burt to go home, and again, he was dragging his feet. 

I could tell he wanted to kiss me, so I stood there with him for a while and gave him some time. Finally, I said You want to kiss me, don't you? He confirmed. Then, another pause. I said, okay, then kiss me. After a brief make-out session, Burt drove home in the good ol' granny car.

P.S. I later found out that when Burt got to my house for dinner, my wonderful sister, Tara, told him: You HAVE to kiss her tonight. For any of you who know Tara, this is no surprise. :)

{Hopefully Burt isn't too embarrassed my this post!} :)

To be continued...

Love Story Chapter 5

Burt and I went on many more lunch dates once I moved back to Henderson. He was working the graveyard shift, so going out for lunch was more convenient than dinner. Our most frequented eateries included Fausto's, Sweet Tomatoes, and Chipotle. We gradually started hanging out more and more during the next few months (February-April). Burt had a crazy schedule: working graveyard, sleeping for a few hours, then going to school, then usually hanging out with me. 


Burt started getting to know my family pretty well and got practically-immediate familial approval. :) I remember one night in particular; Burt came over to my sister, Tara's house. She was working on one of her crazy ideas {the kind that take much longer than they should :)}, a school project for Lincoln, making rice-krispie treats that looked like ice cream cones. Burt stayed up until 1 AM helping her, while I practically slept the whole time/pretended to help. He went home, slept for 20 minutes, and then went to work. Nights like this were pretty typical. 


Throughout this time, I definitely had feelings for Burt, but I was unsure about the status of our relationship. I secretly wanted things to become more serious, but I didn't want to get my hopes up either. I  had my guard up, and it affected the speed of our relationship's progression. Burt hadn't dated much, and I'm pretty sure I wasn't doing much to help his confidence.


I was still going on dates with other people. Apparently, Burt didn't know this. This whole time, he assumed we were exclusively dating. It wasn't until he saw some Facebook pictures of me and another guy {I only went on one date with him, but we went to the wax museum and took pictures the whole time, and he uploaded them to his FB} when Burt realized that maybe we needed to make things official. 




To be continued...

Love Story: Chapter 4 {the beginning of a lunch-date extravaganza}

Rewind to December 2009. Burt had been home from his mission for  a couple of weeks when he added me on Facebook {I later found out he only joined Facebook to find me. :)} We sent a few Facebook messages back and forth. I told Burt that I was coming down to Hendo for Christmas. We got together with a group of friends for a Christmas get-together. This was the first time I had seen Burt in 2 and a half years! I remember being nervous and thinking to myself, Why are you being ridiculous? There's no reason to be nervous. Burt's just a friend {a really hot one} who you haven't seen in over two years. Stop it! Burt and I caught each other up on the past 2 years, talked about hanging out, but we didn't see each other again while I was in town.

After I returned to Provo, Burt started with the texting again. I specifically remember texting him on New Year's Eve and telling him how I felt lame for working that night, but even lamer that I didn't have any friends with whom to celebrate if I weren't working. We continued texting, here and there. I remember some time in January telling him I was coming to town, and suggesting we get together. He responded with something like, "I'm going to be really busy that week." In my mind, that was code for "I don't want to hang out with you and I'm not interested in you." I immediately decided to stop texting and communicating with him altogether. {I'm never dramatic.} 

Then, a couple of weeks later, while I was in town, he texted me and asked if I wanted to get lunch with him. I was slightly confused about what his intentions were, but I agreed to the lunch date, although I did NOT think of it as a date at the time.

Reasons I didn't consider it a date:

1. It was LUNCH, not dinner. You don't do lunch for a first date. {This was because Burt didn't understand the rules of dating.}
2. We met at the restaurant; he didn't pick me up. {This was because he came straight from school and had to work right afterwards.}
3. He didn't call to ask me-- he texted. {Once again, he didn't understand the rules of dating.}
4. He didn't try to hold my hand and he didn't flirt. {This was because he had no game.}

We ate lunch at Red Robin and talked for hours. When we were finished, Burt walked me to my car, then we hugged and said goodbye. 

To be continued... 

Love Story: Chapter 3

At this point I was living in Utah with Joe & Felicia (bro & sis-in-law). They were nice enough to offer for me to live with them for a while. My plan was to work and start school once I got residency. I got a job at a Marriott hotel in Provo. WORST JOB EVER. I worked the graveyard shift at the front desk. I hated being there alone at night. And I hated when people asked me to fix something in their rooms, like a toilet. I have ZERO handyman skills and people staying at hotels are REALLY grumpy at midnight. Not a good combo. Also, there were the creepy men who flirted with me. I remember one guy in particular, named Lucky. {Who names their child "Lucky"? You're just asking for him to become a creeper.} Lucky called down to the front desk after he got into his hotel room. When I answered, he said something to this effect, "There is a sign on the night stand that says you will do anything possible to make my stay enjoyable..." [insert more creepy comments that I blocked from my memory]. Creeptastic. Anyway, the job ended up being a real bust. I quit at the end of January, after only three months of working there. 


Meanwhile, Burt was working, and going to school at UNLV. He had a change of heart about his major. Before his mission, he was working toward a degree in Engineering. He then decided to switch to Biology and made plans to go to medical school. 

After I quit my job, I felt a strong impression to move back home. I had conflicting feelings; I felt that if I moved back, I would be giving up on a new experience. But I prayed about it and felt like I needed to move back, although I didn't know why. I moved back home in February 2010. I felt instantly relieved and happy when I moved home. Oddly, I felt like it was a new start. How could moving back home be a new start? It didn't make sense, but things felt right.

To be continued...

Love Story: Chapter 2 {college & the mish}

Burt and I graduated from high school in 2006. I was heading to BYU in Provo, and Burt was staying in Henderson and attending UNLV. Sometime during the fall, we drove up to Idaho with a group of friends to visit some other high-school friends at BYU-Idaho. Carly, Devin, Kyle, Liah, and Burt stopped in Provo to pick me up along the way. For a few months after that trip, I didn't have much contact with Burt. Spring-ish of 2007, Burt and I started communicating through texting. He randomly started texting me, which for him, was pretty forward. 

With my nephew, Jameson, on my HS graduation day. *How the heck do you rotate pics on here?*

This is from our trip to Idaho. Our car got stuck in the snow. :(

During the summer, we got together a few times. I think this was the first time that we hung out alone. I remember going to Sonic together a few times. We also went to IHOP one night. {His brother came with us. He drove and we sat in the back seats. Um... awkward.} Besides that, we mostly saw each other while hanging out with our group of friends. We went to Disneyland with a few friends during the summer, went to Buffalo Bill's to ride the Stateline roller coaster with Carly and Devin, and did other fun stuff that I can't remember.

A night out with Carly, Devin, and Burt- taking silly pics with Carly in the back seat.

I remember being really confused about our relationship during this time. I couldn't tell if Burt had romantic feelings for me, or if he was simply making more of an effort to be my friend. {Apparently everyone could tell how much he liked me, but I was clueless.} We sort of just slowly stopped the one-on-one hanging out and texting as the summer came to a close. I transferred to BYU-Idaho and moved to Rexburg in August. Burt was working and saving up for his mission. He left for Argentina in November. Sadly, I didn't get to see him before he left, since I was up in Idaho. 

I came home after spending one semester in Idaho and started going to school in Henderson in 2008. I have a hard time adjusting to new places; I was really homesick. Plus, I am super indecisive. I went through about 500 ideas of what to study in college before I finally stuck to something. I continued going to school and being confused about what to do with my life, while Burt was on his mission. He got home in November of 2009, just one month after I moved back to Utah. I was in a rut and looking for a change. Little did I know, the person who would majorly change my life was in the place I just left.

Elder Ritchie

Baptism day

This one makes me laugh :) 

Seriously, check out that PART in his hair!

To be continued...

Love Story: Chapter 1 {the high school years}

I want to use this blog to document our love story. So, anyone who wants to learn more about how Burt and I fell in love, keep on reading. ♥

Burt and I met in high school. We actually went to the same middle school, but as far as we can remember, neither of us knew the other existed until high school. According to Burt, we had English together during our freshman year {but I have no recollection of him being in that class}. I remember having geometry with him that year. He says that he faintly remembers me being in that class {which I'm pretty sure means he can't remember that I was}. Despite the discrepancy of which classes we did an didn't have together, sometime during our freshman year, we met. :) Of course, by meeting, I mean we had a class or two together. {Burt was scared of girls.} There wasn't any flirting happening. I really don't remember ever conversing with him that year. I do, however, remember noticing his good-looking face. :) 

At some point during our sophomore year, I started noticing Burt. I mean, I knew who he was before, but during this year I think we {might have} had a convo or two, and I couldn't help but notice how ridiculously attractive he was. I have always loved the "manliness" {a.k.a. sexiness} of his look. The first feature I noticed was his smile. {The second feature may or may not have been his booty, after watching a few of his baseball games; those pants were pretty snug :)} This year, I started to have a semi-crush on Burt. Somehow, word got around that I liked him, and I heard through the grapevine that he was crushin' on me too. Then someone spread a rumor that I was only "pretending" to like Burt to make another boy jealous. Lame-o. That kind of put a damper on our mutual crushing. {Not that anything would've happened between us in H.S. anyways.} I wouldn't say that I really got to know him at all this year. But since this year, I have always been drawn to him. 

I just found this pic and remembered the dance they did during an assembly. It was pretty funny.

We really started becoming friends during our junior year, when we began hanging out with the same group. Besides that, I don't remember anything significant happening between us this year. I started real-dating this year, but there was never anything serious. And even though I was going on dates with other people, I always had eyes for Burt.

My first high school dance- junior homecoming

haha. I just found this picture of Burt. Love it.

Getting ready for my junior prom

Burt asked me to our senior-year homecoming. I, of course, said "yes." Homecoming was interesting. During the whole night, Burt hardly talked to me. There was pretty much just the normal first-date-ish sort of conversation. When it came time to dance, he hardly danced. He hung out with the guys and seemed to enjoy talking to them. Like THEY are more interesting than ME? I was confused as to why he asked me to go with him in the first place. Don't get me wrong, it was a fun night-- all of my friends were there with me. Back at school, the ultra-awkwardness calmed down a bit and things were back to a normal level of awkwardness. Despite the weirdness of homecoming, I decided to ask Burt to Sadie Hawkins. (Like I said, I was always drawn to him). We went with a big group of friends to Game Works. Game Works is sort of a special place for us. It will come up later during our love story. Sometime during the latter part of our senior year, Burt and I went ice skating with our group of friends. Burt, being the nice person he is, tried to help me skate my way around the rink, despite my hopeless and embarrassing {lack of} ice-skating skills. The reason I even bring this night up is because, wait for it... Burt HELD my HAND this night. Like I told you, we {mostly he} moved slooowly. 

Senior year- having fun at one of Burt's football games

Homecoming 2005. We look so little. (Glad I outgrew the chubby cheeks)

Sadies 2005

Prom 2006. {Kind of a random pic, but I got most of these off Facebook.} I'm the one laughing, in the ridiculously orange dress. Burt is behind Carly, who is also in neon orange :)

So he DOES dance? Burt & Carly 2006

To be continued...