So, I guess this is the blog that I am in charge of keeping updated and as you can see I haven’t done much since we got married.  I did promise Katie though that I would write a little something during the break.  Things have been great Katie is working to support our family while I am getting through school at BYU.  It is nice to be done with the semester and yet at the same time I am a nerd and am excited to start in January.  (Just to explain how far past due, Katie was a bit surprised and a bit shocked to see me blogging… something I thought I’d never do).

We are enjoying our break up in SLC with family and it is really nice to get away from from work and everything.  It is interesting though, as much as we love going to SLC it is always nice to end up at home in Provo.  There is just something about our apartment that makes it home to us, I guess that is how it goes when you move away.

Since I am not on our computer with our pictures we won’t be able to put any on right now but that will be a later post since I am going to try to be better about keeping this updated.

We are home.  The wedding was a blast.  We’d like to give a shout out to our family….you guys are the best…and to everyone else who put so much effort into the wedding.  Thank you so much.  For now we are in Provo.  Come visit us if you’d like.  We would be more than happy to receive you.  School starts for me, internet classes at the U, on Monday the 25th.  Brent will have one more week and then he’ll join me as a student.

I am still searching for work so if anyone knows of anything please let me know.

Love you all.

Katie

Welcome to our website. Thanks to Brent’s brother Michael and sister in law Keersten we have this website. We have written a little about our story and posted a few pictures and additional information.

My cousin Savanna Tate took these great pictures. You can check out her work at www.savannatatephotography.com

…

For information on our registry you can go to The Wedding Channel and type in Katie Flegal or Brent Jensen

…

The reception will be held at The University Institute. Here is a map.

…

This is an excerpt from a personal blog I have that I wrote Monday, May 9th 2008. I am going to try to get Brent to write a response and see how his story relates Ü. It is long so, sit down and relax.

Life comes at you fast and sometimes you don’t have time to blog. About 6 months ago my schedule started filling up. My weekends were booked and my nights were spent in the arms of a new man. It started out with a line up at a hot chocolate place one evening. Brent and I started teaching a mission preparation class in our stake in the fall. We didn’t pay much attention to one another while we were teaching. My first jump back into the dating game was confusing and after that I wasn’t in any hurry to start up again. In fact I was super content being single…adding an extra support as the third or fifth wheel with my girlfriends and their boys. I loved going to bed early and not having to worry about anyone. One day I decided to play match maker for two friends, Benson Hathaway, my new Spanish RM buddy, and Sara Gelwix, an old soccer friend. Sara’s cousin, Ashley Christensen was in the Zions’s Peak Singles Ward with me and Benson so I thought she would be a great asset to have at their first encounter. Lance Astle, another ward member and friend of ours was obviously smitten with Ashely so I thought I could do double duty and line two people up. The Sunday before the date I wasn’t too interested in anyone and was planning on sending the 4 on their way and just get an update the following week on how it went. Ashley wouldn’t have it so she found some poor male in the hallway at church and slipped him a twenty in return for a promised “only hour” group date. When Brent heard it was me he hesitated a little…”the one that teaches gospel principles….I don’t know Ashley….she is a little….I don’t know.” Ashley could sell a picture to a blind man…she makes anything sound fabulous and “classy.” Brent agreed. On one condition…no hugging after. When Ashley told me who I was going with I started to pull together all of the information I had about this Brent Jensen. I taught mission prep with him…He spoke once in church and I said “Good job Brett.” instead of Brent…he had come to the institute once with John Brinton and we talked for a while…he participated and gave great comments when I taught….and best of all he played soccer. With this information I left work Wednesday evening and met them near E street for a night cap at the best hot chocolate place in the world. His end of the bargain was kept and the date ended with a wave good bye. A week or so passed and for some reason unknown, maybe it was the hot chocolate memory, Brent asked me out himself. Friday we went bowling with a bunch of his friends. The next afternoon I was surprised to get a call asking me to go out again Saturday night. I agreed. When I told my mom she looked at me weird.. .”you are sick in bed,” she stated. “That is right,” I thought. Before Brent I had spent at least one night of the weekend going to bed at around 4 or 7…Karina, my room mate at the time was disappointed with me as she had her hopes set on a room mate who liked to party. I had already gone out on Friday so Saturday was my night in. But, for some reason I said yes to Mr. Brent Jensen, despite the circumstances. We went to a concert with Sam Perkins and Chris Marsh. Afterwards we got shakes and then retired to Brent’s to watch Ratatouille. All 4 of us were falling asleep and in the middle of the movie decided to call it quits. I can remember feeling at the time overloaded with things…I was teaching mission prep Sunday mornings, teaching another class in church, working and going to school. I never thought I’d find time to date as well. I can remember him calling during the next few weeks every few days to just talk and check in…I could tell he was an RM because he was making contact throughout the week…something we are taught to do in the mission with investigators.

From that weekend on we saw each at least 3 or 4 times a week and then shortly after it went to daily rendezvous. The rest is history really. I have a horrible memory and don’t remember every detail but, the things I do remember are special. Like the first time we kissed.

Again I was sick but went out with him anyway because I loved being around him. This time it was to the Christmas concert at the Conference Center with his family. The concert was beautiful. Afterwards I declined shakes with his family as I had a final the next morning and needed my sleep. On the way home Brent brought up how his family was giving him a hard time about not kissing yet. I laughed and admitted to the same thing. My dad thought it was my fault and would try to convince me that kissing would be a good thing for us. It was natural to talk about it with Brent and as we were saying our goodbyes in my driveway he leaned in. It was fun and exciting for the both of us…our first kisses since the mission. We spent the next month seeing or talking to each other everyday.

In January, Brent went back to the Y to follow his dream…soccer. We kept in pretty good contact talking for hours at nights. Brent was diligent and came home almost every weekend to be with me.

February 17, 2008 I was writing about options I was presented with in dating other guys: “Options. Ya there are options but how great is a cafe rio burrito. There is always a choice at cafe rio but, what do I lean back on? The burrito. Brent is my cafe rio burrito.”

We have had our ups and downs just like every relationship. We talked about marriage and both decided we were ready for the commitment.

April 20, 2008: “I am excited to take another step towards exaltation. I know marriage is important and imperative. I appreciate the opportunity to marry such a great man.”(sorry for the awkwardness of these journal entries…I wrote most in Spanish and have translated them into English)

There are a million other memories that have made our relationship…the weekend at Snidermill with his family…Valentine’s Day and his surprise roses, he is so thoughtful…every night as we battle saying goodbye…every kiss, he still gives me butterflies….every embrace….every time our eyes meet.

I feel like I was ready, prepared to meet Brent. He is a blessing to me. A true blessing.

Katie

I remember first meeting Katie at a neighborhood soccer tournament about 2 weeks or less after I got home from my mission. She doesn’t remember talking to me and I don’t blame her because we probably didn’t talk for more than 20 seconds. After the initial contact, it turned out that we had both been called to teach a missionary preparation class in the stake along with 2 other RMs. The four of us were there to help go through Preach My Gospel every Sunday morning. We were also in the stake singles ward together. So through these two activities we got to know each other a little bit but nothing was really happening in terms of dating. I was very impressed with her (and I still am, of course) from the first time we met at the soccer tournament.

It was about 2 months after I had gotten home from my mission and Ashley Christensen in the missionary prep class decided to set Katie and me up. So after church one day she came up to me and explained that Katie had set her up on a date and that she needed to return the favor and asked if I would go out with Katie to get some hot chocolate later that week. When she told me that I got excited because I’d get to go out with Katie. We met up at a hot chocolate place in the avenues on Tuesday that week and it was a pretty casual date. I didn’t even think it should really be considered a date until Katie decided to buy my hot chocolate – she scored points there! There were six of us total and we just chatted for an hour and then went our separate ways.

Then that same week (the week of thanksgiving) I called Ashley and asked for Katie’s number so I could call her and ask her out again. So I did and we went out the Friday after Thanksgiving. We went bowling and played some games after. It was fun but I still don’t think Katie was impressed. So the next day I wanted to go on another date with a buddy but the problem was that I didn’t have a date. The only person I thought I’d be able to ask was Katie but I had gone out with her the night before and I didn’t want her to think I was stalking her or something. To make the story short, my friend talked me into calling her and I did and we went out again.

From there things went smoothly for the most part… well, except the first time I tried to put my arm around her. I had only been home not even three months from my mission, enough said. Our first kiss happened on the way home from the MoTab Christmas concert. We talked about how we hadn’t kissed yet and then when I was dropping her off I kissed her in the car. I wasn’t really planning on doing it then but it all worked out. I talked with Doug (her dad) about marrying her one Sunday night while I was over at her house playing games with some friends. I snuck away for a few minutes and sat down with Doug in their front room and got his permission, Katie had no idea that I had done that. The proposal worked out perfectly. In April I had gotten the ring but I kept asking her what her ring size was so that she wouldn’t suspect that I had it yet. I wanted to propose on a hike with Katie and we had talked about hiking mt. Olympus. I thought it would be pretty awesome up there looking over the valley and being by ourselves. But thanks to snow storms mt. Olympus wasn’t an option. But Katie threw out the idea one Saturday of hiking grandeur peak. So I packed the ring in my backpack and we set off. It was perfect because she had the idea of going hiking and so she didn’t suspect anything. The hike was fun and there was still snow on the trail but we made it up to the saddle at least. Right before we came to the saddle I slid the pack off and put the ring into my cargo pants so I would be prepared to propose. After not too long at the saddle Katie started getting cold and decided she didn’t want to be up there anymore so I tried to delay and see if she wanted any granola bars from my backpack. She said no and that she just wanted to get out of the wind that was blowing. So I walked over to her and told her I just needed to ask her something and got down on my knee and popped the question. I believe her first words were, “Oh Brent” then she said yes after that. We made the hike down and told some family and then went off to a Real Salt Lake soccer game.

There is so much more that can be written about the great time we had together while dating: Snyder Mill, the month long delay on the ring, long phone conversations while I was at school at BYU, me guessing what was said in those phone conversations because of my bad phone service (verizon), the first time we talked about marriage, the first time Ali Flegal talked about Katie and I getting married (which was the first time I had officially met her), playing “ultimate crap head” with her family, the “surprise” visit to Vegas to watch one of our BYU soccer games, and so many other great memories. I love Katie and love her more and more each day. She really is amazing and I can’t believe I got so lucky to be able to marry such a wonderful girl.