Falling in Love

After our second-first date Greg and I became inseparable. He was (and still is) so amazing. He is so incredible. After only dating for a few weeks I had surgery, and knew that I missed seeing my idol in concert because of it, Britney Spears, of course. The day of my surgery Greg came to visit me bringing my favorite Easter candy, diet coke, a sweet card, and two tickets to see Taking Back Sunday in concert. After much deliberation I decided he could have that extra ticket. (Ha!)

After only dating for a month or so, I knew he liked me when he asked if he could come with me while I went shopping for my upcoming vacation. He saw that i was disappointed that I couldn't find the pair of shoes I saw only a few weeks before. So this sweet man surprised me with pink shoes shortly after. We hadn't even become "official" yet. Can we say dream come true? I know.

The longest we were apart during our courtship was for about a week when my family and I went on a cruise to the Bahama's. Although we had only been dating a short time, he insisted on dropping me off, and picking me (and some siblings) from the airport. Any time I had phone service we text non-stop. It was crazy how much I thought of him, and missed him while I was gone. It seemed intense since I had only been dating him for such a short amount of time.

Greg surprised me with so many sweet and thoughtful surprises. He was (and still does) put me first. He makes me feel so important and beautiful- even when I know I'm not. He puts up with so much with me. I was created as a very stubborn individual- we butt-heads (?) a lot because we both insist we are right. But he is always sweet to me. Also with my varying health issues he is nothing less than supportive.

Neither of us thought, or planned, that we would fall in love so quickly and easily. However, although we felt it, we didn't want to scare the other off. So our saying to each other for the longest time was, "I way more than like you". It is still a sweet saying that reminds us of your past together.

It was probably in June when Greg and I went on a double date with his friend Luke, and his new girlfriend. We had dinner at Wingers and had planned to go bowling after, but it didn't end up working out. Greg got food poisoning, or something, and by the ended up really sick by the end of the night. We went to his grandparents house, where he was currently living, and hung out for a little while longer. As the night progressed, the sickness did as well. Because he was so sick I was going to call my mom or dad to see if they'd come pick me up, so he didn't have to drive me home while he was so sick. But because he is quite the classy gentleman he insisted on taking me home. As he dropped me offI said, "feel better, I love you!", without even thinking. I almost died. I guess he hadn't heard me and asked what I had said so I covered it up by saying, "I way more than like you." I proceeded to quickly close the door and rush to my house. I thought I had ruined everything. He had a bad relationship prior to us being together, so I was trying to make sure we didn't rush things and make things harder for him. 

About a month or so later, after my XANGO summer party at seven peaks we finally officially said those three words, I Love You. We were at his place and just talking and he suddenly said he had a secret for me (I LOVE secrets). He ended up telling me that he was in love with me. It felt so amazing hearing him say that to me, and it was even more amazing to finally say those words to him. 

Life was, and still is, so wonderful. I'm so blessed to have Greg as my husband and the father of our future children. It was a totally smart idea on his part to fall in love with me. Now he gets to be a part of my awesomeness for time and all eternity. 

The Beginning of our Second-First Date

I'm trying to get this here blog started with a background of the Maynes'. Today I want to reminisce about our second-first date.

Greg and I hadn't really talked since our first-first date. Because we were both crazy-shy. Most of the blame is on me because I am the one who started the no-more-talking deal. I really never thought I'd really see, or hang out with him, again.

It was towards the beginning of 2009 and I was working as a data-entry agent in the Elite Services Department of XanGo. It was the "slow time" of the month, so me and the other data-entry agent really just hung out until we were given work to do. A lot of my day was playing games on Facebook or browsing the internet.

While I was "working" I noticed I had a Friend Request on Facebook, so of course I check it out. As crazy as it sounds- it was Greg Maynes. After a LONG debate (wink,wink), I added him and stalked through his pictures, like a normal person would do. Later that day, or week, he wrote on my page just saying hi, and asking what I had been up to in the past .. a lot of years. I wrote back with the generic "Not much. You?" response. I thought it would fizzle out and that would be that.- Wrong again! We started writing to each other back and forth on our wall's and finally our messages got too long and we had to send it in a message. This went on for weeks. We got to know each other really well. He was working the graveyard-shift at Primary Children's Hospital at the time so I would get messages from him at really odd hours.I remember looking forward to his e-mails each morning, and sometimes the afternoon too. I finally got bold and gave him my phone number.

I'm not going to lie when I say that I  was expecting a call within 24 hours. I can assure you that it did not happen. We still e-mailed back and forth, but he never asked a certain question.. the one I was DYING to hear. A few days passed and I had stopped staring at the phone (yes, i'm one of those girls). Who am I kidding, I still watched that thing like a hawk.

Sunday dinner came and went- I'm sure it was good, my mom can definitely cook. I just remember when my family and I were all hanging out after eating and joking around, my phone lit up! It was Greg (it was about ... time!). I played it cool. But only if cool means running and jumping over people while I ran to my room and slammed the door. But I did let it ring two or  three times so he wouldn't think I was sitting around waiting for the call.

It was raining really hard and he was on the freeway driving to work. I honestly had the hardest time understanding him. I did make out that he wanted to take me out the following Friday, March 27th, 2009. (Is it cheesy that I remember the dates?).

So Friday night rolled around and I was getting really anxious. For those who don't know me, I'm a serious worrier- about EVERYTHING. So, the anxious thoughts started running through my mind a million thoughts per second, not literally (haha?). Any-who.. I just remembered how awkward things got after the first-first date. So I was a little worried, not gonna lie.  Well he picked me up, and the first thing I noticed was that he was taller than I remembered. No joke. I don't think I've even told him that.

So our date  began by driving to Lehi to go to a nice little Thai restaurant. We got totally forgotten about by our waiter. Our table was in the far corner, and no one was really sat by us. We were literally there for at least two hours. Luckily, things went extremely well. We talked and there were not any awkward pauses. It was a really crazy. We clicked almost immediately. After dinner we were supposed to go rock-climbing, but plans changed due to being neglected at the restaurant. Instead we opted to go to a movie. We decided to see Duplicity (with Julia Roberts and Clive Owen.. ring a bell?). It was not a good movie, to us at least. We talked through most of it. We normally despise people who talk through movies. But it was pretty empty and it was really stupid.

(Ring a bell?)

Then he dropped me off, and we ended the night with a crazy make-out session... just kidding. It was just a nice hug. Definitely the BEST second-first-date, ever!

First Date

Greg and I met back in kindergarten, Mrs. McCone was our teacher. We also grew up in the same LDS stake. Oh, and we only lived like 3 blocks away from each other for most of our lives.

Greg and I had always known each other, but we never really started talking until we were in 10th grade, in Mrs. Wellings algebra class. Greg sat up one seat forward, and one seat to the right of me in that class. There were a couple of us who would chit-chat before, after, and a little during class (of course). If you were to ask Greg, he'd tell you the only reason we talked was so that I could copy his math homework, which is only partially true; I did borrow his answers, but we talked for fun as well.

Well a few months after school  started they announced that the Sweethearts Dance was coming up in February. It was the hot topic and all the girls were planning on who they would ask and what group they wanted to be in. Luckily, I got  to participate this time, because I would be 16 right before the day of the dance. I'm sure you can guess who I asked, Greg. Big surprise, right? Anyway, I remember asking Greg with a few bags of starbursts and making a sign that said something about look in the candies to see who is bursting to go to Sweethearts with you.. and had my name tucked away into some of the wrappers. I don't remember how he replied, but he said yes.

The quicker that day came, the worse my nerves got. I'm a very anxious girl, and this was my first date.. and I asked him! When I get nervous I can do some really dumb things. For some reason I got all weird around him because I didn't want him, or others, to think I was like in love with him and get teased for it. Crazy, right? It was just a dance. 

Well the awkwardness continued the day of the dance.  I didn't quite have my license so we carpool with another couple to the dance. Because Greg lived so close, we went to his house first. I remember walking up to his door literally shaking because of nerves. His mom opened the door, I knew her from church activities as well as she is who did the crossing on my way to school in elementary school... Anyways, she answered the door and guided me into their front room where Greg, his dad, and his sister, Rhiannon, were waiting. Because it was a formal dance I was supposed to pin on a boutonniere. I say supposed to because I was shaking too bad to be able to do it; luckily his mom stepped in. 

The first event of the night was dinner. We went to a little Italian restaurant with our group. It was good, we had a decent sized group, so there weren't too many awkward silences. Before we left the restaurant me and a few other girls went to "powder our noses". While we were in there I was checking my hair and/or makeup and leaned up on the counter towards the mirror- BIG mistake. There was a bunch of water, and that water hit me just right and I looked as though I had peed my pants/dress. Awesome. I was literally running around in the bathroom trying to get it to dry before we had to leave. 

On the way to the dance the fun continued, there was a slight fender-bender with a friends car. It was bad that we had the accident- but at least it wasn't some stranger, right? Right. FINALLY we were on our way to the dance. Man, I was SO nervous. Greg was too. So with that combination it was a fun, but awkward date.

In my mind, I thought everyone would think we were an "item" now that we went to that dance together... and I liked him. However, I had a funny way of showing it, I avoided him like the plague- and not just in math... the rest of high school! 

But, believe it or not, we did have a second date... just quite a few years later.