Tony: My Valentine

I know many of you are dying to know: 

how Tony and I became

the most fabulous couple that we are known as today:

And since today is Valentine’s Day...

I thought this would be the perfect time to 
share the 'appropriate' details and tell you how it all began:

Once upon a time there was a boy:

Who met a girl:

 

Strangers who were destined to share time and all eternity together:

But not yet...

I was 18 years old and went to the big city,

Boise, Idaho:

I was fortunate to become a 
Page for the House Legislator when I was a senior in high school.

Tony was 19 and a freshman at 
Rick’s College (now BYU - Idaho) 

and applied to be a Senate Intern:

But, oddly enough (for a future blog), 

the first time I saw Tony was on the tarmac of
Mountain Home Air Force Base:

 I have to admit there was a Top Gun moment:

He was gorgeous! How could I meet him? 

Well, after the base tour there was a meet and greet

for the Senators and Representatives, 
and their gofers (us): 
we ended up talking, and pretty much didn’t stop talking until the Idaho State Legislation Session of 
1987 was over:

Tony use to say that we met in the rotunda

to hash out our political differences. 

 I say we met in the rotunda for a little 
one-on-one time...

 And that was that…

Could we be bigger geeks?

until he broke up with me:

I had to go back to high school...in Pocatello. 

After a few weeks of long –distant dating I got the ‘infamous’ letter….sorry…blah, blah, blah….

we can be friends…blah, blah, blah...

I was seriously heartbroken:  

Until I started dating again later on that week:

I was a senior in high school, after all.

A few months went by and I received another letter from Tony, who was in the MTC, 
looking desperately for anybody to write to him. 


I wrote back….

would love to write you…blah, blah, blah…

I’m in a relationship now… blah, blah, blah…

we can still be friends...

Surprisingly...

I didn’t hear from him again for a year and a half:

About 6 months before Tony came home from his Anaheim, CA mission, he took up pen and paper and wrote to every single girl he knew, hoping for a hit!  

Tony is on the right...

It just so happened that I was trying to move to Boise: 

(coincidence...I think not)

so, I,too, took pen and paper in hand 

and responded in kind:

Tony and I were engaged 3 days after his plane landed back on Idaho soil, and much to my dismay and my father-in-law's glee, we were married...

3 months later in the Boise, Idaho temple.

We were just babies!! What were we thinking?

We have been married for 22 years this year.

Happy Valentine’s Day, sweetie. 

Hot as ever!

Thanks for sticking with me.
I love you: