Sunday, November 2, 2008
Friday, October 31, 2008
Matt and Nedra met through work about five years ago. Three and half years later they happened to run into each other at the wedding of a mutual friend and then several other times throughout the following year. They were able to visit and renew their friendship through these random meetings until Matt called Nedra in April to ask her out on a date. As most of you know they are both very involved in various endeavors and it was two months before they could find a date when they were both available.
Their first date was on June 4, 2008 and Matt took Nedra to a Cuban restaurant in Scottsdale where they enjoyed a fantastic meal and great conversation. Matt said he was impressed by Nedra's knowledge of politics and world events and the various organizations in which she is involved. Nedra was impressed with Matt's intelligence and the ease of conversation. Soon they found themselves spending more and more time together until it seemed they were inseparable.
This close friendship quickly turned into budding romance. Throughout their relationship they have created a bank of experiences to help get to know each other better and to build strength and substance into their friendship. Matt has always encouraged that they set goals for things they wanted to see and do and even better for ways to expand their knowledge and broaden their minds. They have created lists of activities and service they wanted to do and topics they would research and discuss. All of which have helped to expand the base on which their relationship is built. As trite as it may sound, they truly are best friends.
Sometime in September Matt suggested they go on a pic-nic and asked to schedule a date for this next adventure. They set the date for October 5, 2008, a Monday evening. Matt picked Nedra up a little before five, and mowed her lawn as is his weekly custom. Nedra prepared the pic-nic dinner, packed it up and they were on their way.
Arriving at Ussery Mountain Park at about 5:30 they began the easy assent to their destination. After a quick hike they finally laid out some blankets and unpacked dinner at nice little spot overlooking the beautiful sunset on Mesa. After dinner Matt pulled out his Atlas, as he loves to do, to go over the details of their upcoming trip to Boston. As is his super organized way, Matt had the states of interest tabbed; Massachusetts, Vermont and New Hampshire. he began showing Nedra all the points of interest he hope to see while in Mass. and then he flipped to the map of Vermont and they talked about possible travel to Sharon to visit the Joseph Smith, Jr. Memorial. Then Matt asked Nedra to turn to the map of New Hampshire so they could look at possible road trips to see the leaves turning. She turned the page but the Map of New Hampshire was covered up by a Note that read "Will You Marry Me?" in hand cut out letters.
Nedra just starred at the note for some time reading over and over again, but it was not processing. Then finally she looked up and realized Matt had left her side and was humbly kneeling in request of her hand. It suddenly hit her "HE JUST ASKED ME TO MARRY HIM"! She leaped into his arms and responded with a resounding YES! YES! YES!, to which he replied in typical Matt fashion; "Is that a yes?" It was of course a yes.
Matt and Nedra then returned to Nedra's house where she found waiting for her a beautiful bouquet of roses and a wonderful card where Matt had written down his sentiments toward her. They immediately began discussing their wedding plans and by the next day they had a date scheduled with the Temple; January 10, 2009.
With the help of many wonderful family members and great friends Matt and Nedra are preparing to for the big day and looking forward to sharing with all the people who have contributed to their lives in so many ways. They hope you will join them in the celebration of this great new adventure called Marriage.
Their first date was on June 4, 2008 and Matt took Nedra to a Cuban restaurant in Scottsdale where they enjoyed a fantastic meal and great conversation. Matt said he was impressed by Nedra's knowledge of politics and world events and the various organizations in which she is involved. Nedra was impressed with Matt's intelligence and the ease of conversation. Soon they found themselves spending more and more time together until it seemed they were inseparable.
This close friendship quickly turned into budding romance. Throughout their relationship they have created a bank of experiences to help get to know each other better and to build strength and substance into their friendship. Matt has always encouraged that they set goals for things they wanted to see and do and even better for ways to expand their knowledge and broaden their minds. They have created lists of activities and service they wanted to do and topics they would research and discuss. All of which have helped to expand the base on which their relationship is built. As trite as it may sound, they truly are best friends.
Sometime in September Matt suggested they go on a pic-nic and asked to schedule a date for this next adventure. They set the date for October 5, 2008, a Monday evening. Matt picked Nedra up a little before five, and mowed her lawn as is his weekly custom. Nedra prepared the pic-nic dinner, packed it up and they were on their way.
Arriving at Ussery Mountain Park at about 5:30 they began the easy assent to their destination. After a quick hike they finally laid out some blankets and unpacked dinner at nice little spot overlooking the beautiful sunset on Mesa. After dinner Matt pulled out his Atlas, as he loves to do, to go over the details of their upcoming trip to Boston. As is his super organized way, Matt had the states of interest tabbed; Massachusetts, Vermont and New Hampshire. he began showing Nedra all the points of interest he hope to see while in Mass. and then he flipped to the map of Vermont and they talked about possible travel to Sharon to visit the Joseph Smith, Jr. Memorial. Then Matt asked Nedra to turn to the map of New Hampshire so they could look at possible road trips to see the leaves turning. She turned the page but the Map of New Hampshire was covered up by a Note that read "Will You Marry Me?" in hand cut out letters.
Nedra just starred at the note for some time reading over and over again, but it was not processing. Then finally she looked up and realized Matt had left her side and was humbly kneeling in request of her hand. It suddenly hit her "HE JUST ASKED ME TO MARRY HIM"! She leaped into his arms and responded with a resounding YES! YES! YES!, to which he replied in typical Matt fashion; "Is that a yes?" It was of course a yes.
Matt and Nedra then returned to Nedra's house where she found waiting for her a beautiful bouquet of roses and a wonderful card where Matt had written down his sentiments toward her. They immediately began discussing their wedding plans and by the next day they had a date scheduled with the Temple; January 10, 2009.
With the help of many wonderful family members and great friends Matt and Nedra are preparing to for the big day and looking forward to sharing with all the people who have contributed to their lives in so many ways. They hope you will join them in the celebration of this great new adventure called Marriage.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
The Proposal by Matt
The first date that Nedra and I went on, the second time around, was to a small Cuban restaurant called Havana Café. It did not take me long to realize there was much more to Nedra than just her looks. During the meal we talked about our favorite books, the numerous committees Nedra sits on and the many places we’ve traveled. (Unfortunately, we did not talk about the Red Soxs). As I dropped her off that evening I remember thinking: “this is the type of woman I am looking for.”
Fast forward to October 6th, 2008. Those who know Nedra understand that there are two types of hikers: normal, human type hikers (Matt) and superhuman hikers (Nedra). I knew I wanted to propose to Nedra away from the noise and commotion of the city so I asked her to pick a hiking/picnic location for us. I wanted to ensure I would not pass out from the hike thus ruining the opportunity to propose to Nedra so I continually bugged Nedra about the distance and difficulty of the hike.
Monday, October 6th rolled around and I was prepared. I’d slept well the night before; I’d eaten a solid breakfast and lunch. I’d consumed plenty of electrolytes and mentally prepared myself to “summit K2” so I would be in some kind of condition to ask Nedra to marry me. We each had a backpack and started the accent. The weather was perfect and the sun was setting low in the sky. Nedra was in her element and talking away like she was sitting in a recliner. I was sweating and not talking. We found a beautiful location with a log to sit on and a flat area to lay our blanket and food out. Nedra started the meal off with a taste appetizer then we quickly moved to the main course- turkey sandwiches! My favorite!
The sun was starting to sink low and I wanted to propose before it got to dark so I pulled out an atlas and began pointing out places we were going to visit later that week as we were schedule to visit my parents in Massachusetts. I then turned to Vermont and pointed out a few possible towns we could visit during our quest to see the fantastic fall foliage. I then suggested Nedra turn to the map page for New Hampshire.
In all honesty, I was never really nervous to ask Nedra to marry me. Although we had never discussed marriage I was fairly confident she would say yes. As Nedra turned to the State of New Hampshire (my second favorite state) I got down on one knee and pulled the engagement band out waiting for her response. I waited…waited…waited and waited. The wonderful state of New Hampshire had been replace with a red piece of paper with what looked like 3rd grade cut out letters spelling “Nedra, will you marry me? (Matt)”. I stared at Nedra as Nedra stared at the note. Finally, she looked up at me and said yes, twice. It was pretty hard to hear her so I asked her if she was saying YES to which she replied, “YES”.
I feel very blessed to be with Nedra and admire her many talents. I love her more than I can explain and look forward to our future and adventures.
Matt
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
