as they say, "love is entirely a matter of chemistry"..

Chemistry is a science studying different properties of matter, and the way in which particles will interact, combine, and change to form new substances. In our case, things mixed just right, creating: The Parker Family.

Our Chemical Reaction-
Reactant 1:

Early in the fall semester at BYU, I walked into the inorganic chemistry TA lab to study for an upcoming exam. While there were a few different seats available, one was next to a notably good looking guy who I recognized from another chemistry class I was taking. It made the seating choice relatively easy. Taking out my books caught the attention of the other guys sitting around the table.  They asked my name and the class I was studying for. I was introduced to each of them sitting around the table, whose names were clearly unimportant to me because I can’t seem to recall them now, with the exception of the one I sat next to who introduced himself as David. He continued to study, barely saying another word, and certainly not giving me any semblance of the attention I was hoping for. As I continued to study, the other guys were clearly getting a bit restless of reading their chemistry books so, being that it is BYU, they began talking about their love lives discussing how they were trying to develop serious relationships because of failures in the past. I was trying to conceal my laughing as I zoned out the relationship chatting until they asked the guy next to me, David, if he was in a serious relationship. Suddenly my upcoming test seemed immensely less important as I attempted to put to use my most stealthy eavesdropping skills. To my delight, he said it had been over a year since he dated anyone. Then and there the scheming began. What can I say? He was better looking than any other guy I had seen at BYU, in the United States, ok really just ever, and not to mention, he was more focused on his chem homework than on me… which was endearingly intriguing.

After leaving the lab, and barely even an introduction, I called my sister and said, “I just met my one true love!”

(give me a break he was the cutest!)

Reactant 2:

            One part of the story that is now necessary to mention, is that this handsomely studious, David, was in my Chemistry Lab. Although it is a huge class, consisting of over 120 students, because it is a wet lab, you are split up into 6 different lab rooms where you conduct your experiments. It just so happened that we were in the same lab room. After officially meeting in the TA lab, I thought that naturally he would begin saying hi, and gradually we could become friends. I would cross my fingers every Thursday that my flawless pipetting skills would woo him into loving me. This was simply not the case. We would walk right by each other, not saying one word, on multiple occasions we stood next to each other adding chemicals to our viles, yet still nothing was said. My dreams of getting to know the handsome chem boy in the corner began to fade as the semester was coming to a close, although I still allowed myself to stare at him for a minimum of 47 seconds every Thursday just to establish in my mind how very ‘out of my league’ he truly was. Because boy-oh-boy was he good looking!

Reactant 3:

            The VERY last day of chemistry lab, our class was required to check out and return all of our equipment. Being the obsessive-compulsive and severe overachiever that I am, I had gotten there early to line up all of my things in a particular order to make my check out the most efficient. As I was putting my things away, I heard his deep little man voice say, ‘your name’s Lauren, right?” And so, on the LAST DAY OF CLASS, we finally had a real conversation, and when he went to grab something from the stock room, my creepily little obsessed self, spied on his ‘checkout’ sheet to see his full name. David Parker.

Reactant 4:

            Walking home I called just about everyone in my family to tell them that he had actually talked to me. Although this is admittedly pathetic, it gets better.. After unanimous approval, I put my spying efforts to work, and I added this David Parker on facebook. (I know what you’re thinking, one conversation is a premature-fb add, but simply not the case in this situation.. you'll see.) Not more that a few minutes later, I got a message from him! Consulting every human I know, I put together a flawless reply. Being that the semester was over, I left for Christmas break. The entire break we wrote little messages back and forth, nothing weird or serious, just funny little things, and I craftily, (alright, as craftily as is possible in this situation) gave him my phone number.

Reactant 5:

            Arriving back at school for winter semester, I got to my organic chemistry class with 15 minutes to spare. I sat there, perfectly arranging my pencils for optimum note taking when a boring lecture about molecular orbitals began. A few minutes after the class started, THE David Parker walked into the class. What are the chances?? BYU is home to over 32,000 students, not to mention I wasn’t supposed to be taking O-chem until the next year, but felt like I should take it a year early. My stomach was just fluttering all over the place, it felt like I had swallowed 347 edible sunshine rays, which was an unusual feeling for me, as I typically would never consider myself the ‘persuer’ type. It was a big class of about 200, so I was sure he didn’t see me.

 

            That very day, he texted me for the first time (weird-number-giving message paid off) and he asked how the semester was looking for me.  After texting back and forth about what classes we were taking, I acted surprised to hear that he also had Dr. Ess for Chemistry 351, although I had been dancing around because of this fact for the entire 123 minutes since class had gotten out! He suggested that we sit together, and after that we never sat apart. We studied together from then on every second we could, as I continued to concoc various ways to get him to love me:)

Products: (LOVE!)

He was the funniest! Every time I was with him I was just cracking up. We became the best study pals, any pals have ever been. Really, it got to the point that I was fairly convinced that he just wanted to be great friends because although we went to class together, watched movies, studied, watched the games, cooked dinner, he never made even the slightest move.

In mid January we went snowboarding together at the Canyons, where I just found out that I was even more crazy about him than I had previously suspected. I remember eating Costco pizza in our snowpants together, and just thinking it was the best moment of all my days of living! One afternoon, he called an asked if I wanted to go to a concert with him, I calmly said a quaint, ‘yes, of course I do!’ then eloquently got off the phone. Immediately after hanging up I did approximately 17 laps around the house dance-screaming (a charming method of showing such excitement) and then laid on the floor of the basement screaming into the phone, telling my ‘people’. It turned out to be the greatest night, he was hilarious with his dance moves and clever comments, but still no hand holding or relationship talk, even though at this point, I saw him everyday.

The 'post date text'.

He is still just 'the greatest human.'

You may be thinking why didn’t I just make a move for him?... First of all, I was new to this situation, I just adored everything about him, also, he was the cutest, nicest, most charmingly clever human I had ever met, and so I decided even if he never became my future husband like I had told my sister after first meeting him, I would just love to even be his best friend, so that I could still be around him every second.

Next, Valentines day rolled around, and after much reinforcement from my Mother (who, by the way, knew EVERY thing about everything that happened with David, what he said, the tone he said it in, how he looked, how he looked saying what he said, how I interpreted the things he did and said… everything!) I told him about my families Valentines traditions at home and we did them together! We decorated sugar cookies and drank strawberry daiquiris and just loved each other… Of course, still from a distance!

Country dancing really did it in for me, I lost my voice from cracking up all night long because we had no idea what we were doing, but he was spinning me and spinning me and lifting me all around. Mostly I just loved it because I finally got to touch the man! I had been quoted repeatedly saying that the Chemistry (class) was killing the love, as our exams were getting really hard and studying was getting intense likewise. Around this time David separated his shoulder doing extreme sports (rollerblading) and so I took him cookies and a stuffed animal and really just gave up on the whole hand-holding anyway considering that if he didn’t do it with two working arms, now with only one, my chances and hope would also be cut in half. Little did I know, this accident actually really sped things up! I looked forward to picking him up for school everyday, and putting on his brace. After classes we would just hangout together doing random things like whistling practice, enjoying the great shopping at Board of Provo, small art projects, and other equally enthralling activities.

Artist: David Parker

I just thought it was too good to be true!

Finally, after countless movies, study sessions, dates and weeks of waiting, he held my hand! I was going crazy inside like a regular girl! I was SO excited, I have never been that giddy little girl with boys, but with David everything has just been the most exciting, thrilling, fun, funny, happy, comfortable, glorious, genuine, dreamy, amusing, enchanting, entertaining, and joyful in the history of the universe.

About a week later we were sitting at his house laughing and chatting. He was trying to tell me a story about his neighbors, but couldn’t remember their last name, “Simpon.. no. Sampson.. no..” and then he reached for my chin, pulled it to his, and he kissed me! It was unexpected, much like a lot of things in this relationship. Come to find out, not only did we meet because of chemistry, but we’re also eventually going to get married because our chemistry is just right! I was right, he was my one true love, and my future husband, I could not be happier, I love him with every little piece of me.

David Parker,

I adore you. 

I love your face when you're nervous.

I love how wide your eyes get when you're excited.

I love the way your brown eyes look at me.

I love your brown eyes.

I love the way you know how to love.

I love how you tell jokes that barely make sense.

I love that you laugh at my quirks. 

I love the way you laugh. 

I love the funny songs you sing to me. 

I love the way you sing. 

I love that you're comfier than a warm sweater. 

I love hearing your manly voice say I love you. 

You bring happiness to rainy days.  

You make me want to be my best self.

You sweeten my sour days.

You are the Mickey to my Mini.

You inspire me to follow my dreams.

You are better than sunshine after a Moscow winter.

You are my perfect match.

You have the sweetest spirit.

You are the Santa to my Mrs. Clause.

You make me laugh everyday.

You taste better than a sandwich cut in triangles. 

You cast a spell on me stronger than Harry Potter could.

You are the apple of my eye. 

You are the Kobe to my basketball.

You are my sunshine.

You rock my world.

You are better than no lines at Disneyland. 

You make me the happiest human. 

You are my eternity.

Oh yes, and..

You are the one I will always love.