14th Anniversary

Today marks our 14th wedding anniversary. I thought I would tell everyone how we met. At the end of January 1993, I lived in Thatcher and was attending Eastern AZ College. One of my roomates, Allison, was dating Mark's best friend, Camden. I happened to be the only other roommate home that weekend and Camden wanted to introduce Mark to some girls. Mark had just gotten off his mission in December, so he had been off the market for a while. Anyway, we met on a blind date although it wasn't that blind (for me anyway). I had heard about Mark for at least a month. Usually I worked at night and he had been coming over to my house with his friends and hanging out with my roommates. I kept hearing how funny and great they all were. Mark had once come to my work. I worked at the college library in the media center. I remember making a great impression on him when I didn't know how to get his disk out of the computer.
Anyway, our blind date went well and we went on several more dates. It continued for a few more weeks where I was shy and he wasnt sure I was interested in him. Finally some friends told him that yes, I was interested. So at that point we became boyfriend and girlfriend. We dated for 9 months with me breaking up with him 2 times for about a day, because basically I was young and wasn't sure I was ready to get married. But in October 1993, we went to Utah to go to Mark's mission reunion and to general conference. It was a fun trip and at that point, I knew I was in love. I forgot to say that Mark was going to ASU at this point and I lived in Thatcher and was still going to EAC. Since we lived about 2-3 hours away from each other, we would only see each other about once or twice a month. Anyway, it was now November 1993, and Mark had asked me to go out to dinner with him. He kept wanting to take me to a nice restaurant and all of them happened to be busy that night. I couldn't figure out what was up with going to the nice restaurant, and I told him we should just go to Jack in the Box. So, he finally ended up taking me to Jack in the Box and ever so carefully tells me he wants to break up with me. He makes sure I know that he still wants to date me, but that he would like the chance to date other girls. Ouch! I think I cried myself to sleep that night and woke up crying. After all, I had figured out that I was in love. At this point in my life, it seems crazy that this of all things was so hard but at the time it was.
For the next five months, we did go on a few dates. Camden informed me of what Mark was doing and who he was dating. I even have a journal entry that's titled 10 reasons why I dislike Mark Weech (I only wrote it because I was in love, people). Its rather funny though.
Finally at the conclusion of 5 months, I had gotten myself to a place where I loved Mark, but would be happy for him no matter what.
In April, my mom invited Mark to see the ward roadshow that my brother happend to be in. I got a ride home that weekend unannounced, so when my mom told me that she had invited Mark to the roadshow, I called him to make sure he would know that I was going to be there and that my mom did not try to set this up. He came to the roadshow and he said afterward that something happened to him that night. He now knew for sure that he loved me too.
We then had several conversations that if we were going to get back together, then we would be working toward marriage. At least this was my opinion!
A few weeks later, Mark invited me to go up to Mt Graham. I just knew he was going to ask me to marry him since he feels strongly about the mountain. I even was brazen enough to tell my roommates that he would be asking me. They thought I was crazy and that he would hurt me again.
So, we made it up on the mountain. He asked me if I wanted to go on a hike up to Webb Tower near the cabin on Mt Graham. We made it up to the top of the tower and he got on his knees and proposed. It then started raining super hard sideways. We still wonder if that was a sign of some sort!
In July of 1994, we were married in the Mesa AZ Temple. I have to say that even though the breakup was hard, it happened to be the best thing for our relationship. We were able to see everything about each other, good and bad. There were no suprises and we had both had a chance to know we were supposed to be married.