Finally Joined "The Cool Club"

Somebody once asked me, "Why don't you blog, Chantal?"

My reply: "Maybe I will once I have my own family."
So here I am, having my own family comprised of a handsome man and myself, and starting to blog! With that being said , you may think that "The Cool Club" is the one for bloggers. Not so - it is the one for married people!

With this being my first post, and since some of you may not know this oh-so magical story, I shall share how Ryan Koenig and Chantal Duggins became Ryan and Chantal Koenig. I apologize for the length. You don't have to read the whole thing; the ending is spoiled anyway.

Ryan and I were both, by Mormon standards, getting on in years and our futures were looking bleak and lonely. Because, for Pete's sake, who isn't married by 25 these days?! (That's a joke.) We may have both taken just a little longer than expected, but we ended up with a life partner who is undoubtedly the perfect match. We met in high school eons ago (11 years), and became friends from a distance. Knowing that the other existed but never actually making an effort to socialize. In fact, one of the only times I can remember hanging out just the two of us was when I was being a stubborn student and doing poorly in my Calculus class and my mom suggested that Ryan tutor me. He did... once. That's how good he is! (I am currently situated in the exact spot that took place 10 years ago!)

After high school he went away to Germany for 2 years and I moved to Grand Junction. Shortly after he got back, Crystal (my dear older sister, who had gotten married by then) invited me out on a double date with her and her husband and Ryan. I thought that would be just the most bizarre thing EVER. #1: Crystal was Ryan's ex-girlfriend and now she was married, and he was going to double with her?! #2: I had a boyfriend. #3: It was Ryan. Needless to say, Ryan canceled. I didn't hear from him again until Facebook got cool a few years later, and we were chatting and he insisted on picking me up for Family Home Evening that night. I went and had a good time, but still, it was Ryan. We didn't have much contact again for about 15 months, after which he called me one night after he knew I had a bad day and invited me to go salsa dancing with him. This wasn't a date people, I paid for myself. He also started hosting "Brunch and a Movie" at his town-home (where the original math-tutoring took place) after church each week, to which I was a regular. I do love cooking after all. I, of course, quickly became his "kitchen helper". Over the next 5 months or so we began to bond over this tradition.

At Christmastime 2009, my dad and I made an emergency trip to Alaska for 10 days when my uncle passed away. We got back on a Sunday afternoon, and despite after having just gotten off a red-eye flight, I still wanted to go to "Brunch and a Movie." When I got there, I expressed to Ryan that it felt like I had been gone for a really long time. He gave me a hug and said, "You have been gone a long time! I missed you. Chantal, you are a perfect addition to my life." (My thoughts: .......) *Pause* "But not THE perfect addition!" Thanks Ryan, that's better.

About a week later, Ryan convinced me to cancel plans that I had with somebody else to spend the day/evening with him. We did simple things: we went to lunch, ran errands, went to Alley Cat, and then watched The Phantom of the Opera. This was, I believe, our first not-real-date. Those continued almost nightly for a few weeks before it started becoming obvious that we wanted to go on a first real-life-date. I, personally, came to that realization when I found myself unable to stop thinking about Ryan. Trying to tell myself that he was "just a friend" because IT WAS RYAN, but always hoping that he would text me each day to invite me to some activity. (Which he did) It was incredibly refreshing not to have to force a relationship into existence.

We went on our first real-life-date on January 22, 2010 to East Moon. Since that day, we have been as inseparable as possible. Life was good; we were falling for each other, and it was SO obvious that there was no turning back once we started dating. We got engaged on June 10, 2010, and gave ourselves a quick 9-weeks to plan our wedding so that we could get married and go on a honeymoon before school started - I was sealed in the Denver Colorado Temple on August 14, 2010, to my very best friend, and became THE perfect addition to his life!

photo by Madison Eppley Herbas www.madmariephotography.com