Last Valentine's Day

This Valentine's Day was fun for us (more on that in later posts), but it was made even better by remembering last Valentine's Day and what a whirlwind our life together has been since.


I got home from my mission February 13, 2008 in the evening, was released and went home with my parents for the first time in 1.5 years. They had set up the guest bedroom for me and we sat up and chatted until late, but when it came time for bed I could not sleep in that bedroom by myself without a companion snoring nearby so I camped out on the front room couch. I don't know why I thought this was an improvement, since I was still sleeping alone in a room but try as I might I still couldn't fall asleep. Some might call it shell-shock, but the only logical thing I could think of to do at 3 a.m. was to call Derrick who I hadn't talked to for a year and half.




What some people don't know is that before coming home I knew I was going to marry Derrick. We had started writing each other consistently again about 3 or 4 months before I came home and one day, after reading one of his letters, I turned to my companion and said, "I think I'm going to marry Derrick Hull." Her response was basically, "What? Who's that?!"



So shell-shocked and jet-lagged as I was (well, as jet-lagged as you can be traveling from California to Arizona), I decided to call him and see how he was. Naturally. He answered the phone, amazingly, and he still makes fun of me for what I said next: "Derrick? I hope I didn't wake you up." I don't really remember the details of our conversation, just that at first he was semi-incoherent and drowsy and then when he realized it was me he started talking really fast.



A few hours later I woke up to go to a dentist appointment, where I discovered my future father-in-law had basically laid out all the details of me and Derrick's relationship to Dr. Gifford who kept bringing it up! After suffering through that confusing experience I went home, collapsed on my bed and fell asleep. When I woke up, I found this bouquet of flowers on a table and a quote from one of my letters to him written on the card.


I was happy and excited, of course, but my poor dad had this bewildered look on his face. I think my parents are still trying to wrap their heads around the fact that I had a serious boyfriend two or three days after I got home from my mission, especially since I decided to keep the 'Jen and Derrick saga' on the down-low for now unknown reasons.



Derrick and I've talked every day since I came home. And I still know that marrying Derrick was the right thing to do (and the best decision I've ever made!).
Hope you all had a great Valentine's Day!