The stuffy, dark biology lab room sweltered in the August afternoon heat. Left over smells of last years' formaldehyde and the dust on the top shelves added to the staleness, leaving all present, including the grad TA, happy for the excuse to collect soil samples from outside. Everyone lingered under the shady Ginko tree, not hastening their return to the lab. All too soon, one by one, students filtered back in, carrying dusty vials full of campus dirt. But a tall farmboy still crouched under the tree, talking to the girl in a ponytail and tennis shoes. Their conversation soon turned from lab topics to life topics, and they became fast friends. Over the course of the semester, they worked on soil projects together, he learned she had tennis class right before lab, and she learned he loved to farm. Summer soon turned to autumn, the Ginko's golden trees danced in the cool breezes. Soon the lab's dinginess was replaced with anticipation of finals and Winter Break. The Farmboy anticipated home, farm work, and family. The Girl welcomed the calmness of home in comparison to the social madness of the life of a college co-ed.

Winter semester at USU started again--cold, wind, more cold, more wind, and more cold. Snow fell and ice froze the old windows in the Ag Science building shut. Outside winter raged like only it can in Logan, but inside the humid heat of the old building, a glow started in the heart of the farmboy and girl with the ponytail. Together they laughed over Dr. Thomas' disregard of Farmboy's wealth of knowledge by experience and the girl's blatant brown-nosing. One afternoon Farmboy asked the girl for a date that night. She hurried home in a mad frenzy, eager to get something new to wear!

And that first date--so different from akward first dates of their pasts. Kindred spirits from before, perhaps long before, their conversations flowed from drills, to siblings, and a common dislike for "Mormon rock.". . .

Memories of the first moments of our relationship warm my heart to the core. I could fill volumes about those good times. How soon those first moments have become fond memories. And now, ten years later, my heart grows more every day for that tall farmboy under the Ginko tree. He became my best friend, my husband, father to the three greatest kids in the world, provider, protector, and presider of our home--a kindred spirit from all eternity and for all eternity. This post is begining to sound like a "coolest husband" contest. I don't mean it to. Because there is no contest--he is the coolest husband. Happy nine years to us!