Est 2000

Wilson Family: Established 9 September, 2000

Eyeing Each Other

The first time I saw Jaime was around BYU campus. Sure I thought he was cute, but my mind said, "You are here for a bachelor's degree, not a bachelor!" So I didn't pursue him. Well, lo and behold, I had an ASL class in which the teacher was pregnant with twins. She left on maternity leave and two substitute teachers came in.  One of them was Jaime. Now suddenly I get to stare at him for an hour every day!

Jaime's mom reports that he saw me in a blue shirt, sitting in the back of the class as well. He came home and told her, "What do I say to her?" :)

A few of my classmates elbowed me: "Hey, he's cute! You're deaf. He's deaf. You guys should totally get together!" (Oh yeah, great pick-up line!: "You. Me. Both have hearing problems. Wanna hook up?") I retorted, "Oh come on, we gotta have more in common than that!"

The First Move

Once the teacher was back and it was no longer a teacher:student relationship, he called me up and asked if we could do something together. I suddenly got so nervous! All the girls in the class were drooling over him and here he was calling me--of all choices. I told him I was sorry because I had a lot of studying to do. He challenged me by saying, "Ok, then prove it by coming to the library and we'll do homework together. How's that?" My heart skipped a couple of beats, but I was telling the truth about having a lot of homework to do, so I agreed.

Once we were there, we started visiting and after a long time, finally opened our books.  We were quiet for a while. Then Jaime interrupted, "Uh, you've been staring at the same page for 20 minutes. Are you REALLY reading?" Busted! My mind was so scattered, thanks to this new guy sitting next to me!

At the end, we had a date set up to skip school and go skiing. I didn't realize Jaime was such an expert Black Diamond skiier! Boy, I was doing face plants on the bunny hill and he had to lumber behind me to pick up all my scattered gloves and equipment. (Since we kept going out after that, it must have not been TOO irritating to him.)

The Proposal!

We dated a year and a half and by now knew each other pretty well. We had a date for Saturday in May of 2000. I thought nothing differently of it. Apparently it was Brady Cluff's birthday party (Brady is Jaime's friend from high school). I showed up at the house, ready to go. Jaime told me, "Oh, bad news: Brady and all of our friends decided to meet last night instead of tonight, so we're on our own today. Plans fell through. So sorry! So uh...what do you want to do?"

It had been raining all week and the sun was finally showing, so I naturally wanted to go outside and do something, so I mentioned a picnic.

Jaime: "Sounds good! What are in the mood for?"

Ann: "Something simple. Maybe a sandwich. No big deal."

Jaime: [thinking...] "Hey, Gandolfo's Subs is close by. We can pick up sandwiches from there. How's that?"

Ann: "Great!" [we go and get our sandwiches]

Jaime: "Is there a specific place you want to go eat?"

Ann: "Nah. Just the closest park with grass. We can enjoy the sun and visit."

Jaime: "Good idea. The Mt. Timp park is only a couple of minutes away. Let's go there."

Ann: [Feeling pleased that I was so good at putting him at ease.]

We arrived at the park across from Timpanogos Temple. Jaime then walked around to the back of his car and pulled out a picnic table and chairs. He was prepared! (And I never saw him load it up.) He already knew in advance what my suggestions would be! Sly! We sat comfortably and ate for a while.

Suddenly, Jaime was squinting at the sky and pointed, "What's that?"  I looked up to see a yellow plane in the sky, flying around the steeple of the temple. It had a banner flapping behind it that said, "Marry me, Ann?" It was SO unexpected! I whipped my head around to look at Jaime and he was gone. I looked around to find him and he was down on one knee, kneeling at my feet with a heart shaped diamond ring! He said, "Will you be my sweetheart forever?" Suddenly it hit me that this was for real!! I couldn't believe it and started to utter, "No way that you're finally proposing!" Instead, I stopped at the "no..." and then lost my breath. Jaime had a moment of panic when he thought I was rejecting him. Poor guy! I hurried and corrected myself and shouted, "Yes! Yes!" and gave him a big hug.

From behind a tree where he was hiding the whole time, Jaime's little brother, Jacob, stepped out wearing his best dress and holding a bunch of flowers. He brought them to me and said, "I can't wait to be your brother-in-law!" Aww...so the kid was standing there trying not to be seen for who knows how long. What a feat! His mother was also hiding in a car parked down the street taking secret pictures.

When I asked Jaime about it later, he told me the pilot was a friend of his and they made arrangements way in advance to have him fly around the temple that day.

10 years later...

Jaime's romance didn't stop there at the Timp Temple. I had been quite rough with my hands, so my ring was falling off and was scratched and a piece of the metal from the band was broken off. I had it safe in my jewelry box.

We had a trip to Hawaii planned for our 10 year anniversary. (That trip was fantastic, by the way!) We had a date while we were there 4 wheeling on a guided tour. Jaime had secretly gotten my ring good as new again and brought it to Hawaii. He arranged a second proposal on Kauai in front of the 4 wheeling group. Nobody knew we had already been married for 10 years and they were excited for the "brand new" engaged couple. It was fun to pretend it was new all over again! I love this guy!