Our Story

Our Story


Happy Birthday BABY! Wow, are you really 27? You look like you are 17 still! It’s like I always say, when people see us together they think to themselves, “That guy must have money.” I am hope to the world that they too, (if they are insanely lucky and blessed) can have a girl like Jenn. I am really blessed to have you. So today I am jumping in on the book action. Until this day, all of my words have been tucked away in the other books. I better add a warning to anyone who reads. It will be apparent when you are reading the sections that are mine. I don’t have the writing skills like my school teacher/ English scholar of a wife. On the other hand, the good news about me adding my words is that now the real story can be told. (According to the way I remember it that is) These stories could be a bit random, but so has been our life. In the 6 years we have been married we have lived in 9 places. There are some really good stories that go along with all of that hopping around. Here goes… The beginning… I can still remember the very moment I met you. It was the end of June 2000. You were wearing a red dress and your hair was really long blonde and curly. I remember that because you whispered to your friends, “it’s hot!” and then you threw your hair back. I think you knew I heard you. The rest of the meeting is a blur. When we met I don’t remember saying much more than hi. Josh Beutler introduced us and then the conversation went to something about Eric having met you before. I remember thinking that I had never, EVER, met a girl like you. The whole ride home with Eric and Darrin I couldn’t get you out of my head. In fact, from that day, I never have. Darrin and Eric were talking and at this point they were saying that they were going to try to ask you out. I was a bit more reserved, and couldn’t help but feeling a way out of my league. At the same time, I sat in the back seat thinking…I am going to marry that girl. Sometime after this day I wrote about it in my journal. Here’s what I wrote… “I have met some great girls recently named Jenny, Malia and Brook. That Jenny girl is quite impressive. She is very good looking and she has a strong testimony also – she has a missionary though. From what I hear she shoots guys down left and right because of this missionary. We have just hung out with no pressure, just friends. I’m thinking if things ever hit off between us we’re going to have to be friends first.” A week or so later I wrote again…Jenny’s on my mind these days. I don’t want to give her much of an impression of that though. She shows interest a lot but there’s this other guy I always see her around. No matter when or where we’re at this dude is always in the neighborhood. It drives me crazy! We went over to her house last night and guess who was there, that Dave kid! She even invited me over. Why did she invite both of us?” After this moment, things got really great and frustrating. Here’s a great moment…perhaps the moment that I said, “now I’m really going to marry that girl.” Somehow I convinced you and your friends to come out boating with Jer and I. The time before Malia came but “you weren’t able.” That was the time I got dumped out of the back of a truck. (That’s another story though) I can remember teaching you to wake board. We were in my Dads big yellow boat. I was strapping your feet in the bindings and for a few seconds, our eyes met. That was when I said, “Now I’m really going to marry that girl!” I used to time my day so that I would be in the exact place you were as much as possible. Psycho?... No, just a little bit in love. I can remember the best places to meet you still. My first stop was outside of the English building. I always planned on seeing you cruise out with your friends in that square. I think you knew I was going to come out of the Spanish building too. The next place was by the institute building. It was hard to pretend that walking you all the way from the institute building to the other end of campus was along the way. The next note I have says this 10/15/00 “Jenny has got me thinking about her all the time now. I can’t remember the last time a girl has got me this bad. We went to lagoon last night. It was great! I can’t believe it! I’m totally crazy about this girl. I told her last night that she’s got me thinking about her all the time now and then I asked her if he has that going on at all. She said YES so I guess we’ll see what happens next. I wanted to kiss her but I backed down….. So to anyone who is reading this in the future I’de better give you some good background so this story has a bit more meaning for you. Jennifer Tingey was an icon up on that campus of Weber State. Seriously, anyone who saw her would immediately know why. There was no question that she was the most beautiful girl on that campus – and to me the most beautiful girl I had seen anywhere. (I’m sure I was not alone in thinking this) I am sure that Steven and Jason were frequently told that their “sister was hot!” She was funny and smart and really energetic! There was usually a crew of people walking with Jenn when she was going to her classes. You could hear them coming from a good distance. Why is that? – because Jenn has Tingey blood and Tingey lungs. The picture you get when you think of Jenn on campus shouldn’t be just the “popular beautiful girl.” Even though she was all that, she was much more. You might get the picture in your head that someone like this would be snotty and high maintenance. Although I will admit, the thought crossed my mind before knowing her she was just down to earth and really cool. She didn’t drive a fancy car. The first car was an old blue Nissan Sentra I think. That one died on her, so the next car she got was a 10-15 yr old Mazda 626. She dressed really stylish but I could tell she wasn’t dropping excessive money on clothes. Tuition was mostly paid for because of the scholarships she earned. She worked as a tutor for a family with autistic children to pay the rest of the bills. You should also know that she loved and still LOVES school! She’s the girl who knows all of her teachers and they know her. She took all of her classes really seriously. I can remember studying in the library late one night and as I was walking by one of the private rooms I caught a glimpse of Jenn through the small window on the door. I backed up to check out what she was doing. She looked pretty stressed and was pacing back and forth talking to herself. Later she told me that she was preparing for her public speaking class. To her an A- would have been devastating. The bar she set for herself was really high. She has reminded me before that my magna cumme laude written on my diploma is smaller than her summa cumme laude. She was really involved in service over at the Institute too and had friends all over campus from all walks. So there’s the bit of background that you might need to get a better picture of the girl I was totally in love with. Now that I am done with that little narration I’ll continue. September to the end of November was a bit rocky at times. Sometimes we refer to these months as “H months.” Here are a few more quotes from those times. 11/12/00 -- Jenn and I are still on the back burner. I don’t know if we ever made it to the front burner. I still like her but I just don’t have a whole lot of trust in her yet. She rarely looks me in the eyes, that’s not good in my book. (Huge news! I am moving to Guatemala for 5 months in January. I feel too good about this one, I don’t want to pass it up. More huge news! Kara and Marty and Tayah and Bryce were all sealed last Saturday.) 11/19/00 – Huge turning point for Jenn and I tonight! In the last few days things have become much clearer between us. We both admitted that we like each other. We went out tonight, had a big talk and we kissed. That is amazingly big for us! I’ll admit it, I have fallen for this girl and if anyone could destroy me, she could. She could also be the one I will marry. We’ll see… No doubt the thought is very appealing. I still need a little more reassurance from her eyes. I know, there’s a whole lot more to our story between these lines. Here's a few of the memories that I have that for some reason never made it to the books. On my birthday you talked yourself into stopping by my store to give me some cookies you made. Cindy Newman, the girl I shared a calling with was in the store and I could tell you felt a bit sheepish. Somehow Cindy took the hint to leave and I closed the store so we could grab a bite to eat. We shared a chicken bowl and a smoothie. I was already totally whipped so that day could have been one of the best birthdays I had ever experienced up to that point. Sometime around the first of September you invited me out to a BYU game. I had to work that whole Saturday so I told you to "just invite another guy." I think about how rediculous and bone headed that sounds right now but somehow in my stupidity I did something absolutely GENIUS! I think that was a good move, wasn't it? Truthfully, I wanted to go almost to the point of quitting my job. Well, you did invite me another time and this time I remember perfectly. I arrived about 10 minutes early and by your surprise, you would think I showed up an hour early. I cruised over and grabbed a slurpee at 7/11 to buy you some time. You were wearing a faded BYU sweater, which I thought was cool. I was a bit nervous and the fact that you looked really beautiful didn't help. We hopped in the sweet white Chevy Prism and picked up Darrin and Kodi. (I don't even remember them there, where they?) We met up with Michelle and Dave at the game for a sec. I realize now that me meeting Michelle was a big thing for my approval rating -- I was clueless then though. It is hard to believe that we could have such an amazing time on one date and the next week have things seemingly die out so fast. That was the nature of those days. We saw each other at school and dropped some notes on each other’s cars from time to time. I even remember some of the texts we sent. I didn't ever erase them. Those notes were so simple, yet they made my day. At the same time they made my grades fall a few points. I may have even gotten higher grades than you had I not become completely love struck. It was hard for me to sleep, eat, and especially focus on class. So that is what made those days so amazing. As high as those notes lifted me is how hard I fell when we just weren't clicking. I chalked that up to all of the conflict you were dealing with having a boyfriend on a mission. So sometime in October you invited me to go to a haunted house. That was a really good date. Right out of the gate you were freaking out and I grabbed your hand. I am smiling right now thinking about it. I thought, “I hope I never have to let this hand go.” That was an amazing date and yet STILL, we were dating other people. Remember all those times I asked you out and you would check your calendar to see if you had a slot open. I can remember we planned a date a couple of weeks out because you had a few dates already lined up... killing me! Well, one magic day you gave me a call. I was in my room pacing while we were talking. Now that so much of the background has been masterfully painted you can see why I would be pacing. You said something like, "I like you and you like me, so why don't we act like it?" That was a good talk! That brings us up to that 11/19 quote when we kissed. That deserves a chapter by itself. I'll have to cover that when I am not chasing boys in the midst of this really crazy trip to Utah 08'. I can't wait to cover this...