The down side? He had just left on Mormon mission to Brazil and wouldn't be back for almost two years. So what is a girl that just moved to college and loving life to do? She promptly forgot about him.
When the two years were almost over and Girl was still single, Best-Friend and Boy-Across-The-Street decided action had to be taken. They planned out a fun double date. A mere three weeks after Good Lookin' returned from his mission he walked into his brothers living room, said "Hi!" looked over at Girl and didn't look away from her for the rest of the night.
They all went ice skating and had a blast. There was a lot of awkward first/blind date moments and a few cheesy lines used (ie - "If you think you're going to fall you can just hang on to me."). The date ended early when Good Lookin' had to meet his dad and little bro at the theater for the opening night show of King Kong. Phone numbers were exchanged and more dates were had.
Exactly 5 months to the day after that first blind date, Girl and Good Lookin' walked out of the Salt Lake Temple hand-in-hand as Mr. & Mrs. Brad Harding. That was the first day of our Forever Family.
For the first year of our marriage we lived in Northern Utah and did the student thing. We had so much fun working, studying and figuring out how to make our new life work.
Then, in May of 2007 we decided to take a summer job in San Fransisco California. Brad would be selling pest control door-to-door and Missy would be the secretary at the office. The best part is that everyone else that was going we knew and were friends with. It was like a party every night in one of the most beautiful places ever. Once the summer was over we moved back to Utah to start up school again.
We jumped right back into student life - studying, working and saving every penny we could for date nights. In October of that year we found out that Missy was pregnant. We were so excited! The baby was due one month after Missy would graduate with her bachelors degree in Literature. Perfect timing.
We made the hard choice to go back to California for work again the summer of 2008 and Abigail was born a month after we arrived there. Missy was nervous that she would be alone all summer since Brad and our friends would be working all the time (Brad was now the manager of the office), but we had a steady stream of visitors from the day we got there until the day we left. We didn't know we had so many friends, but having a new baby and living in an awesome city may have had something to do with it :).
We moved back up to Utah again at the end of the summer, but this time Brad was the only one going to school. He worked (sometimes as many as 3 jobs at once) while taking classes full time just so that Missy could stay home with Abi. It was stressful at times, but Brad always made time for our family and we know that it was the best decision.
Once Brad graduated with his communication and business degree we moved out of the small college town to the "big city" for work where he managed a few Enterprise-Rent-a-Car branches around the Salt Lake Valley. Brad is now working as a Manager for a company near Boston Massachusetts.
Missy started a successful blog in November of 2009 that has allowed her so many opportunities. It provides a little extra income for the family and it has provided her to meet many people and do things she never would have been able to do (including a trip to NYC to meet up with other bloggers and go to parties all over the city). Her favorite part about it, though, is that she can do it from home while Abi is sleeping. She loves that she can still be a full time, at home, mom.
We are so excited for the future and can't wait to see where it will take us!
