The history of it all...

All right so I really wanted to write down how James and I met. I have such a bad memory and I wanted to be able to remember it. I'm sure if I get any of this wrong Danni and Alise will correct me. The Sunday after Christmas, I was asleep on the couch. Austin came and pounced on me and told me that if my cell phone rang I had to say yes. I had no idea what he was talking about! Well later that day my cell phone rang and it was James. He asked me to go on a date with him on Tuesday and sure enough I said yes. We were going to go to Kellys and go snowboarding. He said that he hadn't been for three years and I hadn't really gone for about two years. I was so nervous. Poor Alise and Austin, they got bombarded with my questions. Tuesday finally came. James was on time to pick me up. Brownie points for him. James may not have been snowboarding for three years, but he's still amazing at it. He was so good to me. He stayed with me the whole entire time. We found out that we've actually been to a lot of the same things (he is Austin's cousin)...like Austin's farewell, Austin's homecoming, Alise and Austin's wedding...we just didn't realize who the other person was. So I guess technically it wasn't a blind date. While we were on the chair lift we made a bet. He said that if he won he wanted a second date with me. I kept on thinking, "Please let him win. Please let him win." He won. It wasn't love at first sight, but I definitely knew that night that this guy was different from anybody else I have ever dated. I wanted to see where things went. So three days later we went on our second date. After that we were hooked. We saw each other almost every day. In February, we started talking about marriage and I figured that we would get engaged in March sometime. On Valentines Day, James and I went over to his house and helped his nephews make Valentines cards. James made me a card too. Later he was taken me to dinner at the Olive Garden, but he wanted to make a stop first. He asked me if we could take a walk before dinner. I was already suspicious, because both him and Michelle (his sister) were acting weird. So we went to the Green Belt and he had me stand on the platform that overlooked the falls and had the temple right across the river. He had to run back to his car and grab something and then had me finally turn around. James was down on one knee holding a dozen roses. My first thought was....Oh boy. He's going to propose. He said, "Erica Virginia Sparks....(You can imagine how I'm reacting right now.) Will you be.....my Valentine?" I was in shock. I had expected him to say "Will you marry me" not "Will you be my Valentine." Of course I said yes and then we ran back to the car. Where he pulled out a white rose, actually proposed to me, and gave me my ring. He made my parents promise not to tell me. I was in shock! James loves to surprise me and he really surprised me then. I love my ring. It is perfect for me. I'll put up pictures of it soon. He did such a good job picking it out. James is such a sweet guy and loves doing things for me. So this weekend I was in Utah. I only have limited minutes and text messages on my cell phone and so James and I can only talk after 7 and then he has night classes so it's usually not until 10. On Saturday I got a call from an unknown number...it was James calling on my new purple phone he had just got for me. So now we can talk or text each other whenever we want. I love him. He's so good to me.