This ones really long!

Dustin and I started dating in September of 2008 after I had moved up North; I was living on my Mom’s couch after living with Brooke for a little while. He was so scared to tell me that he liked me, I’ve saved a bunch of texts from that day but I’ll include those later, before we knew it we couldn’t spend more than a few days away from each other, we would meet in Provo in the middle of the night or spend weekends at each other’s houses. We were so scared to tell Bryce that we liked each other, it was the first night we had hung out since he had told me he liked me, we went out to the dock and climbed on top of one of the trailers and were looking at all the pretty delta stars, this was the 2nd time that Dustin ever hugged me and so it was a little awkward at first Bryce was furious at us and hated us, things eventually worked out and he was happy for us. I was so scared to hang out at Dustin’s house because his family didn’t like me very much then and I was so shy and quiet that it didn’t help. After a while Dustin moved up to his brother Cory’s house and started looking for a job, for his birthday I bought him Abby she was the cutest puppy. The first time I ever came to Cory’s house I followed Dustin and Cory up the mountain and the only thing Cory said about me to Dustin was that if I didn’t like diesel smoke he should break up with me, later we were watching TV sitting on their couch and Cory stood up to get something from the kitchen, Dustin was squeezing my cheeks together and finally kissed me! It was funny and weird with Cory standing right behind us but it was perfect! One night I snuck Dustin out and we went to the park in Hinckley we ended up making out and before we knew it Josie Greathouse Fox came up in her police truck and wanted to know what we were doing. I moved in with Curtis and Rae-Rae right before Christmas, Abby ate my purse, shoes, bedspread, etc she liked to destroy things and eat all the cat food, but she is worth it. Dustin couldn’t find a job for a very long time, but then finally in February he started working for Gillett diesel. After a while I started realizing Dustin’s family would never like me unless I talked to them, so I joined in their weirdness and started acting like myself! The first time we hung out with Jarod and Carly we took Scott’s four wheelers out to the sand dunes and were driving around, maybe twenty minutes after we got there Dustin took us up a big hill and to our surprise there was a huge cliff on the other side, Dustin tried to stop us while yelling “oh shit, oh shit, oh shit” but we ended up doing a flip, I landed head first into the sand and the four wheeler landing right on top of me while as I landed on Dustin. Dustin managed to push the four-wheeler off his chest and we got out, we were covered in sand and a little blood, we went to the emergency room because Dustin was having trouble breathing, it was a great way to get to know his family better and hear about all the other emergency room visits their family has had. For New Years we went to my Mom’s house and ended up in the canyon with everyone but Curtis, Tank was living with my mom at the time and she was the worst dog she would run away and never come back, the funniest part of the night was trying to figure out where Tank was, every half hour or so if you looked really hard you could see her somewhere on the mountain just running, Abby was such a great puppy she never ran away, she never even left Dustin’s side. The first time that Dustin told me he loved me we were standing outside Cory's house saying good night before he kissed me he quietly told me he loved me, my stomach did flips, I had been waiting to hear him say that and was dying to say it to him but we had to wait for the right time and this was definitely it. Not long after that on March 4th Dustin was in a car crash, he fell asleep while running parts at work head on into a van. I was at work in a meeting at the time and I came out to check my phone and I had two missed calls and a text from Rebecca asking if Dustin was ok, my heart started racing as I called the unknown number back, it was the hospital, she said Dustin’s been in a car accident he is in the emergency room right now, he is very banged up and has major cuts on his face. I freaked out and raced to the hospital, we were all trying to find out if he was ok, Jarod was the first one there and let me in to see Dustin, he was hurt so bad and there was so much blood. Shanee had been texting me during seminary to find out what was going on, all she had been told was that Dustin was in an accident and Bonnie and Devan were racing from Delta to Salt Lake to see him. Shanee ended up in really big trouble because she was interrupting seminary to text and call me, she ended up getting kicked out of class for it. There was so much shock from the accident, they let us know that he was extremely lucky to have lived; his head went straight through the windshield. They let us take him home that day and we spent the rest of that day at Cory’s talking about other crashes and seeing who had the most emergency room visits, Dustin won. Bonnie took Dustin back to Delta so that she could treat all his cuts, I was having withdrawals so I put off moving into my new apartment and went to Delta to spend time with him. Accidents sure make you realize how much you love someone. Shanee got an apology letter from her seminary teacher too because he didn’t understand the situation. We all thought for sure Dustin was going to be fired, but Rich decided to give him another chance, but let him know that if he caught him driving without his seatbelt again Rich would make him look worse than the accident had. Eventually I moved into my own apartment in Salt Lake, it was really scary but I needed to be closer to my work in Bountiful and to Dustin. Kerry and Bonnie gave me a couch that they weren’t using and I had a few other things to bring that my mom had bought me; it was very empty for a while and did not feel like home at all. But soon it started filling up with tons of stuff. Dustin and I spent very little time apart, and occasionally Bryce would come up and sleep over and we’d hang out with Zizi.

After a while of figuring our relationship out Dustin decided it was time to buy me a ring! We were hanging out trying to figure out what we were going to eat for dinner that night and Dustin asked if I wanted to go for a walk, so I agreed and we went to the Gate Way Mall and were walking around I couldn’t understand why he wanted to walk around the mall because he hates shopping, but soon he stopped at the jewelry store and asked if I wanted to go pick one, we looked and looked and finally at the second jewelry store I found one that I loved, Dustin wasn’t planning on actually getting it that day but I guess the sales people talked him into it, he let me wear the ring that night and then he took it to Cory’s. We went to Delta that weekend to babysit Alora and he called my Mom and asked for her permission. The next day August 22nd we went to the Canyon for a barbeque with Dustin’s whole family we played in the water and hiked around, I was so nervous because I knew Dustin was about to propose any minute, after a while I thought maybe he decided not to do it because he got really quiet and started walking off into the woods alone, we were all making smore’s Dustin brought me a smore with the ring box inside of it instead of a marshmallow, Alora wanted to know what it was and kept trying to rip it out of my hand, he got down on his knee and proposed, nobody really saw what was going on other than Carly, she started hitting Jarod’s side saying “did you see that? I think he just proposed” after that everyone realized what happened and soon everyone was giving us hugs and saying congrats, I was shaking so bad that it was hard for anyone to see my ring. We went to Grandpa & Grandma Neilson’s to tell them the news, and after that we went to Grandpa and Grandma Manis’s and surprised everyone with the news, Grandma Manis was introducing me some of the family that was there as Dustin girlfriend, Dustin said “Grandma she isn’t my girlfriend” grandma was confused and wondered if I was just a friend, Dustin then told her that I was his fiancé and everyone was so excited for us. We called Curtis and had him meet us at the park to tell him the news (we weren’t getting along at the time).The next day we went to tell my Grandparents which wasn’t much fun for me, they didn’t seem too excited but deep down I know they were I cried wishing my family would show the support that Dustin’s did, we went to Lonnie’s to tell them and they were excited for us. Kelli and Keith were the only ones that didn’t know so we headed up to my Mom’s to show them. Kelli cried and so did I.

I began working on wedding plans right away, good thing I have some amazing friends and people in my life, we had a lot of help from everyone, Leann made the bridesmaid dresses and the flower girl dresses, Tammy Thomas made our invitations for us, Kelley Dodge made our signature pages, and of course my mom and Bonnie helped me in every way. We thought we were going to be able to wait until February, but that idea went out the window the next day when we decided that was too far away, so December 3rd it was. We went through all the crazy planning stages and even went on a cruise with my work to Mexico it hadn’t really hit me until we went to apply for our marriage license, then it was really happening and I couldn’t sleep I was so excited, Curtis and Kerry started practicing for our song they played their acoustic guitars and sang Heaven by Jason Aldean. Brooke did my hair and make up for my bridals that Bryce’s parents took, we had so much fun taking pictures at the state capital building, we took hundreds! The day before the wedding we went to set up at Talons cove in Saratoga Springs, it was a really easy set up, we made everyone run through their parts and ate a big dinner that Bonnie prepared, we went swimming at the hotel with Bryce, Brooke, Easton, and my family. The next morning we got up so early to start getting ready Brooke curled my hair again and did everyone else’s hair too, I was so nervous my chest went bright red, we did the finishing touches on decorations and got ready to go, as soon as we were lined up ready to start I started freaking out I was really marrying Dustin Manis! Never in a million years did I dream that our friendship would end in marriage. My Mom and I started crying as soon as we started walking down the aisle together; Riann wanted nothing to do with walking and throwing flowers so Kelli carried her. Dustin’s legs were shaking and he was nervous too, finally at the altar my Mom gave me to Dustin and we started the ceremony, it was very short but sweet, we were told to grab each other’s right hands and of course we got confused and it took us a minute to find the right ones, the bishop accidentally called me Kerry at one point but other than that it went smooth. We preformed a sand ceremony showing that our marriage was not just the two of us but it was us and God joining together to make a bond that we can never break. We visited with everyone at the ceremony and hung out until two. Bryce gave an awesome toast that we will never forget. We went back to the hotel while everyone cleaned up… a while later Bryce brought us our presents so we could open them, there were so many!!! For dinner we went to Texas Roadhouse with Bryce and I had to sit on the saddle while everyone yelled congratulations and we got free ice cream (even Bryce), we went back to the hotel to play Uno with Shanee while we waited for our movie to start, the four of us went and saw the Blind Side. The next day we headed to Hinckley for our reception, we spent the day decorating and preparing food, I had so much fun dancing with Dustin and dancing to Kerry’s band’s music. We were sliding on the floor and spinning and being crazy. This was one of the best nights of my life. We ended the night doing the hokey pokey with everyone. We went home and opened the rest of our presents and packed to get ready to go to Arizona with Lonnie and Rebecca, we got to spend a lot of time together and even were able to have a fun date night. We got a Wii and Playstation 3 for Christmas that we cheated and played while we were in Phoenix. The day before Christmas I adopted a four month old German Shepherd puppy that we named Koda Bear, we was such a sweet puppy and she loved playing with the other dogs, she was extremely lazy and wouldn’t eat at first we thought this was just depression and maybe stress from a new home, but Sunday after Christmas we ended up taking her to the hospital because of how much she’d been throwing up, they told us that she had Parvo and probably wouldn’t make it, we gave her IV’s and were sent home. After another day of her looking incredibly sick we called Monte in Nephi and he told us to get her down there right away he gave her IV’s and shots and sent me home with instructions for the next few days, she started acting a little better, in the end she didn’t make it through but we will never forget her big paws and sad brown eyes. We loved her from the moment we got her. Now we spend our nights with friends or just hanging out with each other. We don’t know where life is going to take us at this point but I know everything is going to work out fine. Maybe a condo this month or a different apartment, only God knows at this point and I can’t wait to see what he has in store for us.