Journal Entry: August 14, 2001

Sorry, not the coffin date. I'm going out of order here. But, I thought this would be good to add to our dating story even though this was written before I even knew there was a person named Aaron Parson out there.

(note: the words in blue are the words straight out of my journal. the words in black are commentary from me right now.) 

I need to be the kind of person that is qualified - or like - the person I want to marry. So, I'm going to list the qualities:

• Someone who reads their scriptures regularly
- yep

• A return missionary
- and I'm pretty sure he was AWESOME!

• Gets along with their family and is respectful to their parents
-yep

• A hard worker (not lazy), focused, ambitious
- very much so!

• Mature, not worried about trivial social things and not starved for attention
- he's pretty much happy to just hang out with our family at home every day.

• Takes care of their body and keeps their body in good shape
- Wakes up at 4:30 every weekday to go to the gym

• Good sense of humor - laughs and makes me laugh
- In a house full of emotional girls this quality is immeasurable! has come in handy on more than one occasion. He has the wonderful ability to not take me too seriously, and even laugh (in a very caring and sweet way) when I'm in an irrational state of mind. Not to mention that he is just a funny guy. He makes jokes and laughs at my jokes and can laugh at himself.

• Thrifty, good with money, doesn't have to be rich to be happy
- Aaron definitely takes his responsibility to provide for our family seriously, and works hard at being successful in his career. That being said, Aaron's biggest financial dream is to own big dogs. Seriously. Now, when I talk about financial dreams I talk about trips to Europe, shopping sprees, nicer home, nicer car, the list goes on and on. Aaron just wants an Irish Wolfhound. 

• Someone who is humble, can admit when they're wrong, can say sorry and thank you easily and doesn't always have to be right
- I could write essays about Aaron's ability to apologize (even when he's not always to blame), and his overall humility. This is one of the number one things I admire in him (partly because humility is not my strong point) and has made our marriage much more peaceful. If I would have married someone with my amount of humility .... there would be a lot of fighting! 

• Smart, studies hard
- Always one of the number one students in his class. 

• Spiritual, but doesn't flaunt it, loves the church, has a strong testimony
- yep

• Honest
- yep

• Happy, enjoys life, has fun and is optimistic
- yep. Although, life is not always peaches and cream and Aaron (and I) definitely have our unhappy, unfun, and pessimistic moments. We're real. :)

• kind to everyone, makes people feel comfortable around them
- I've never met anyone who didn't like Aaron right away (unless we're talking about his previous boss, but that's a whole other story, and he doesn't count).

• someone who is willing to go out of their comfort zone
- yep. Just one example: moving to Connecticut for a job that is way bigger and better than anything he had ever done before is definitely going out of his comfort zone. (And, by the way, he's learning so much at his job here and LOVING it!)

It's been a good reminder for me to read over these qualities - for a few reasons. First off, I realize how lucky I did get in finding Aaron and getting him to marry me. I was shooting pretty high ... and I got lucky! Secondly, this is a pretty good list of qualities that I still need to be working on. Thirdly, the law of attraction (like attracts like) really is a pretty powerful thing. I wrote this journal entry one month before I met Aaron. So even though a lot of these habits and characteristics are ones that I don't naturally posses, I'm sure they were ones that I was working on in that month. So, think positive thoughts and positive things will come your way! :)