Our Story

I stole this idea from my friend Lyndsay because I think it's a great idea to write it down, and this is basically my journal. SO, you don't have to read it, its mostly for us, but feel free if you want.

Barb's Version (the one that's most heard... lol)

In July of 2005 there was a knock on my parents front door, and I opened it to see Nicole Hancock. She was my sisters best friends' big sister and she told me that she had nannied for a family in NY and they were looking for a new nanny so she recommended me. ( I did not really know this girl at the time, so why she suggested me I have no idea but BOY am I glad she did!) I have to admit, I kind of just nodded and gave a generic "OK, sure I'll think about it" (yeah right). I didn't really think about it again until a few days later when I told my mom, and she looked me in the eyes and called me crazy.


"You're almost 18 and you have no idea what you want to do with life, and you have the chance to go to NY and live there for free! HELLLOOOOO!"

Needless to say I interviewed with the family and by August 13, 2005 I was there, a new transplant on Long Island and I was scared to death because I didn't know anyone and I was responsible for 3 children, 2 of which were under the age of 3.

**I must insert here that my mother told me before I left, NOT to date any NY boys. She didn't want me marrying one and then moving away from her permanently.

Anyway, the first person I met from the Singles Ward was Deanna because she was my bosses' sisters' nanny. She took me to church the first couple weeks until I figured out how to get there. Before I had left for Long Island Nicole took me to breakfast and she told me a bunch of names of people that I should hang out with and that I would have fun with, one of which was Mike De Rosa. So, I started meeting people at church and recognizing names and letting them know I knew Nicole. By the time I got there, there was no Mike. But there were lots of other fun people including this weird boy who slicked his hair back like he was in the mafia, and wore these big loud shoes and carried around a back pack so he could show people his artwork. I admit, I did think he was a little strange the first time I met him and for those of you who can't tell who I'm talking about, well he's Matt De Rosa. He was loud, and I thought... a little rude. I mean who comes to activity night and changes the music that we were all enjoying? Matt, that's who. One night we all went to Coldstone Creamery and got ice cream and we were all kind of separated at different tables but we were all having fun, and I barely spoke to Matt the whole time. When we were all leaving for the night, we were all hugging each other and saying good bye and I walked up to Mario who was standing next to Matt and gave him a hug, and then when I turned to walk away, Matt says, "I don't get a hug?" So I gave him a hug too, and it was a pretty good hug... just ask him. I hadn't realized yet, that I was attracted to Matt. But he got my number that same night, and called me a couple nights later and I had no idea who it was. I asked... "Who is this?" the response... "Who do you think this is?" Then I knew. I invited him to come to the movies with us, I was with Lyndsay when he called, we were in the driveway of her bosses place. He declined, no reason given. I thought, ok. Still hadn't hit me yet that I liked him. A week or so later I wanted to go to Applebee's after an activity like we normally did, but everyone else declined so Matt and I ended up there alone, and we had a great conversation. It wasn't really awkward at all, and Matt was so nice! We kept hanging out with the branch, talking on Myspace, and IMing each other. We gradually just started hanging out more, and we hung out a lot with Bryant and Deanna. We would take turns paying for movie rentals and then we'd watch them at Bryant's tiny apartment. Matt and I would cuddle, and he'd hold my hand, and I'd really started to like him. But I was confused because he didn't ever make a move past holding my hand. One night I was fed up, my face was right there and I know he could tell I wanted him to kiss me but he didn't, so I kissed him, on the cheek. It was really difficult for me to gain the courage to do that and you know what he says to me? "I think you're a good kid." I was livid! He was just leading me on! He was a cuddle slut! Ugh. I didn't speak to him on the way home. He IMed me when he got home and we talked some more. He explained to me that he felt that our friendship was too important to move further. So I said to myself, start liking someone else. Find someone else to crush on. I did invite him to go to breakfast with me the next day and he agreed. Then he suggested we go to the beach (in March) and we were only there for about ten minutes before we were both frozen. (I found out later he was planning on asking me out on the beach but it was too cold to talk). He said he wasn't ready to go home yet so we went to a movie at F'dale Multiplex and I can't remember what movie we saw for the life of me, but after we were done, I took him home to get ready for Deanna's birthday party that night. I headed to Deanna's to help her get ready. We all went to Sports Plus to bowl and toward the end of the bowling Matt got really quiet and kind of stopped talking to everyone. I stole his red hat, and put it on, then I asked him what was wrong and he said nothing. I asked him if he wanted to take a walk and talk later and he said yes. Later that night because it was so cold outside, we sat inside his car. That's when he asked me out. He said, "I was wondering if it was ok with you if I took you out sometime?" I WAS ELATED!!! From then on we were pretty much inseparable except for you know, sleeping and stuff. It wasn't until 3 months later I heard him refer to me as his girlfriend. When I asked him about it he said to me "Well, its not like we're dating other people". So we began dating March 4, 2006 and by June I was his girlfriend. By July I had a different job with a family that I couldn't stand. Matt came home with me for Christmas, and a few days after we got back to NY I had quit my job. It was time for my time in NY as a nanny to end. Matt's family was gracious enough to allow me to stay with them for a week, before I flew home. I wasn't 100% sure that Matt would move out there like we had discussed. The plan was for him to move out in June. We hadn't talked at all about marriage, just about Matt moving out and going to school and living with his brother. We talked on the phone every night, we'd text all day long, and finally in April he'd had it with his job. His boss said some rude things to him and he was ready to quit. Then his dad surprised him with a plane ticket to move. My friend Melinda and I flew out to NY to pick Matt up. By April 18 Matt was in Utah living with his brother. By June we had met Mike's girlfriend Hollie and they were engaged before the end of the year, and were getting married in Jan. 2008. When I told Hollie we still hadn't talked about marriage, she lectured me and told me to get a move on. So I drove Matt up Big Cottonwood Canyon to the boardwalk and I was SOOOOO nervous, how was I supposed to bring up marriage? I didn't even know if Matt wanted to get married at all! But, he already knew what I wanted to talk about, and it turned out he'd been thinking about it a lot. He wanted to marry me but felt like he needed to get more financially stable and more schooling under his belt so we just agreed that we wanted to get married eventually but dropped it until the DAY of Mike and Hollie's wedding when Bob my awesome father-in-law asked me what Matt and I wanted. Then it hit me, we were scared and making up excuses. The next day, on our way to his house after church, in his grandfather's Buick, he asked me to marry him. Then he told his parents our plans, got their blessing, and then he wouldn't let me tell ANYONE until he asked my father for permission. I did tell one person though, I just couldn't hold it in! I was so thrilled! The weeks after that flew by, he asked for permission, got the blessing from my parents and we picked rings. We were engaged for 8 months and were married August 2, 2008. Here we are, happy as can be and so proud of our journey together. We have great memories and I still get the same butterflies in my stomach that I'd get when he'd hold my hand during our movie nights! I love this man and I'm so happy he picked me.

That was long, and although you may feel some of what I've written is irrelevant, its all important to us! and to me.


Matt's Version AKA The Short Version

Once upon a time...I got back from my mission, that's right 2 years in the jungle known as Italy, i was hanging out at plainview when i heard some obnoxious music coming from one of the rooms. As i walk into the room that it was coming from i noticed that all the nannies in the branch were playing some awful country music while they were carving pumpkins for Halloween. Being the considerate DJ that I am I decided to render my services and enlighten these small town nannies with some good quality music "East Coast style". Out of all the nannies in the room Barb was the only one to look over at me giving me the look of death, which she said was only her squinting, right. Obviously this intrigued me since i had that much impact that she felt it was necessary to shoot me the ten-thousand year old stare. We didn't really hang out all that much in the beginning, most of the nannies would sit in the foyer lamenting about how terrible New York is. I decided to avoid the negativity and ignored the opinions of the non natives. Moving right a long to the good stuff, Barb and I hung out a few times before we actually exchanged numbers at coldstone. It was a pretty good hug FYI. The thought of the dirty look always lingered in my mind. We hung out with a couple of our good friends that were also living out in NY, Bryant and Deanna. They were there throughout the start of our friendship. One night on the way home from their house i was dropping off Barb and I'm sure she had already mention the fact that i called her a "good kid" in her story so I'm going clear that up for the record. First off it was never meant to be taken in a bad way. Second it was clear that i was interested and liked her but you know how women can be at times. Third, we always hung out exclusively. Mixed signals? I think not. She got mad and wouldn't talk to me but i wouldn't let her stay mad at me so i called her that night for a chat. We continued hanging out becoming GF and BF. She got some terrible job with a cracked out ritzy family in west islip with some ridiculous house built on the water. They pretty much worked her like a slave and not the good kind like mammy from gone with the wind so i told her that she didn't deserve that and need to get out of that house. She went home and was all concerned that she wasn't going to see me again. I told her a few times that i would be going out that way but she didn't put much stock in that so i had to prove her wrong 3 months later when i moved out to SL,UT. I lived at the Gateway with Mike and Frankie working at wellsfargo. Mike was the first one of the De Rosa Clan to get married and shortly after that i spoke with my parents and then asked Barbs father, keeping it old school, for his daughters hand in marriage. Shortly after that we took the plunge in the mt timpanogos temple. 2 Cars and 3 apartments later we are still married happier than ever always keeping it as fresh as day one of the marriage. And we lived happily ever after Boom!!!