500 Dates

Angie and I have been on about 500 dates. Sounds crazy, right? It does to me, but it's true. We aren't keeping track, exactly, but we make it a point to go on a date each week and have done so ever since we were first married. I think we've missed some weeks and I remember going twice some weeks (when we went out for lunch spontaneously and didn't need a babysitter).

We've been married for 10 years now (in March). Multiply that by 52 weeks/year puts us over 500 dates just since we got married. We saw each other almost daily while we dated, but I don't know if those count as dates. If they do, add over 100 more (that's rounding down). We dated for over 4 months, including our engagement, before getting married.

Our first date was on Nov 3, 2001. We went bowling with some of Angie's friends. I knew Kristi from the singles ward we attended. All the other people were their friends. The guys were Dave and Davey, which is easy enough to remember. My other memories of that night were mostly about Angie and how I really, really loved being with her. I still love being with her. There was some leaning going on at the bowling alley. She sat on a table between turns and I only had the guts to lean my arm up against her leg as I sat on the seat next to her. She wanted to reciprocate some contact (she told me later), but we were both pretty shy about it.

After bowling, we went to her house and watched Shrek. Angie's dad was there with us. He must have been coming and going and I'll tell you why I think that. During the movie, Angie and I started leaning. Ya, leaning. It was pretty awesome. I really wanted to hold her hand and was getting up the, well, I can't call it "courage," to do so. It's more like I was building up a whole bunch of "anti-regret" and I didn't want to look back on the night wishing I'd have held her hand.

Let me tell you, this was very forward for me!

We leaned more and more until our hands were touching back-to-back. I faked a pretend hold in the hopes that she'd think I was going for her hand and then she'd hold mine. She didn't bite. Then it was just a flop attempt and I decided to just grab her hand. So forward for a first date! But I really, really liked her and there was crackling energy in the air. It was magical (for both of us). It was the awesome-est feeling.

I still get that feeling around her. Ya, she's that awesome.

So anyway, we were holding hands and this must have been when her dad left to make poopcorn (ew, that would be gross). How about popcorn? Let's just say he made popcorn. Because when he came back I could see his surprised reaction in my peripheral vision.

After Shrek, we watched Iron Chef. It was one of their family's favorites, but was new to me. What a fun show! We have lots of inside jokes from watching that show over a year or two before it was taken off the air. Anyway, let me jump to the end of the date.

Angie asked me out on this date so she came to pick me up. When she dropped me off, I didn't want to shake hands in the car or hug across the arm rest. I didn't want it to look like I was going for a kiss or anything! That's way beyond what I could have gone for. So I asked her if I could give her a big hug. I went around to her side of the car and gave her a hug. The hug she gave me back was 10 times more magical than holding hands during Shrek. It was bliss. Pure love. And I still feel that way when we have some peace and quiet and give each other a sweet hug.

In everyday life we still have a lot of good feelings for each other. We work hard at our marriage and parenting. We have good days most of the time. There used to be more hard days than we have now. We've come a long way and still have a long way to go. This weekend's stake conference was uplifting and I love how the Spirit teaches us what we need to do to be more like our Savior, Jesus Christ. It is only through Him and our Father's plan of salvation that we can find true happiness in life.

And it's so good going through life with my wife and best-est friend, Angie. I love you, Babe!

See your ancestors on createfan.com

Our ward has been talking about family history and sharing our own conversion story or that of our ancestors. Our bishop has been telling fun stories of one of his ancestors. And he's been talking about our ward members printing off our fan chart (createfan.com) and finding out how many people in our ward have common ancestry. It sounds so awesome.

Angie and I printed out our fans and have been having fun reading names. Here's a cool line in Angie's family. Jens Ottosen, son of Otte Nielsen, son of Niels Jensen, son of Jens Vogensen. Cool, huh!

She's also related to Parley P. Pratt. There's an asterisk there so we're not sure about what that means yet. I really love the fan and how it shows nine generations. The efficiency strikes a chord in my inner mathematician.

Here's another sweet line Angie has. Christian C Christensen, son of Anthony Christensen, son of Christen Christensen, son of Christen Christensen, son of yet another Christen Christensen. Awesome, baby!

I didn't think I knew any conversion stories of my ancestors so I didn't think I could contribute to the "ancestory show and tell" minute in priesthood meeting today. But I thought of one! It's my grandpa Ragozzine. Let me tell you about it. My aunt submitted this story in the Ensign (several years ago). If I find it, I'll definitely post a link to it. I'll paraphrase the story because it's been a while since I read the details.

My grandpa Ragozzine married my grandma (she was a member of the church, he was not) and they raised a family together. I think he went to church, but not sure for how long. Anyway, the part that I remember most is that my aunt would ask him when he would get baptized and he kept putting it off for his own reasons. My aunt went on a mission and was elated to receive a letter from him (during her mission) saying he was finally ready to get baptized. So cool. What a letter to get on your mission!

I remember my grandpa Ragozzine. He was a quiet, loving man. I remember playing checkers with him when I'd go to their home in the summer. He beat me every time. He might have shown some mercy, meaning the game would be prolonged, but he always won. I think he'd play canasta with my grandma and me too, but I don't remember that happening too many times. Just the memories of losing at checkers. A lot. He always tried to find a football game on TV when I was over at their house too. He'd call me to the living room and try to find a game when it wasn't even football season. I was so naive that I thought he'd find a game on some channel anyway. Grandpas are awesome like that.

I love my grandpa and I know that I will see him again. I wonder if he gets to see glimpses of his descendants or if he has a wireless connection to the Internet and can read this blog post. Care to comment, Grandpa?

Sorry for shooting out those windows with your BB gun. I thought you said I could.

Mosiah 4:9 is one of my favorite scriptures. I don't think about it very often, but when it's quoted, I instantly remember the reference. The message is powerful and I just came across it in my Book of Mormon reading. I love its message. This scripture reads:

9 Believe in God; believe that he is, and that he created all things, both in heaven and in earth; believe that he has all wisdom, and all power, both in heaven and in earth; believe that man doth not comprehend all the things which the Lord can comprehend.

This scripture is true. I know that God, our Heavenly Father created all things through Jesus Christ. I know that when I pray, I am speaking to my Father in Heaven and that He knows all. It is a gift and a blessing to be able to approach Him in prayer and to ask for divine wisdom. He knows and sees all. It is humbling to feel that I can communicate with my Creator and get direction for my life here on the earth.

And I'm learning the latter part of the scripture about how man cannot comprehend all the things that the Lord does. It seems like I have to keep reminding myself of that as I pursue many interests and take the next step along the path of my career. I'm following what I feel He has in store for me. Some choices are not the choices that I would make. Sometimes my opinion of what to pursue (such as where to live and the cost of living of such places) is not what the Lord has in store for my family. It has caused a lot of groanings in us to understand that He is in charge and knows all. He can see the whole path that we will trod and the blessings and pitfalls we will face if we trust Him or not.

I love the Lord and trust Him. I am grateful for the gift and promptings of the Holy Ghost. My life is rich. Not because I have attained blessings by my own wisdom or strength. Quite the opposite. It is when I give up my own opinions and ideas, and align myself with God's ways, that I am blessed with abundance.

What scripture(s) strengthen you?

General Conference was awesome, once again

Our family spent Saturday morning relaxing and getting ready for a day full of conference talks from church leaders. We made peanut butter popcorn, as promised, and snacked on it in three sessions. (By the last session on Sunday, we had completely forgotten about it. Sugar overload, I guess.)

We have spent years helping our little guys be reverent in sacrament meeting. It has paid off at church and it sure pays off on conference weekend. The boys actually sat through most of the first session before they got restless and went to play in their room. They often play quietly and that was the case this time too. Our boys are just the best.

We felt the Spirit so much by paying attention to the talks, talking about the messages together and listening for messages that would answer questions that we had written down beforehand. A couple questions I wrote down were:

How can we be a happy family?

How can we know the Lord's will for moving after Dad graduates?

I've been working on being patient with my boys. It can be tough sometimes. And I feel like they are really, really good boys. They bring a lot of happiness, peace and joy into our home. I'm so glad to have them. We are happy when we cooperate, speak kindly to each other, give lots of hugs, spend time together and have tickle fights.

I'm getting closer and closer to graduation. It's kind of weird to be so close to the end. It has been coming for nearly 6 years and now it seems like it's zooming up! We are talking about what kind of house we want to live in, how big it might be, if it will have a yard, what Skyler will do if there's no snow during the winter, etc.

We also got some bonus material from conference talks. It's stuff for our extended family. We have family members who are struggling with some tough medical and parenting issues. We passed along our thoughts to them and, hopefully, helped strengthen them at the same time.

Conference is just the best. I look forward to downloading all the talks (they are all available here now. Enjoy!) and swapping out the CD in my car from last conference.

Maybe I'll blog again about the talks I liked the most. If anyone suggests what they like to read here, I could lean toward more conference talks and scriptures or family happenings. Or else I'll just keep writing about whatever happens each week.

It's been 6 months since I started this blog. I've posted something each week and I'm s'happy that I have. I love talking about the gospel and hearing that others are reading my blog. Thank you all for reading, sharing it, and Liking it. May you be blessed for helping share the gospel!