How I Met Your Father

(Two weeks after our wedding... Aren't we cute?!)

I recently have gotten in touch with a friend I knew in middle school. Hi Tiffany! She asked me to tell her the story of how I met Tyler and how he proposed. I had so much fun writing some of my memories down and thought it would be fun to share our story with you. If you're not into love stories or long posts then disregard this whole post and stop reading now!

Our story begins before Christmas of my senior year of high school. One sunday, I was outside the Stake President's office, my mom and I were waiting for my dad to come out of a meeting so we could go home. I was looking at a bulletin board full of pictures of the missionaries from our stake. I noticed that I knew or knew of all of them, except for one handsome missionary, Tyler Garrett. I remember thinking how sweet he looked, I feel silly actually saying this, but I felt his goodness radiating out of his picture (cheesy alert! cheesy alert!). Side note: I often liked to tease my mom that I was going to get married just as young as she and my older sister did, at 18 years old, just to freak her out. Secretly I thought it would be fine if I happened to meet the right guy so soon, but I didn't think there was a big chance of that happening. So, upon seeing Tyler's picture, I said something like, "Mom, look at this missionary. He's cute. Hmmm... Misty Garrett, I like the sound of that!" Instead of reminding me that I don't need to get married right out of high school like she usually would, my mom said, "Oh, I know his mother. She's the stake Relief Society president and a great lady." I was a little surprised by her quick acceptance of him. His mother must be really great I thought! I mentioned all this to a friend of mine from another ward and she told me he was from her ward. He was to return from his mission pretty soon.

Time went by and I forgot about this incident. Around Christmas time my parents received a wedding announcement for Tyler's older brother. I immediately remembered Tyler Garrett and told my parents I wanted to attend the wedding reception with them to "check out the decorations and get ideas for my future wedding". That was only half true! When we got there, Tyler was at the door greeting guests as we walked in. He shook my hand, said hello and looked right through me (to this day, Tyler has no recollection of this)! I was a little disappointed, but knew that he, as a 21 year old returned missionary, shouldn't be interested in high schoolers anyway. I decided it probably wasn't "meant to be" and proceeded to admire the reception. We ended up sitting at a table with a very talkative woman from Tyler's home ward. I don't know how it came up, but she told my parents (and me) all about how Tyler is deaf in one ear. Some of you may not know this, but I am hearing impaired and wear hearing aids in both ears (currently they're PINK! Love it!). It's so silly but I was so excited to hear he was hearing impaired too. He was one of "my people"! It was meant to be!
After the reception, I didn't see Tyler for months. Surprisingly, after all that, I didn't really think much about him either. In my mind I was too young to date or hang out with him and he didn't even notice me at the reception anyway. After graduating, I started attending our stake's Young Single Adult Ward. I had a whole lot of fun in this new atmosphere and met some fun people. Almost right away, I noticed Tyler once again. He came to almost every activity there was. Most of the time he sat either alone, or with his friend Richard, who happened to be the older brother of a guy friend of mine. I was impressed that he didn't seem to be chasing after girls and making a fool of himself like some of the guys. I could tell he was reserved. I knew he wouldn't go out of his way to meet me and become friends and I wanted to get to know him desperately! I was not the type of girl to chase after a guy. I had never had to in high school. (I wasn't popular at all, but I got enough attention from guys that I never felt I had to go looking for it) So, I came up with a scheme that I am still very proud of. I decided I would introduce myself to Tyler's friend, Richard (while Tyler was with him) and tell him I knew his little brother, Dusty. Then, I would invite them to come to a game night that my friends were hosting. I figured if they came, it would mean they didn't think I was a total loser and I would have a chance with Tyler. My plan totally worked. I invited them to several game nights, and they came to each one. Richard started inviting me to activities that he, Tyler, and some other guys were doing. I was quickly welcomed into their group. We went four wheeling a lot, played volley ball, and played pool in Richards game room basement. I was usually the only girl in their group of friends. I had so much fun, and felt that every night, Tyler and I had one or two little "moments", I knew he'd eventually figure out that I was interested. And hopefully he would be interested too! About four weeks after this all started, Richard went out of town for two weeks. Since he had been the one inviting me to things, I knew I wouldn't see Tyler unless he invited me to do something. Luckily, he realized this too and asked me out! Poor Richard was so confused when he got back two weeks later and Tyler and I had been on three dates and were basically together. We were inseparable the rest of the summer. We went to movies, lots of church activities, a ball game, a chili cook-off, swimming, out to eat, Baptisms at the Temple with the young adults, and more movies! We never talked about marriage, but I would have married him immediately if he had brought it up! That fall, I went to school three hours away. I came home almost every weekend to see him. It was the longest semester of my life! Tyler proposed over Thanksgiving weekend. We had already been talking about marriage, and planning it (for Spring Break). It was so exciting! The day he proposed, I went wedding dress shopping with my mom, little sister, and my older sister who was in town (we went shopping before the proposal because I wanted my older sister to be there!). I spent all day trying on dresses and talking a mile a minute. We found a beautiful dress for $99 (I'm so proud of that!) and I bought it right then and there (I had a feeling he would propose that night!). By the time Tyler came to pick me up for our special date I had no voice. Between being slightly sick with a cold and talking and shopping all day, I sounded terrible. I was mortified! Luckily, he was a sweetheart and pretended it wasn't that bad. Even so, we didn't talk too much during dinner; I was worried about how I sounded and he was nervous about proposing to me soon! After dinner we went to the temple to walk around. We liked to do this and did it often. I had hoped he'd bring me there to propose. He brought me to our "spot" and said some beautiful things. Amazingly, I was able to say "yes, I'll marry you" without sounding like a wounded man! So there it is! The End!