A Dream Come True

General conference weekend has brought back some memories from the past. I have this notebook that I have taken notes in during general conference since I was in the 9th grade--2004. As I flip through the pages every time I pull it out you can see how my life changed from year to year.

In April 2007 I had been "dating" (if you can call it that since we were in high school) a boy named Peter Sundwall for about 7 months. I remember spending that weekend working on a quilt I was making him for a graduation present. There are random pages in this notebook of ideas for the quilt. Since I was trying to find fabric that could represent fun memories we had from high school there are pages of lists that say things like "Red Boots," "Student Council" and "Baseball."

Rascal Flatts concert Pete took me to for Valentine's Day that year, I wore red cowboy boots

Pete and I really became friends because of all the time we spent together doing things for Student Council

October of 2007 Pete and I had just started college. I remember it being a time of adjustment, but we got each other through it. We came home for general conference weekend and spent time with our families and apparently switched off taking notes on every other speaker in my notebook.

The countless BYU games in the student section

Pete got his mission call a few days after conference in April 2008. He was busy with baseball and gone frequently. It was good for me to get used to having him gone a little at a time because soon he would be REALLY gone for two whole years and I had learned to rely on him so much.

For the next 4 general conferences, he really was gone for good. I remember loving general conference time though because it was those 2 times during the year that I knew we were both listening to the same thing at the same time--it made me feel the tiniest bit of connection to him. The next conference, October 2010, Pete and I were engaged and life was so exciting! His handwriting showed up in my notebook again and I am reminded that we went to a mission reunion that weekend and I was able to meet so many people who knew and loved Pete, not as much as me, but still a lot. :) Here I am alone again on conference weekend (thanks to baseball) but I am grateful because it has reminded me to never take for granted the fact that my dreams have come true. Sometimes being married begins to feel normal but all I have to do is pull out reminders of the years Pete and I have had together to remember that Peter is and has been since 2006, the man of my dreams. It still baffles me that he wanted to marry me. He is an incredible person and I have had to work every day since I met him at deserving to be part of his life, but I am grateful that he sees me for who I am striving to be and not necessarily who I always am.