- As of June 10, 2001, I am a married woman! Michael and I, after a three year courtship, finally tied the knot. It's kind of fun looking back on our dating years.
After meeting again at Jane's house in the summer of 2008, we had a long-distance thing going on, since he lived in Logan, UT and I was in Baton Rouge, LA. I remember lots of texts, late-night Skype calls, telling him about all the silly things boys that were into me did to try to win me over (which never worked because I liked Mike WAY more), and his trips to Baton Rouge to see me. One one such trip, we shared our first kiss with each other just after my birthday in October 2008. He came with me to see my family in Houston that Christmas, too. For Valentine's Day, though he wasn't able to fly down, I found a surprise bouquet of roses on my doorstep. We liked each each other more and more as time progressed, which also made it harder and harder to be living so far away.
The next summer, the summer of 2009, Mike moved to Baton Rouge. (He always wanted to move back to Louisiana, but I'm quite sure his decision to transfer to LSU was influenced by a certain girl he knew.) How nice it was to have my boyfriend around! Skype went from my most-used program to my least. Whenever studying or work wasn't in the way, we were hanging out. We went to all the Single's Ward dances together, did double dates, He always accompanied me to Houston whenever I made the trip over. Life was going good, our relationship progressed well, and at the start of 2010 I was definitely wanting to spend the rest of my life with him.
The rest of 2010, however, presented its bumps and challenges. In June, I for a study abroad to Beijing, China. Since our relationship was as serious as it was and also since we never exclusively dated anyone else, we came to a mutual decision that we would break up for the summer. I would concentrate on my adventure, he would ask a few girls out, and when I returned we would see how we felt about each other. After my trip ended, we made another mutual decision that we would stay single for a while still. I felt like I needed more time to grow up before I got married, and both he and I felt we needed to date more. This lasted only until just before Thanksgiving: we went on a few dates with other people, and ultimately came to the conclusion that we had eyes for none else. His father, Thorsell Rougeau, died early November. In this event, all I wanted to do was help and support Michael in his time of need. Our love was realized for each other like never before, and we were quickly an item again.
On March 5, 2011, Mike and I watched Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon at his house since I had never seen it. Halfway through he "went to the bathroom." After our movie, he walked me to my car, I told him good night, and opened the door to find.....a small box on the seat! I turned around, crying happy tears as I gave him the box. He asked me to marry him after showing me the diamond ring that was inside. (Then his crazy neighbor walked up and, rather upset, told us about how his car broke down.)
We were married and sealed in the Baton Rouge Temple in the morning of June 10. - For the entire past month, we've been trying to get stuff done, but the items on our list are quite the formidable opponent! Another agency with which I need to get my name changed as soon as I get one done. Our new apartment, which is in the married student housing at LSU, can never get clean because of unpacking, wedding gifts that keep coming in the mail, not knowing where to store big stuff, LAUNDRY, and DISHES! They just pile up! Is this going to be the rest of my life? Hahaha. Also, cooking for two is something I'm getting used to. Luckily Michael likes to snack on available food and $5 pizzas from Little Caesar's, so I haven't had to cook extensively. However, a lot of times I'll cook something up, split it down the middle, and Michael's still hungry afterward. Cooking twice as much as I would normally eat isn't enough, apparently!
We also really need to get our thank you cards done. We have been getting some GREAT wedding gifts. All of our friends and family have been so generous! Life's been busy, though... It's gonna get done THIS WEEK, I promise! - I just decided a couple days ago that I am going to pursue a dental hygiene degree instead of going to dental school. It seems more conducive to life as a mom, which I ultimately want to be. I've been working as a dental assistant since January, and what I've learned from observing both the dentist and the hygienist there is that hygiene is what I want to do. There's always time to finish my Biological Sciences degree in the future if I decide to, and I'll have a career in 3 years instead of a residency in 5.
The good part about this is that I DON'T HAVE TO TAKE SCIENCE CLASSES IN THE FALL!!! So excited about that!! Almost my entire three years at LSU so far has been science science science. I get to take psychology, speech, a computer class, more Chinese (just for fun), and NO SCIENCE. What a nice break this will be.
This also means I dropped my class for the summer. It was Parasitology. It's the kind of stuff you might like to see on the Discovery Channel, but only as something interesting. Memorizing huge nasty names and prescriptions just isn't my idea of a fun class. - We spent last weekend in Bartlesville, OK to spend the 4th of July with family. Bartlesville is my mom's hometown and where I spend most of my childhood years. We went to see the Vaclaw Family Fireworks, a simply fantastic firework show put on by all the Vaclaws in the area. We also did a lot of swimming and hanging out with the Ahlerts, my aunt's family. Getting to see my grandparents was wonderful, too. I've missed all of them, even though a lot of them came to my wedding a month before.
That's it for now. Thanks for reading! I'm going to try (keyword: TRY) to update shorter posts more frequently, and post more pictures for sure.
