February 14, 2011

long distance love ..

it is officially the day of love.
i love celebrating love everyday so valentines day is just another day to me!

but since it is valentines why not share a love story?

i like this one. a lot. 
its about my sweetheart, mr. barlow.

our long distance love can be traced back to almost a year ago ..

wait ..
i was on my mission a year ago!
i know you now want to hear this story ..

in december of 2009 i got the impression that i needed to stay on my mission a little longer.
i had a couple talks with my president barrett, received an answer from the Lord and stayed for 6 more weeks.

for my last 6 weeks i was transfered to madison, wi.
i was put with sister b. johnson to serve in the madison ysa and madison 4th family ward.

about 2 weeks before i went home the ROSE family signed up to feed us dinner.
we went to their home the eve of 02.16.10 and i had the opportunity to talk to heidi [BARLOW] rose.
soon we discovered we were both from LA and that we had a couple friends in common.
small world right?

this letter home to my family tells a little more about this meeting! >>> the standard of truth! [02.22.10].

after being home from the wmm for about a month or 2 i get an email from heidi asking if i am dating anyone ..
i tell her no and she decides she wants to set me up with someone.
it was not her brother.
[i actually did not know she had an attractive, 25 year old single brother till a couple months after her email!]

in june cat and some of us g7ers decided to support the Lakers and their amazingness by going to the Laker Parade ..

in july mr. barlow decided to stalk justin dator .. and me.

that is how mr. barlow and i officially met .. thank you facebook!


we finally met in person when he came home to burbank for 3 weeks in august.
a little background on mr. barlow ..
he went to byui and graduated in april 2010, got offered a job for the university as an ASL Interpreter, so when he came home he was just visiting while school was on break.

we met on a sunday in g7.
said hello, talked about heidi and that was pretty much it ..

we went to a couple of the same activities like this ..

watching the joseph smith movie at the LA Visitors Center ..
we actually sat by each other during the movie.
pretty sure i remember mr. barlow joking around about trying to hold my hand ..


it was a fun 3 weeks of going out with g7ers, having sunday eve game nights and talking about knowing heidi!

 we even danced together at a ysa dance.
mr. barlow would say he 'waltzed' into my life ..
[also smoothest way of giving me his number/getting mine .. he asked for my phone and put his number in it so that if i was interested i would call/text. i did.]

his summer time trip was coming to a close and for his last night in LA he had a little dinner at the Rain Forest Cafe at Downtown Disney.

he invited me to come and i went down to anaheim with tara and cody raptor!

during the dinner seating arrangements were shuffled and i jokingly said i would sit in front of mr. barlow so we could play footsies ..
mr. barlow took it seriously and so the night before he left back to rexburg we played footsies under the table at the Rain Forest Cafe at Downtown Disney.

it was about another month until had the opportunity to see mr. barlow again.
we texted during that time, little getting to know you questions and answers.

we were both in utah the same weekend for october general conference!
 cat, hill j and i met up with mr. barlow in provo for some froyo ..
   
while there we played footsies .. again.


and tried to take some photos together ..


this one is one of my favs .. just sayin ..


about 3 minutes after we left this froyo place i get a call from mr. barlow asking me on a date before we both left provo!
i really wanted to say yes but i had already planned on spending time with my 2nd family.
i told him i would see if it could work out but alas it did not ..

i got to see him at the sunday pm session of general conference for a little bit ..
he then left back to rexburg and me to the monrov.



after this time together in utah we started skyping each other.
we skyped and texted quite a bit ..

the morning of 10.18.10 i got a call from mr. barlow asking me my plans for that coming weekend ..
i told him none. he asked me if i would like to go on a date. this time i of course said yes!

that was the beginning of what we like to call our "marathon" dates ..
he flew to LA the weekend of 10.22.10 and we had our first date.

that weekend also included the g7 "Live Clue" game night ..
so we of course dressed up!


the next move came from me ..
mr. barlow flew down to LA to take me on a date SO ..

i flew up to rexburg for the weekend to see him!
why not?
i had a crush on mr. barlow.
we were getting along amazingly.
i had never been to good ole rexburg!

we worked it out where i would come up for the weekend and drive [13 hours] to LA with him for thanksgiving!

marathon date #2 ..

we had a wonderful time in rexburg.
it was cold.
he kept me warm.

we stayed a night in utah.
he signed for hours to entertain my little siblings!

we drove. alot.
we talked. alot.
we both loved every minute of it.

next adventure was thanksgiving at each others homes!
i was mostly nervous about meeting the young lady in this photo .. kimberly!
mr. barlow told me she gave a dating test to those who wanted to date her brother ..
oh i took it and passed.
kim and i love each other!


marathon date #2 was a success!
thanksgiving was a success!

mr. barlow and i were enjoying our time together!


the next gap between seeing each other was a lot shorter from thanksgiving to christmas break!
that was a blessing!

reuniting was always such a good time.


christmas break was marathon date #3 ..
we saw each other a lot more than just a weekend of a time which was amazing.

but ..

we had to decide/discuss the long distance status.
DTR.
thats always fun right?!

for us it turned out good.

christmas night will be one i wont forget ..


after him meeting the rest of my immediate family we went to burbank to spend time with his family.
before we went in to his home we exchanged christmas gifts and had a little talk.

i told him i wanted us to continue to date, even though it would be long distance for a time.
mr. barlow told me he was in love with me.
best. night. ever.
[he also told me he didnt want me to say anything .. so i didnt!]

mr. barlow and i became officially official on 12.25.10

we spent the rest of the break going on dates and spending quality time together in LA.

marathon date #3 had to come to an end.
he had to get back to byui to start interpreting for the new semester ..

new years eve 2010 was mr. barlows last night in LA!


we spent the evening eating with his family, having a dance party with his nieces & nephews, taking photos, dancing the night away with g7 and of course sharing a midnight kiss.

when mr. barlow dropped me off i told him that i loved him.

he drove back to rexburg new years day and we started planning out the next couple of marathon dates!

i went to rexburg about a month ago in January for the long weekend.
marathon date #4 included thai food, watching mission videos, the Temple, exploring rexburg, seeing some friends of mine and of course cuddling.


mr. barlow will be coming here this weekend for marathon date #5 and i could not be more excited!

i love love.
i love mr. barlow loving me.
i love loving him.

[credit def goes to heidi barlow rose for this one! thank you!]

mr. barlow .. feel free to correct any part of this love story you see fit but with my memory i am pretty sure i got it all accurate!

i love you everyday.

14 comments:

  1. I LOVE this story! :)
    -Laura Gunnell

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  2. For the record, I would have absolutely set you up with Mr. Barlow FIRST, except who thinks to set up the best missionary they ever knew with one who lives in Rexburg?

    I'm glad you and Jacob were able to overlook this little lack of judgement.

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  3. hahaha to heidi's comment. i can't say i blame her either but i am glad it worked out! :)

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  4. oh wow, this is one cute post. I loved hearing your story at Christmas and am soo glad to hear it is still going strong!

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  5. ohlove!!!!
    i love love stories...especially this one...and how the MISH brought you together, indirectly :) gotta love that.
    all the cute dates.
    nothing better than thai. and the temple. AND mish stories. AND cuddling...that's joy in every aspect.
    i'm happy for you!

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  6. can i also direct everyones attention to how Melanie spelled "hedei" on the facebook picture?

    Barlow boggle fail.

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  7. heidi .. its ok. it is overlooked. it just makes me smile that you thought i was a good missionary! why thank you! good thing jacobs stalking skills came in handy!

    CAT .. you were NOT supposed to point that out! jacob already did to me. SORRY HEIDI!

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  8. I had no idea the laker parade had something to do with you and jacob! I love that he is in our group pictures! I kinda feel like I was part of this without even knowing it haha! life is crazy and wonderful, isn't it??

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  9. The Lakers also brought Kandis and I together.

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  10. I LOVE that you are in LOVE. I don't love that somehow I missed you here. I think it's crazy that you are in love with the brother of Heidi (who I think is pretty fantastic) and the best friend of Miss Cat who I will love to the end of time. It's a crazy small world. Monrovia to Madison, who knew???

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  11. What a great read! So excited for you guys. I actually remember Heidi saying to Sister Warner at dinner "hmm, I have a brother who is single, you never know? wait I shouldn't be talking about that now" or something to that effect.

    Jacob nice touch with the pillows. Raising the bar for the rest of us.

    Cat, Heidi and I are still laughing about Barlow boggle fail. Great call.

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  12. stacey .. SERIOUS! small small world!

    greg .. i must have been listening to jackson talk at that same moment! i never heard such a comment!
    i fail big time at barlow boggle!

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