The Tale of Brad and Melissa

Where did you meet your husband?
I was working for the Girl Scouts of Utah with a girl named Lisa. Lisa has a sister named Amie who is married to Bryce. Bryce has a couple of brothers (Dustin and Trent) that lived and played Halo with a guy named Brad Allen. Amie and Dustin’s wife Jeanie were always trying to set Brad up with random girls they knew since he was the last (marriage material) bachelor of the group. Amie stopped by our office one day, spoke with me for a couple of minutes and declared to Lisa that she had a guy she wanted me to meet. Emails and pictures were exchanged and finally, Thursday, February 2nd, 2006 Brad called me to set up a group date for the following Friday night.

What was the first thing you said to your husband?
I still have our emails that we exchanged when we first met so here is a snippet of our first emails to each other (Brad attached a picture of him in his first email but I have yet to figure out how to add pics on this thing):

From: Brad Allen bradleyjayallen@yahoo.com
To: mlindsey@gsutah.org
Date: Sun, 29 Jan 2006 13:47:34 -0800 (PST)S
Subject: Hello
Hi, this is Brad. I hope you think I'm really good looking, just kidding. I had to have my brother send me a picture of me because I'm the one with the camera. And I dont even know if I was suppose to be the one sending you a picture but my friend just gave me you address and told me to email you so I did. So if I dont hear from you I guess that means I'm too ugly? But um, if you want to hang out some time, just let me know. Later

From: "Melissa Lindsey" MLindsey@gsutah.org
To: "Brad Allen" bradleyjayallen@yahoo.com
Date: Thu, 02 Feb 2006 13:00:29 -0700
Subject: Howdy!
Hey,Did you die? I hope you're not ignoring me! ;)I figured out a way for you to see pictures of me! Check out my MySpace page!http://www.myspace.com/cougarchick23Anyway, have a fabulous weekend!~ Melissa Lindsey

From: Brad Allen bradleyjayallen@yahoo.com
To: Melissa Lindsey MLindsey@gsutah.org
Date: Thu, 2 Feb 2006 14:34:50 -0800 (PST)
Subject: Re: Howdy!
Hey,
No I'm not ignoring you, duh. We were thinking about going bowling tomorrow night. Let me know what you think, or you can give me you phone number so we can talk about it. And if you were wondering, I wasn't waiting for a photo to write you back, some people might of thought that, anyways, talk to you later.

So I emailed him my number and he called me later that night with the details….

Where was the first date?
Brad called me and told me that we would be going on a group date with Bryce & Amie, Lisa & her husband Kellen, and Amie & Lisa’s brother & his girlfriend. He was going to pick me up at my apartment in Provo and then we’d meet everyone else at the China Bowl in Orem. Brad called once he was at my complex and could not figure out where my apartment was. I looked out my window while giving him directions and got my first glimpse of the back of him. I looked out the peep hole when he got to my door and thought, “Wow! He is good looking!” We got to the restaurant a good 15 minutes before anyone else arrived and I could not keep my eyes off of him! Once Bryce and Amie got there, Brad talked to Bryce more than me. After dinner we went to a bowling alley on the border of Alpine and Orem. The 4 boys played pool while we waited for our lanes and the girls grilled me about how I felt about Brad. Once we started bowling, Brad proved to be a very good bowler and I was so self-conscious that I did not perform nearly as well as I normally do when bowling. After bowling we went to Bryce and Amie’s for ice cream where I first learned of Brad’s superior Halo skills and that he wasn’t much of a daredevil. Bryce had these pickles that had really hot peppers in with them. He dared Brad to eat one and Brad refused. He tried to put the spotlight on me by saying that he wouldn’t eat one if I didn’t get pressured into eating one too. I saw this as a challenge and right away asked for a pickle. Not one to be shown up by a girl, Brad took one too and only ate it after I had mine in my mouth. When he took me home, he pulled in the parking lot and didn’t seem like he was going to walk me to my door until I hesitated and gave him a strange look. Then he turned off the car, walked me to my door and left. No hug, no high five, just a muttered, “uh, see you later.” I called Brad the next afternoon and asked him to go and see a movie with my up in Salt Lake that evening and it was during this date that I knew that I did not want to spend my time with anyone else.

Where was the first kiss?
Brad was very shy when it came to physical contact. I accompanied him to a jazz concert a week or so after our first date and that is the night we first held hands (I made the move). I planned a date in Provo for Valentine’s Day. We went out to eat at Panda Express (cheap date but our favorite restaurant), watched my favorite chick flick (Practical Magic) at my apartment, and after some cuddling on the couch, chocolate dipped strawberries, and some pretty obvious prodding on my part, Brad did not kiss me. Not one to wait for things, I leaned in for our first kiss. Brad later told me that he was nervous about putting the moves on me.

Did you have a long or short courtship/engagement?
Well, our first date was February 3rd 2006, we got engaged on April 22nd, 2006, set a date February 3rd, 2007, and got married June 23rd, 2007.

Where did you get engaged?
I went up to spend the day with Brad in Salt Lake. Brad and I liked to go on drives around the valley to find cool places. On this particular afternoon, Brad wanted to take me up a mountain in North Salt Lake that had a great view of the Great Salt Lake and the valley. We drove past huge homes, talked about where we’d like to eat that evening, and eventually stopped once we ran out of road to admire the sunset. We got out and took a couple of pictures and Brad even set up his camera on the top of his car so we could both be in the picture. That should have been a clue for me since he does not really like having his picture taken. We talked about where we wanted to go out to dinner some more and he had me call our friends Melissa and Mike to see where a good Mexican restaurant was. When I got off of the phone with Melissa and turned around, Brad was leaning up against his car and said, “I bought this for you.” I didn’t see the ring until right then and I think my first words were, “Are you joking?!” I was so confused and surprised and happy that I said yes even though he never officially asked me to marry him. It was my dream ring (turns out we have the same tastes since we never really talked about rings). Brad said that I had to call his mom since she had been waiting all day, without saying anything to anyone, to hear how it all went. After talking to her I called my mom, and other assorted family members. We even called Melissa and Mike and asked them if they wanted to meet us for dinner instead (they did not know we were engaged). We met them at Sweet Tomatoes and they eventually saw my ring and there was much rejoicing!

Where did you get married?
The Mount Timpanogos Temple in American Fork, Utah.

How did the reception go?
It was like 104 degrees the day we got married and I had a bit of sun stroke (I almost threw up on Brad while taking pictures). We took pictures with the family around the Alpine Art Center before the reception and had a ring ceremony before the reception. I was mainly focused on eating something since the only thing I ate that day was a bowl of Cheerios at 6 am that morning. So, we ate, walked around and talked to everyone, had some ice cream cake, and were so ready to go at 8 pm. We changed our clothes (I loved my dress but was so excited to not be wearing my corset by the end of the day), said goodbye to our families and went to Arby’s for more food!

How was the honeymoon?
Brad’s parents paid for us to stay at a bed and breakfast in Orem called Somewhere Inn Time. We stayed in the Creation room (all of the rooms were themed) down the hall from where Brett and Marie (Brad’s brother) stayed their first night. Brad took out my hair extensions while I read the cards we received and the comments from our sign-in book. Other stuff went on but I am sure you have a good enough idea. The next day we took a marathon flight (1 plane, 4 airports, 9 hours) back to Sacramento. We hung around our apartment for a couple of days before driving down the coast to San Simeon. We stayed at the Orchid Inn right on the beach and down the road from Hearst Castle. Our room was really nice though it was quite chilly being right on the beach. We stayed there for a couple of days (toured the castle, explored the towns in the area, and even found and Elephant Seal beach and Morro rock). It was nice to go somewhere neither of us had ever been and to have some relaxing time together before getting back to work for me and starting a new job for him.

The Working Dead

So this blog is a link to another person's blog....is that lazy of me? Anyway, I am part of the Working Dead and I hate it. Read the article and I think you will probably realize that you are in the same boat!

http://www.lifereboot.com/2007/the-working-dead/

Yummy Dinner Ideas

I am quite the web surfer while at work and every once in a while I search for recipes that I have every intention of trying someday when I have the time and energy to be a good wife/cook. I have found that almost every recipe on this website makes my mouth water!

http://food.yahoo.com/everyday/dinner/

There are links to easy, healthy, and even gourmet dinner ideas. They even have a new menu each week! Let me know if you try any of them out!

New Kid on the Block

For a while now I have been quite envious of bloggers. Some are witty and some are poetic. I aspire to be both. People blog about so many strange and wonderful things not knowing if anyone will read their musings. I do not know if anyone will care to read about my life. I suppose that eventually I will let people I know about my blog. Hopefully someday they'll stop by.