Our 10th Anniversary

Today is our 10th anniversary. That means that I have known Rachelle for about 10 years and 8 months now. It has been a good time. For those of you who don't know us, I may as well recount our story of how we met. Rachelle was one of the Teaching Assistants in my Statistics class at BYU. She was a really good Teaching Assistant. She taught our lab class and I remember that on the first day of the lab, my lab partner whispered to me, "I wonder if we get extra points if we ask out the TA?" Well, I tried that and it turned out that I didn't get any extra points. But that is OK. I got a lot more. I actually didn't do exceptionally well in the class especially considering that I consistently had excuses for going to all three of the lab sections each week. It turned out that my mind wasn't as focuses on Statistics as it should have been.

Well, we dated for a few months and I decided that since we were probably going to get married anyway, it may as well be sooner rather than later. I had come to this conclusion in part because Rachelle's Grandpa Rappleye (who lived close to the University) came up to us one day and said, "Heavenly Father has saved Rachelle for you." After a rather awkward moment, I began to realize that maybe he was right.

I saw my opportunity with her graduation day. She was getting her Bachelors degree in Statistics on the same day that her grandparents were having their 50th wedding anniversary. I (or rather my mom) had a plan on how I was going to ask her to marry me. This plan was hatched a few years before I met Rachelle when my mom found 8 little stuffed cows at a garage sale and realized it would be the perfect way for me to propose to whoever it was that I was going to propose to. Many might wonder what 8 stuffed cows has anything to do with proposing. Well, those familiar with the "Johnny Lingo" might recognize the significance of the cows.

Side note about the story of Johnny Lingo
For those unfamiliar with the story of Johnny Lingo, I will enlighten you here. The story of Johnny Lingo takes place on an island in the pacific where people would pay for a wife with cows. The going rate for a good wife was about 3 cows. Johnny Lingo was a famous and wealthy trader among the islands and wanted to marry one of the woman on the island where he grew up. Mahana, the woman Johnny Lingo wanted to marry, had a reputation for being the ugliest girl on the island. People thought he wanted to marry her just because he could get her for one cow or less. On the day of the bargaining with Mahana's father, everyone was speculating that Johnny would show up and offer only half a cow for Mahana. Instead, he surprised everyone by offering Mahana's father 8 cows which was more than anyone had ever offered for a wife. Nobody could understand why Johnny, who was such a good trader, would do such a thing when he could have got her for much less. Well, after the payment is received, Johnny and Manaha get married and head off to the "Honeymoon place". When they get back, people are shocked to meet Mahana and see that she is absolutely beautiful. When people ask Johnny how that happened, he explains, "It was really the 8 cows. You see, Manaha has always been beautiful. By offering her father 8 cows, I knew that when the women would meet together in the market place and brag about how many cows their husbands had paid for them, Mahana would always know that her husband had valued her more than any other woman on the island. She would forever be the 8 cow woman and when she knew this, all the beauty she had within her came out and she became an 8 cow woman."

I gave Rachelle the 8 cows in sets of two throughout her graduation day and right when we arrived at the 50th Wedding Anniversary celebration, I pulled out the last cow who had a tuxedo and a ring around it's neck and asked her to marry me. As you might have already guessed, she said, "Yes". We were engaged for about 4 months and got married on August 14th, 1997 in the Salt Lake Temple. Ten years later, I have found that marrying her was the single best decision I have ever made in my life. She has always been great and the experiences of the last few months have just exposed a bit more of her greatness for everyone else to see. She was definitely worth every one of those 8 cows.

Baby Update
Also, just to update everyone on how the babies are doing, Rustin, Ryder, and Kyndall are all home now and are doing great. Kaydence is on deck to come home next and we expect to take her home tomorrow or the next day. Kassidy is still being a bit stubborn about the eating from a bottle thing but is still doing well. I expect she will figure it out in a few days and we will get her here by the beginning of next week. Volunteers from church are helping out a lot and even stayed here all night with them to give Rachelle and I a little sleeping break. Tonight, they are going to let us go get some Thai food for our anniversary.