Tiny Part of Our Story

Today I was featured in the ScrapGirls Newsletter, and thought it might be fun to share it with those of you that don't get it. It's a little bit of our story.

A Designer's Life: Shalae Tippetts

Worth the Wait

When I graduated from high school, I knew I would go to college. But in my mind, it was not necessarily to get a college degree so that I could get my dream job. Nope. What I wanted to be most in life was a mom and to do that, I needed a husband. I decided I would pursue art in the meantime, hoping to find the man of my dreams.

Life does not always happen the way you want it to. I graduated five years later. I found a job, but soon realized that there was no one to date, let alone that perfect someone. So I went and stayed with my parents for the summer between jobs.

At the end of the summer, I was working a food booth at our county fair and saw a young man. He had been a good friend of my younger sister and was there taking tickets at the concert. My thoughts were, “He’s really good looking, too bad he’s younger than me and I’m heading to Vegas.” That was it. I packed up and moved to Vegas.

I was in Vegas for about a year. It was the most incredible year of my life for my own personal growth. By the end of the year, despite the hundreds of singles that were around, I realized Mr. Wonderful wasn’t there either. I knew exactly what I wanted and he wasn’t there. But, for once in my life, I was okay with that. I was okay with whatever the Lord had in store for me. I was very happy and at peace with where I was in life and life was very good.

One evening, there was a Singles' activity at church. I was really fed up with the whole dating game and had decided that there was no way I was going to go. Forget it. The Lord didn’t think so... I kept feeling this strong urge that I needed to go. I kept fighting it in my head. “No! I don’t want to go!”

“You need to go.”

“No! They’re just playing this stupid matching game.”

“Go!”

So, with tears in my eyes, frustrated and in a terrible mood, I went.

I walked in and sat down, oblivious to anyone around me. Suddenly, someone behind me called out my name. Turning, I found myself looking at the same young man I had seen a year ago at the county fair. What? What in the world was he doing in Vegas, let alone sitting here at the same Single Adult activity? This city is huge. Then came my next impression... he is really good looking and wow, look at those forearms. (He had his arm stretched out across the back of some chairs and they definitely showed that he grew up in a small town moving pipe and had learned to work.)

We spent the next couple of hours talking. Nothing ever felt so good in my life. I knew from that first night that he was the one that had everything I wanted. From there, it was history. We hung out every second, just talking and having fun. Finally, one night two weeks later, he found out that another guy was chasing me. Hmmm... he realized he had to act and asked if he could date me seriously. Finally!

Two days later, I found him asking me the question, “Have you ever wondered how things are going work at the end of the summer when I head back to Utah and you stay here?”

Had I thought about it? Of course, I had. I had since I first saw him, but I wasn’t going to be the first to mention marriage here. I threw the question back at him.

“Well, we could do it long distance.”

“Nope.”

“I could move here.”

“Nope.” He was supposed to be at BYU.

“We could get married?” It sounded like that was the only answer to me.

That was it. That was the right and only answer and our lives have never been the same since.

He was everything that I had wanted and, at the same time, everything I thought I didn’t want. The Lord likes to throw those in sometimes. You see, I didn’t want to marry anyone younger than me. (He’s three years younger.) I didn’t want to marry someone that was from my home town. (He lived ten minutes from where I grew up and he was my sister’s good friend.) I didn’t want to marry someone that was going through school. (I had already gone through five years myself and had been working for two years. We have now gone through six more years together and still have two more to go.) I never wanted to live in Utah. (Six years later, we are still here.) But, despite my list of things that I didn’t want (they really were unimportant), I got everything I wanted and more. He was well worth the wait and I have never been happier.

- Shalae

This is my husband's favorite collection that I've created.

Supplies Used:

Cruising Collection
ScrapSimple Embellishment Templates: Bits of Mesh
ScrapSimple Paper Templates: Antiqued
Dynamic Brush Set: Basic Stitching 4901 - Biggie
ScrapSimple Tools - Styles: Paper Textures -4901
ScrapSimple Tools - Styles: Brushed Metal 4901