Together Forever: The Notebook book review

I've spent the last three days reading the Notebook by Nicholas Sparks. It was a good romantic movie, but what a great book!

Its kind of neat because the book is a story in a story, but in the end it comes together as one. It was a very neat format! If you have not seen the movie, read the book first. It makes for a great surprise! I guess you get that surprise when you see the movie, but reading it in the book first would be the best way to go. oh and if you haven't read or seen the story, don't read my review because i'm gong to give away the surprise and it will ruin the story if you read the surprise.

Review:

4 out of 5 stars (gets a deduction because i don't like scene that get too touchy feelly)

The book starts with a man visiting a women who seems a little lost. He sits at her table and begins reading a story to her. Its a love story of how two people fell in love. They fell in love when they were teenages over a summer. When the summer ended the girl's, Allie, family moved away. Her parents didn't approve of Noah because he was from a different class, a poorer class. Her mother did all she could to make sure Noah would NEVER find Allie again.

Noah did try to find Allie, but fails. He than lives out the next 14 years working and serving in the war. When he returns, he inherits a large sum of money. With the money he inherited, he decided to buy a home he's teenage sweet heart and him played in the summer they spent together and dreamed of buying one day.

When Noah's photo in front of his home ends up in a newspaper, Allie recognizes him and decides to go and see him. The catch to this is that she's engaged to another man!!! The rest of the story being told is about how they fell in love again and ends with Allie needing to decide if she's going to marry the man she's engaged to or with the "southern poet."

The story moves back to the present time and you discover that the woman in the room feels lost and would like to find herself again. You learn she has Alzheimer and has been suffering from this disease for the last four years. The man who read the story to this woman reads it to her every day in hopes she would remember her past. She only remembers it ever once in a while, he calls it "the miracle."

My Sappy love story

This book made me want to share the story of how the love of my life and I met and fell in love.

We met four years ago around Valentines day. He was running to the Snow College music building and I was leaving it. When i saw him running across the practice field, I started giggling and called out to him asking why he was in such a hurry. I knew he was in band adn i figured he was running to the building because he thought he was late for the basketball game we had to play for. After questioning why he was running, it turns out i was correct, he did think he was running late to the game. I told him call time wasn't for another hour. He decided to continue to the music building just to be sure. I told him if he gets there and i was wrong about call time, to call me. This was my subtle way of trying to give him my number . . . He didn't catch that!

The next time we talked, he was writing a list of girls he wanted to date. During this time in hubby's life, he was a list maker. still is, but more so back than. I took a peak at the list when he wasn't looking and was disappointed that my name was not on his list. I think that made it fun for me to try harder at getting his attention.

A month past by before he got the courage to ask me out on a date. It was the Thursday before spring break. Our date lasted until 3 am!! we went to the on campus art gallery and than a meeting for our dorm (sadly we HAD to go to that! but that was free food). After the meeting we went down stairs to the lounge room and watched the swan princess together. I think we spent most of the time talking. When 11 am hit, we decided to go up stairs where we decided we would say good night . . . well goodnight lasted from 11 am till 3am . . . NO we were not kissing!!! we were just talking to each other. It was amazing how easy talking to him was . . . maybe tahts because he doesn't talk much.

The next day, we both left for spring break. the night before i managed to persuade him to get a facebook account and we spent most of spring break talking to each other. We still have the emails! They are so fun to look through and see what our responses were to questions we asked. We had a game in our emails where one of us would ask a question, the other would answer it and than ask their own question. It was the only way i could get him to give more than a one sentence email!

When we got back to college the next week, we had a band concert. After the concert, we decided to go for a walk. Hubby is a very indecisive person so i ended up slipping my arm through his and leading us around campus. It was kind of a cold night and i complained about my hands being cold. So he put his hand over mine and than asked "is it ok if i put my hand here?" We replay that scene often!

The next night Hubby had to work on a presentation for one of his classes. I decided I would stay up and work on homework with him. We ended up going to bed at 5am and we had to be up for a 7:30 class that morning. so we ended up getting only an hour of sleep.

The next night was our second date. We went the the snow Dragon for dinner. I laughed when hubby read his fortune. It said something a long hte lines of "three months from this date something important will happen." We both laughed about it and decided he would get engaged on June 19th 2009.

after getting to our dorm building, we watched a movie with Gene kelly in it and honestly the only thing i remember from that movie is the song "Almost like being in love." I remember this because it was during this song that we shared our first kiss.

A month later, spring semester was over and he was heading north for summer and i south. We spent the summer talking on the phone together and every other week visiting. We made sure that EVERY 19th of a month we saw eachother since that was our "anniversary."

On June 19th 2009, hubby decided to make his fortune from March 19h come true. We were standing outside in a parking lot in front of his hotel dancing. It was probably 11pm and we were getting ready to say good night. He held me in his arms and he whispered in my ear, "Manda, I love you. I know its not time to get engaged yet, but i want you to know that I'm working towards getting ready to ask you to marry me."

this made my heart somersault I knew I loved this man! I couldn't have been happier! We wanted to wait on getting engaged for his sister to get married. that was my stupid idea. Looking back at it, we should have just done a double wedding with his sister( She got married in oct 09)!

We got engaged three weeks after his sister got married. He proposed in front of the Logan Temple. I thought he was kidding when he got down on one knee! I jokingly asked "did you ask my daddy?" and when he responded "Yes, i talked to him on the phone and he said i could have you." At that point, I knew this was the real deal. i was SO ready to be his wife! We got engaged on November 7th, 2009 adn married March 12th 2010 (we wanted teh 19th but school's spring break wouldn't ahve allowed for a honeymoon that way).

I share this story more for me reflecting back on how I fell in love with Kyler. I knew before he did that we were going to get married. I fell for him hard and I'm falling more deeply in love with him as every day passes.

I love my Kyler. He is the most wonderful man I've ever met. He takes such great care of me. He never questions when i say i need something. if i am hurt, tired, or just plain lazy, he will do anything I ask. He is my "farm boy" saying "as you wish" to any of my requests. I couldn't imagine my life with out him.

I love his smile. I love his laugh. I love when he teaches me things. Even though we don't agree on everything, and we have our disagreements, he is always supportive of my choices. I love that he supports me. I love how hard he works. I fall more deeply in love with him when i see him play with our children. I love that he takes his turn washing the dishes. i love that he is the laundry rotater in the family. I love to watch him do his homework. I love hearing what he's doing at work and at school. I love cuddling with him. I love that we can be in the same room doing our own thing and still feel like we are together.

Words cannot describe how much i love this man! he is the most important and special person in my life! I'm so grateful that i'm the lucky girl that gets to be with him for all eternity!