How we met

(Karen's side of the story)
The Sunday before Thanksgiving I found myself stuck in Idaho longer than I had originally planned before going to join my family for the holiday in Utah. At the time I was not too happy about the situation, but now I am so glad it happened. My roommate was there also, so she, her fiance, and I went to church together. Now before we continue it is important to know that my roommate's fiance, JC, had made it his personal mission to find a guy for all of her roommates. After church we walked by this guy in the hallway who JC apparently knew, so we stopped and talked to him for a minute and I thought nothing of it. Before parting ways JC got the guy's number so they could "hang out during the break." When we left I found out that JC had other intentions for that phone number. To directly quote him, he said, "So Karen, you know why we stopped and talked to him, right? He was checking you out! Twice! And now you are going to make dinner and invite him over!" Well naturally I replied by telling him he was crazy. He kept insisting and I kept saying he was crazy, but in the end he won. I agreed that he could come over for dessert and games that night if JC would invite him. Of course JC took me up on the offer and luckily the guy agreed to come over. That night, after trying to drive in the snow for the first time, he finally made it to my apartment. We all had a fun time and I realized that he was a pretty cool guy. The next day I left for Utah, but I still thought about him. After all, it was a great story to tell my family. When I came back to Idaho at the end of the week JC convinced me to invite him over again, so once more after lots of debating I decided to give it a go. After that night I decided I was interested in him and over the next couple of weeks I kept finding excuses for him to come over, and it all went from there.

(Brandon's side of the story)

Ok, so I hope you figured out that the random guy in Karen's side of the story was me.  I was that random guy that was standing out in the hallway on the 3rd floor of the MC building at BYU-Idaho.  I was there because I wanted to see a member of the bishopric.  Church got out and I originally did not plan on going up to the 3rd floor, yet I made the decision to go up to that floor and see a member of the bishopric.  I was waiting outside as the bishop was seeing another student.  While waiting, I saw a group of students walking by and I recognized the guy walking with two girls.  A few minutes later, they were walking by again, only this time the guy stopped to talk to me.  I knew JC from when I first came to BYU-Idaho, and had seen each other from time to time.  JC introduced me to his fiance and his fiance's roommate.  JC and I talked a lot, JC's fiance talked some, but the roommate hardly talked at all.  So JC asked me for my number so we could try to do something sometime.  They left after that conversation and I was able to talk to my bishop.  Later that night, I received a phone call from JC as he invited me to come to his fiance's apartment for food and activities.  I agreed and told him that I'll be right over.

Little did I know that road conditions would not fully cooperate.  This was a time when Rexburg received several inches of snow, the first time of the season, and roads were not plowed.  I was driving a 4-cylinder, manual transmission, 2004 Honda Civic.  The roads were so slick that my car could not get traction going uphill from a standstill unless I back up several feet.  What would have been a 2-3 minute drive in normal conditions (or 5-7 minutes in bad conditions) took me over 40 minutes.  During that time, JC called me to see if I was still coming, I told him I was, and that I was test driving through the snow.  After saying that, I heard a lot of laughter from the girls in that apartment.  I eventually got there and ended up having a great time.  I told everyone there that I had to leave 45 minutes before curfew if I were to make it in time.  They understood and agreed.  It took me 45 minutes to get to my apartment that night (not a minute spared).

The week went by as I worked on my internship as a Construction Intern located in Rigby and did not think too much of that night only that it was a great time (allowed me to experience how to actually drive in snow before going to work the next day).  After Thanksgiving, I had gotten another invite from the quiet roommate to come over again that night.  I agreed, and it was another great time, I noticed her more and more as I saw her each time.  Over the next few weeks, I kept getting simple messages and invites from her and we kept seeing each other.  During that time, I wanted to ask her out on a date.  However, she was very hard to separate from her roommates and it wasn't till a week or two before I had a perfect opportunity to do so when she was not with her roommates.  I was glad that she said yes to the first date.  The date was simple as we went out and ate pizza on a Friday night.  I got to know her a lot more as she expressed herself more there than the previous nights hanging out.  Things started taking off from there as she continued inviting me over to her apartment.  I took that as a sign that she was very interested in me, and I kept asking her out on a few more dates.

So now you have the story of how we met from both sides, we will post again soon to tell you what happened next.

About this blog

We have been getting lots of questions since we got engaged, so we have created this blog to answer the following questions:

-Who is Brandon?
-Who is Karen?
-How did you meet?
-What's the storyline from first meeting to engagement?
-How did Brandon propose?
-Where and when is the wedding?

As time moves on, there will be more posts to keep you updated on the adventures of Brandon & Karen
We are really excited to get married, and we hope you will enjoy our story.