The Proposal

It was 8 am November 18.  I was lying in bed just playing around on my phone.  It kept freezing up on me so I turned it off and decided to go back to sleep.  Sleeping was impossible because the house phone kept ringing.  So I finally get up and I walk up stairs to get breakfast and I hear someone pounding on the front door.  I walk over to the door and look through the peep hole.  Andrew was standing on the porch.  I answer it and let him in.  I ask him what he's doing here so early.  He said he wasn't going to work until later and wanted to hang out this morning and that he'd been trying to call my cell phone but it was turned off and so he tried calling the house phone too.  Oh so you're the one who interrupted my sleep??  So we go down to my room and he tells me that he has plans for us and that I have 30 min to get ready.  30 minutes for me to get ready is nearly impossible.  What can I say I like to take my time!  But he said it was very important that we left my house in thirty minutes and that I would want to make sure I look extra cute today.  Ok not a problem at all. While I was in the bathroom getting ready he was in my room grabbing everything I would need for the day and stuffing it in my little travel backpack I always took on vacations.  By this time I am really confused, but he wasn't caving on giving any hints.
We leave my house and he takes me to Macys and says that we should go get a quick breakfast.  So we run in and grab some bagels and juice and then we speed off to his house where he says we need to get in the car with his step dad.  Ok so we have a cheuffeur for the day??
I get in the back seat and I am texting and not paying any attention to the road.  When I finally look up I see that we are taking the exit that will lead us straight to the airport.  I chuckled to myself thinking that we probably took the wrong exit, unless his step dad was going somewhere and we were dropping him off.  We come to a stop at the drop off zone and Andrew gets out of the car, comes around to my door, opens it and says, "ok get out its time to go."
We're going somewhere?? Did you tell my mom?
He assured me that he had told my mom and even called my work and told them I wouldn't be coming in. He wouldn't tell me where we were going until we got our boarding passes and I see that we are going to Long Beach, CA. My mind is racing with a thousand questions!  Andrew is always very surpriseful so I thought that  maybe it was just a spontaneous day trip.
As we get on the plane the thought keeps coming to me that maybe he's going to propose on the beach or something.  Nah he's so not proposing.
We get to Long Beach and flag down a taxi.  Andrew gives him directions to a beach on Ocean Avenue.  Ok the whole proposing on the beach thing is starting to seem real now.
We get to the beach and we start walking along the water and finding sea shells.  Finally we set out a blanket and sit and take in the scene.  I told him thanks for bringing me here because I love California and I love the beach!! I'm just not sure why we're here.  He said we had a fun activity a little bit later so we're just killing time.  So we laid down to take a nap and soak up the sun.  I kept waiting for him to sneak off when he thought I was asleep and then set up his romantic beach proposal, but he never moved!
Finally our activity time had come.  We packed up our things and he said that we needed to head across the street. Across the street was a small harbor with a lot of sail boats.  So naturally I thought we were going on a sail boat ride.  I was excited because I had never been on one but I am extremely afraid of water so I was starting to get nervous.  He leads me down this dock and tells me to sit down on the bench while he went and talked to these people in this little hut.  He finally comes out with this guy dressed in an outfit that a gondolier would wear.  The man looks at me introduces himself as Ignacio and asks me if I'm ready for my gondola ride?  A gondola ride?? Wow Andrew has really out done himself on this date. I can't even believe we're doing this!  A gondola ride has always been on my list of life goals.
We hop in and he leads us in to this canal that is surrounded by three islands.  The islands were full of huge houses and everyone had little boats and water toys tied up along the canal.  It was very picturesque. Every once in while we would see a fish jump out of the water and we even saw a seal!  By this time Andrew is so quiet and just staring straight forward.  I am having the time of my life and just praying that nothing attacks us and makes us sink.
Ignacio informs us that there are four bridges that we will pass under and each time we go under a bridge you have to kiss for good luck.  I am trying to talk to Andrew but he seems very distracted.  Suddenly we stop under the fourth bridge and Ignacio says that this is the spot he always likes to take a break and sing a nice song in Italian.  How romantic!! This has got to be a dream.  Ignacio starts singing and suddenly there is a big splash of water right next to me.  I sort of jump into Andrew and I'm like, what was that??  He tells me to look over the edge and see what landed in the water. I inform him that I am not looking over the edge because some crazy sea creature is probably waiting to attack me.  He kind of nudges me and says, no really please look fast!  I look over and I see a green bottle floating next to me.  I say, oh false alarm don't worry someone just littered.  how rude!  Andrew laughs and he's like no one littered pick it up.  I pick up the glass bottle and I see a paper inside that has my name on it!  What the freak is going on?  I open the bottle and pull out the paper.  I unfold it once and I see that Andrew had written a note.  Basically telling me how much he loves me and wants to spend the rest of his life with me. Awww!  I immediately start tearing up and I unfold the letter once more and there are the words WILL YOU MARRY ME? I look over at Andrew and he is holding the box with the ring inside.  As I'm crying I say YES!!!! I am so shocked and incredibly happy!  He was so relieved.  He was finally breathing again.  He puts the ring on and Ignacio congratulates us, takes some pictures and leads us back to our starting point.  I could not believe how perfect that was!  I swear it could be a movie.
We left the dock and started walking along Ocean Avenue and Andrew is telling me how nervous he was and that he was so afraid he would never get me awake since my phone was off.  And he got even more nervous when I wasn't answering the house phone because we had a plane to catch.  That would explain the numerous amount of calls that annoyed me enough to get out of bed.
His original plan was to go have a nice fancy dinner on the Queen Mary after the gondola ride,  But we got a little lost.  So I informed him that I would be happy with anything for dinner, you know how much I love cheap mexican food like taco bell and del taco!  So straight ahead we found a perfect place called Chronic Tacos.  We sat and ate and announced the news to our family and friends.  I was still in a state of shock.
On the way home Andrew immediately fell asleep on the plane.  Poor guy had been a nervous wreck all day.  And I immediately started watching Say Yes to The Dress and any type of wedding show I could find on my TV.
All in all it was the most romantic perfect proposal ever!!!!  Andrew was already sick of hearing the story after I was on the phone and had told it seven times in a row before we got on the plane, but hey that right there is every girls dream!  He is going to be hearing this story being told for the rest of his life.  I will never forget that amazing day and how I am the luckiest girl in the world to have a guy like Andrew.  And so the count down to our wedding date February 24 had begun!

And here is a slideshow of our wedding day!

After the mission:

Ok so even though I didn't write him during his mission, I still thought about him a lot and I knew about the time that he would be coming home and I was very much single.  It was February 2009 and I was giving my good friend Dayna a baby shower at my house.  Suddenly I got a text message from an unknown number.  I read the text and it said.. "so did you wait for me?"  Right away I knew it was Andrew.  You can all probably imagine my response. I said.. "yeah I did!" 
We texted back and forth for a little while and he invited me to his homecoming talk the next day.  I was extremely nervous!  I hadn't talked to him or seen him in so long. So my friend Danielle was so nice and came with me for support, because girls can't go anywhere by themselves. 
He finished with his talk and I patiently waited in the line of people to see him.  I actually held off on going up to him for a long time because I had no idea what to say!  Um hi so yeah sorry about not writing you but welcome home I still think your incredibly cute.  Luckily I didn't have to say that because when I finally did go up to him he didn't say a word he just gave me a huge hug. And then he invited me over to his house for lunch.  But I had previous plans to do my visiting teaching so I couldn't go.
That night he text me and asked if I would like to join him in a movie night at his friends house.  Of course I said yes. We spent the whole movie cuddling and talking about everything that had happened in the past two years. Yes we were cuddling!  He definitely wasn't in the awkward afraid -of -touching -a- girl -returned -missionary mode.  Totally fine by me.  It came time to leave and we walked out to my car. I had driven over to his friends house and he had his brother drop him off so I offered him a ride home.  I pulled up to his house and we sat in the car and talked for a few minutes.  He asked when he would see me again and I said, well I'm free tomorrow. He leaned over to hug me goodnight and he got extremely close to my lips. My heart was racing! I was not expecting this at all! and then he pulled away and said, "ok I'm sorry, I'm not ready for that." I told him it was alright he would have another chance tomorrow if he hung out with me. 
The next night we hung out and had a poker night at his friends house. And yes he did kiss me! He made the move.  I was still very surprised but not opposed. We spent every single day together that week.  When the weekend came around he asked me if I had plans saturday.  I said no and asked why? He said, "Well its Valentines Day and a bunch of my mission friends are getting together and I want you to be my date."  Whoa! our real first date?? Absolutely!
Saturday night he arrived at my house with a bouquet of pink roses and a heart shaped locket.  I had no idea we were supposed to get each other gifts. I spent the whole day worrying about the perfect outfit and how I should do my hair. And here he was with roses and a necklace. What a sweetheart!  I could definitely get used to going on dates with him. We then went to The Pie downtown.  We drove with a few of his friends and we arrived a little bit earlier than the rest of the group.  We were standing against the wall in The Pie and he looked extremely nervous. I thought maybe the whole first date jitters were getting to him. But that didn't make sense because we had been inseparable the past week and he had kissed me numerous times before his mission and after.  So I couldn't believe that a date would make him nervous.  Finally he looked at me and said that he had something he needed to ask me and that I could think about it if I wanted to.  I said ok, and I was thinking that he was probably going to ask me what kind of pizza I wanted, which would have been a tough choice. But he surprised me once again and asked, "will you be my girlfriend?" Without hesitating I said of course!  This boy is full of surprises!
After The Pie we went dancing at studio 600.  He and his friend Shaun serenaded me and Shaun's girlfriend Jenny to a karaoke number of Ocean Avenue by Yellowcard. And then we danced the night away! It was the perfect Valentines Day and the perfect first date.  That night after he dropped me off I just kept thinking how grateful I was that things were working out so perfectly. I was a little surprised that he even wanted to see me after I disappeared for two years because I was afraid.
Well things continued to work out very well.  We literally saw each other every day unless one of us had plans that we couldn't get out of.  That summer he invited me on a trip to Pasadena, CA with his family.  It was our first trip together and it was a blast! That summer we also took a road trip up to Post Falls, ID where his grandma lived.  We spent about five days with her.  That was probably one of the funnest trips I had been on.  A few months later he invited me to another little family trip to D.C. and New York.  Everything thus far had been perfect! We were crazy about each other and had the summer of our lives!

How We Met:

Andrew and I both grew up in West Jordan.  We both attended West Jordan High School, but didn't meet until we were seniors.  Our senior year had just started and homecoming was right around the corner.  We were both nominated for homecoming royalty. One day after school they announced that all nominees needed to meet at the SBO room.  When we all arrived they explained that we would be put into pairs and had to create a skit for the school homecoming assembly.  They had written down each of the boys names and a theme for the skit and put them in separate jars.  The jars were passed around to each girl.  It came my turn and I drew out the name Andrew Pollock and the theme Star Wars.. two things I knew absolutely nothing about.  I turned to my friend who was standing next to me and asked if she knew who Andrew was.  She replied, "oh my gosh you got a good partner! He has his own band, he sings, plays guitar and has the most amazing eyes!" OK why have I never met him before?? So there he was standing in front of me with black hair and a red streak in his bangs, and girl pants. Not usually the type I go for, but I couldn't deny that I thought he was pretty cute.  His thoughts were something along the lines of.. a cheerleader? great. He wasn't really the peppy school spirit kind of a person. In fact he didn't even want to be a part of these homecoming shenanigans.

Well we introduced ourselves and he says to me, "so you're the one they call Little?"

Yep!

"Ok well I don't like that I'm going to call you Lindsey."  

He's so straight forward! I was slightly shocked at that answer, it wasn't the response I usually got. Everyone knew me by Little. And I mean everyone. But I was fine with it.

So we exchanged numbers and said we would be in touch about our star wars skit plans. I had probably watched one star wars movie in my life, and I think I was awake for like fifteen minutes of it. Boresville! I honestly don't remember much about our skit except that we were fighting each other with light sabers and in the end I destroyed him. Anyway it was enough to have him crowned Prince and me Duchess.

After homecoming was over, we kept in contact.  We hung out a few times throughout the year and even after we graduated, but never went on a single date.  A few months later it was January and he was just about to leave on his mission.  I agreed to go over to his house the night before he left to say my goodbyes. I thought that this was goodbye forever. I walked in to his house and there were about ten other girls there.. not surprising. As I was leaving he said he would walk me out to my car. I didn't really know what to even say to him. I told him good luck and that I would write him.  He said, "so are you going to wait for me?" I just looked at him and laughed.  We both knew he wasn't being serious and I knew he was probably saying that to all of those girls in the house.  I honestly thought that I would never see him again.

He left for the MTC the next day.  I did write him the whole three months he was there. Much to my surprise I woke up one morning to my cell phone ringing loudly.  My eyes wouldn't open enough to read the name of who was calling but I answered anyway. Oh my gosh I could not believe he was calling me from the airport! Why was he calling me from the airport? He said he didn't know why, he just needed to. Ok fine by me but now my crush has started all over again! Crap! He even called me the next night from a hotel in Miami, where they had stopped for one night before going to Honduras. Double crap!  I didn't want to like him. I didn't really think anything would ever happen with us... so I stopped writing.  He wrote me a few times throughout his mission, but I never responded.  Pretty rude I know.  He has never let me live that down.  I was sure thats where our story ended.