The Moment I Decided to Marry Charly

I remember exactly what I was doing the day I decided to marry Charly.

Charly and I had been talking again through Facebook, texting, and even Skype. She had sent me a book that told the story of the things she had been doing since our breakup.

I was at my sister Melissa's house and I was reading the book she sent me. Something about the book captivated me. I couldn't put it down. I read it from start to finish with almost no interruptions. The book made me realize how much I missed Charly and even how much she had grown. I felt the Spirit very strongly and I knew that I wanted to marry her.

That night I prayed about it.

"Dear Father in Heaven," I started, "I want to marry Charly. What do ya say?"

After asking the question I was filled with a sense of peace and I knew that Charly was a great choice for me and that God approved. I could almost imagine Him saying, "Go for it Ben!"

It was a special moment for me and I will never forget it. I know without a shadow of a doubt that Charly and I will have a happy marriage and that I made the right choice when I decided to marry her. It won't always be easy but it will always be worth it and I know that as long as we choose, God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost will help us in our lives and marriage.

The Day We Met Brandon Sanderson (Our Favorite Author)

Once, about a month ago, Ben and I were (of course) at Barnes and Noble. While there, we saw a poster announcing a book signing with Brandon Sanderson for his newest release, Steelheart. Now, in case you don't know, Benjamin and I love Brandon Sanderson. 

We. Love. Brandon. Sanderson. 

We've read all his books.

We own almost all of his books. 

We've watched his lecture series on YouTube. 

When we were dating, his books were one of the many things that brought us together. 

We really, really love Brandon Sanderson. 

While we were at it, we had to buy a nice, hard copy of 

The Way of Kings for Brandon Sanderson to sign. 

So, we marked the day on our calendar and decided that even if we had to take work off or miss class (at the time, both our schedules were up in the air), that we would make sure we were there. 

The day approached. It was on Tuesday from 5:00 to 8:00. Sure enough, with how busy our schedules are, we both had conflicts. I had class until 5:30 and then I had work until 6:00. I was already planning on asking for work off because the SFLSA opening social was that same day from 6:00 to 7:30, which I wanted to attend. Ben had a class from 7:00-8:30. 

When I looked online to double check the time, hoping maybe we could work it out with our schedules, I saw that they were handing out wristbands on Monday morning starting at 9 AM. That was just awful timing for us, because Ben would be at work all day and I would be in class. 

We decided that night to stop by just to see if they had any wristbands left. They had plenty. We were 132 and 133 in line and we got the 94th copy of the book. 

We had decided it would be worth it to just to skip out on our other obligations to meet Brandon Sanderson. Then Ben remembered that he had a meeting with the Dean of the school as part of his responsibilities as the student rep for UVU's computer science department. It was at 6:00. Of course. 

I didn't want to miss it but I definitely did not want to go alone. I dragged my friend Janessa with me. It was crazy. There were quite a few people there and we had to wait for our number to be called out to pick up our copy of the book. Then we got to stand in line. For, practically forever. 

At 7:00, Janessa had to leave for a class. I waited in line for about an hour by myself. I made friends with the two girls in front of me--one of them is leaving in December to Charlotte, North Carolina! Ben and I were talking back and forth the whole time on Facebook and I convinced him to leave his class early to try to get to the store before I reached Brandon Sanderson. 

It was so close. I had probably five people in front of me when Ben arrived. It was close enough to make me sweat. Ben got there in time though, and we were even able to get a picture with our favorite author! 

Here we are, with Brandon Sanderson! 

We Buy Books Not Food (How It Really Happened)

I was drawing on my iPad when Charly and her brother Jon walked in. I hadn't done much that day other than draw actually, and plant the garden. It was my day off and I had taken advantage of that. Charly was later than I had expected and I was surprised to see Jon with her.
"Jon is going to stay the night here," Charly announced.

I walked up and hugged her just like I always do when either she gets home, or I get home. It felt good to hold her close. I had missed her.

After Jon got his stuff in from the car Charly asked me if we could go to the bookstore. I knew what book store she was talking about because we had tried to go there the day before but it had been closed, so instead we went to Barnes and Noble and both picked out a new book to read. We had decided on one book each per pay check.

"I thought we were only going to buy one book a paycheck," I said to Charly. I didn't want to go that much.

"We'll just look," She answered, "we won't buy anything."

I gave her a look that said I didn't believe her... at least that is how I remember it. Jon just kind of laughed at us.

I was doing something at the time... I don't remember what it was though but I told Charly we could go after I finished. By this point I kind of wanted to go because it was an old book store and they were having a huge moving sale.

We all loaded up into Charly's car, she had parked behind me so we had to take her car, got to the book store in just a few minutes, and walked inside.

There were books and boxes everywhere. Charly was all excited because she said the building smelled like old books. I sniffed the air... it smelled like old furniture to me. I WAS a little excited though because I love books just as much as Charly does. Reading is one of the things that we both REALLY like to do.

Charly, Jon, and I all went our separate ways looking for books that were interesting to us. I walked, and looked, and walked, and pulled a few books out. I really couldn't find anything I liked. Finally I found a comic book section and got excited. The art on the front of the books was cool and I was learning how to do art like that still. I felt my excitement slowly leave me as I flipped through the pages. The comics were both very violent and very suggestive... This wasn't what I wanted.

I wandered around a little more until I ran into Charly and Jon. When I saw them I just stared. In the entire time that I had been looking I found one book that I sort of wanted to buy. It was the first book in The Lord of the Rings trilogy. That was it... All of the other books I had looked through were either lame, or books I'd never heard of. Charly on the other hand... could barely hold all of the books she had found. Most of them were good books... classics... she was giving me this look that said she wanted them all... It's the same look that a child might give a parent when the child wants to keep a puppy that followed it home.

At this point I gave up on the one book each per pay check theory and went over to the couch that was under the window in the store. Charly kept looking at books and I fell asleep. It was a comfortable couch and I was sleepy.

When I woke up Charly was pulling on my arm, trying to wake me up and get me off the couch. It worked. Of course. She dragged me over to one of the shelves and showed me her collection of books... It was an entire shelf full... One of the books though looked like it would need a couple rolls of duct tape to keep it from falling apart in my hands. The first thing out of Charly's mouth was "We won't buy them all!"

I looked at her and said, "We weren't going to buy any books remember?"
She just smiled that smile that she makes that says "I heard you say that and I'm going to agree with you and then do something else anyway."

We gathered all the books up and walked over to the register. The man running the store looked more excited than he had probably ever looked and it was still pretty relaxed looking. He kept talking about how good all the books were and I just kept thinking that of course he will say the books are good. He wants us to buy them. It was probably the most books anyone has ever bought from a bookstore ever, let alone his little place.

Charly and I divided the books together, deciding on the ones that were worth buying. The book that looked like it might fall apart actually started falling apart. The bookkeeper guy fixed it for us and gave it to Charly for free. Charly thought it was nice of him... I thought he just figured he wouldn't be able to sell such a terrible book.

The books cost almost 70 dollars. I guess if we run out of money we can eat the books, starting with the one that is falling apart.

In the end we spent about 4.50 per book which was actually a really good deal for the amount of books we got. I was glad Charly and I have the same taste in books, mostly.

The moral of this story is: never take your wallet with you when going to a bookstore with Charly.

We Buy Books, Not Food.

I had never before bought a book. I have spent more time than anyone I know in bookstores and libraries. Half the dates Ben and I have gone on have been spent in Barnes and Noble. One of my hobbies is searching out little used bookstores and libraries in little towns. I look and look at books, browsing and reading and drooling over them. But I've never bought one. Until last week.

For date night last Friday, Ben and I decided to visit Barnes and Noble. Just to look. We'd done it so many times before, it didn't even cross my mind that it would turn into more than that.

There were so many books and every single one, one of would say, "That book looks so good, I want to read that ..." or "Oh man, I love this book. This is one we're going to buy someday for our library." So we pulled out Ben's iPod and started making a wishlist of books.

I was about getting to the going-home point when Ben looked at me, his smile telling me he was about to suggest something that I might say no to, but would probably say yes to. "What if we splurge and each buy one book?" I smiled at his suggestion and we did. It was my first taste of buying a book and I liked it. We made a new tradition of buying one book each every paycheck.

The next day, I talked him into going with me to a used bookstore that was having a good sale--up to 70% off everything.

"Charly," Ben told me, "if we go there, we will end up buying more books, and we can't for another two weeks."

"We won't buy anything," I assured him. "I just want to see what deals they have."  And if they have good ones, then maybe we'll get it, I thought to myself.

"Charly." Ben didn't look convinced. "We can't walk into a bookstore and walk out without buying books."

"Sure we can," I argued back. "We used to do it all the time when we were dating."

"That's because we didn't have money when we were dating."

"We still don't have money," I pointed out.

And with that, we went to the bookstore. At first, there were no books that we were even slightly interested in. We split up and then I found the classics section.

By the time Ben found me, I had a pile of books--Jane Eyre, Charles Dickens, The Count of Monte Cristo ... and I wasn't half way through the section. Ben found a couch and took a nap until I was finished going through the books. He helped me carry my pile up to the register.

Before we bought the books, Ben and I went through my pile three or four times, weeding out the ones that I wasn't absolutely dying to buy. We ended up with fifteen books, and the guy at the register threw in an older book that I was pining over. Sixteen books total. We got some good deals, especially on The Mistborn Series, in brand new condition for only sixteen dollars.

"One book a paycheck?" Ben said in the car.

"Oops," I said, smiling one of my most innocent smiles. "We'll stick to that from now on."

Ben raised his eyebrows. "How about, we can buy another book after you finish reading all of those."

"Okay," I agreed quickly. I knew it wouldn't take me long.