Welcome, fall.

I love fall.  I love it for its colors, sweaters, cooler temps, and pumpkin everything.  But mostly, I love fall because it holds promise for happy times.  Fall has always been good to us.

In the fall of '03, I saw Steve for the first time in over two years, outside of the SWKT at BYU.  He was wearing the plaid shirt and happy-go-lucky smile I remembered from high school.  I was with my friend, Heather, and we talked for a few minutes with him.  He asked me out a few days later. 

We went to a concert at Thanksgiving Point for our first date.  We went out for hot chocolate at Leatherby's on our second.  A movie and Korean food for our third.  A magic show on a snowy Halloween night for our fourth.  And this whole time, he never tried to hold my hand or kiss me.  I had to wait until winter for that.

In the fall of '04, we were engaged.  We settled into this beautiful routine of being together all the time.  Steve used to make two peanut butter and jelly sandwiches each day, and we'd eat them for lunch on campus.  We studied in the library together during the day, and come back to my place for some sad, poor college-student dinner (canned soup comes to mind) in the evening.  We squeezed in kissing whenever we could. And at curfew, we hated saying goodbye.

I was newly pregnant with Mei Li in the fall of '05.  Fall of '07 brought me baby Stephen.  Pregnant again, fall '09.  And every fall, after September 15, we enjoy togetherness and a slower pace.  Tax season is over and Steve just returned from training, so that means that our season of joy has officially begun.  Welcome, fall.  Feel free to stay a while.