Mike + Cassandra

• When he got to London, he went straight to campus to meet Cassandra at the music building.  He pulled up to the building, she hopped into the car to show him where to park.  He was disappointed; he'd wanted to give her a hug at first sight.  As they were walking back to the music building, after about walking 20 ft., C stops and says, "Hey! Give me a hug! I'm glad you made it!"
• She gave him a tour of the music school and piano program.  As she was showing him one of the pianos she was fixing and talking about it, he had this feeling, the Spirit telling him, "This is your future wife talking to you."  He said it was amazing.
• She played some different pianos to show him the differences in sound quality.  She was impressed when he started describing the differences.
• When they left at around 1:00, they went to her place for lunch.  Made tomato soup from scratch.  C spilled sugar onto the floor and started scooping it from the floor, back into the container.  Mike teased her about it.
• C once told Emily that it was a huge turn-off for her when men just sit there while women cook and do the dishes; she wants her husband to be involved in that.  So Mike made sure to be involved and did all the dishes after lunch and/or dinner.
• After that they went to a park and spent a long time talking and walking there.  They held hands.  She said, "Warm my hands up!"  They hugged before getting back into the car, he held her for a while.  Said it was very comfortable, not awkward.  They had an easy time talking. At one point she told him that her roommate's brother Chris proposed recently and gave his fiance a giant diamond ring.  She said, "I'm not really into big diamonds... that's not really important to me."  Hint hint. ;)
• He went grocery shopping with C and her roommate Michelle.  He's met Michelle in Kalamazoo and at YSA dances.  At the last YSA dance in Lansing (that took place at the beginning of C's spring break), Emily told Michelle that Mike thinks C is really cool and asked if C does much dating.  He had to fart really bad (lol) so he told them he'd go get chili seasoning so that he could go and fart by himself.  I told him before he left that he should take Beano (he was worried about the farting thing, lol).
• While C and her roommates made chili, Mike helped her roommate's brother with his car.  (The brother, Chris, originally came in and asked C for help, which is pretty funny to me.)  At one point, her roommate Breanne comes up from the basement (where she'd been all day) and saw Mike and said, "Oh, who's this?  Is he someone from the piano program?"  C said, "Nope, he's a friend from Michigan."  She asked Mike what his name was and where he was from.  After he said Battle Creek, a lightbulb went off in her head and she said, "This is Mike Mike?!"  And got so excited and hugged him and they hit it off pretty well.  She said, "I really like you, Mike Mike!  You're welcome here anytime!"  And told him she'd call him Mike Mike from now on.
• After dinner, before they sat down to watch a movie, they looked at the weather and saw that there was freezing rain and snow in Michigan so they tried to get Mike to spend the night, but he totally didn't feel comfortable doing that.  C had told him earlier that day that she wasn't a fan of co-ed sleepovers (like when Chris (Breanne's brother) and his friends would spend the night).  
• At one point, Mike asked Michelle if she wanted a priesthood blessing because she was really sick.  So he and Chris gave her a blessing,
• So they sat down to watch a movie (Invictus) and Mike intended to leave when it ended, around 10:30.  C sat in the middle of the couch, M sat on one side and Michelle sat on the other.  They just sat there and watched (not holding hands) for the first half of the movie.  But halfway through, Michelle left.  So Mike asked, "Can I hold your hand?" and she said yes, of course, and they snuggled on the couch, he had his arms around her, etc.  She rubbed his hands and at some points where he was talking, she squeeze them tighter.
• This is where things got good.  They spent the next 4-5 hours talking (and cuddling).  He asked what her "three year plan" for life was.  Earlier she told him that she bought an old, beat up Steinway piano on Craigslist for $3000 and she has a "three year plan" to fix it up and then sell it (it should sell for up to $70k!).  So he wanted to start asking questions and get a good conversation going so that she could start asking questions about the divorce if she wanted.  She told him that she was finishing up school and then in December she'd be done with her internship, but she didn't really know after that.  She said she does hope to be married in 3 years.  
• Oh, so Mike asked about the bet that she made with her sisters about the divorce.  When her family visited her in Canada at the beginning of her spring break, she and her sisters and Mom were talking about Mike.  They couldn't figure him out.  He'd lived in Battle Creek for a year and they hadn't met him till now.  Cassandra figured that he was divorced, so they googled him and found a blurb in the newspaper about it.  She also remembered Kalina doing Lindsey Reyes's wedding cake.  He told her that he would have told her sooner but hadn't really had an opportunity to do so until their ice skating date.  She said she understood.
• At some point she said, "So tell me about Kalina." Mike basically told her everything.  Told her out they met (which C said she thought was kind of cute) and then how the divorce happened.  Told her about Kalina's past and how that affected their marriage.  That they never really had a happy marriage.  Told her about the day she told him she wanted a divorce, how he didn't tell anyone until a day or two when he was driving to work in Indiana, he called his dad and started bawling.  Told her about the men he talked to in the temple (Brother Stoddard, the man who sealed he and Kalina--coincidentally, C's mom nannied for Brother Stoddard's brother when she was in her 20s) who told him about their experiences with re-marriage and how much of a blessing their current wives were.  He touched on Kalina's sexual anorexia.  So, he basically bore all.  He said/thought that maybe he said too much, but he said it felt very right and good to just get it out there.  He asked if C had anymore questions, and she didn't.  She said, "Wow, that must have been so hard."
• And then she started talking about her struggles.  She said it's been so difficult for her to not be married yet.  All she's ever wanted is to be a mom and to have a family and that it's never been important to her to have a career, even though that's what has come easily to her.  She said she's dated a few guys seriously, but the Spirit never guided her to marry either of them.  She's been proposed to twice by the same guy.  She helped teach him the gospel, and she said he mistook the feelings of the gospel for love for her.  She said that when she was younger she was really angry about it, but now she's just trying to follow the Spirit and that the Spirit led her to grad school.  She never planned on going to grad school, but that's where she's been led.  She made it very clear to Mike several times that career wasn't important to her. She said that she could end the internship whenever she wanted. 
• They swapped mission stories.
• She told Mike at some point that she thought he was a great guy, that it's clear he honors the priesthood, and that she'd really like to get to know him better.  Mike then said that he thinks she's amazing, that it's clear she honors the priesthood, and that he wants to continue to get to know her.
• She (half-jokingly) asked Mike what in the world Jake was thinking when he introduced them so soon after the divorce.  It's a good thing that she and Jake have a good rapport, he can get away with being bold. :)  So Mike told her everything about that as well... how the first time he saw her was at the YSA dance when he was still married.  He saw her signing with Emma Hardy; she was so animated and happy and he thought, "Wow, I wish my wife was that happy."  And about how Kalina had been moved out for a long time before the divorce finalized.  He told C how awesome Jake and I were throughout the divorce, and how we'd talked about her before the divorce was final to give him some hope.  Something like that.
• They talked about kids.  He asked if she'd want to wait for a while after she got married to have kids.  She said probably not, that she'd like to start her family soon after.
• As he was getting ready to leave, he asked when she was coming to Kalamazoo next.  She said the weekend of March 19th, for her friend Serena's wedding reception.  (Serena is coincidentally Shane's--Emily's love interest's--sister.)  Mike said, "Oh, and that's when your friend from Colorado is coming right?"  (On their ice skating date, C told him that a guy from Colorado was going to come visit that weekend because "he'd never been to Michigan before and he wants to see what it's like.")  Cassandra said, slyly, that it looks like he won't be coming to visit anymore, because she's changing his plans.  Mike asked why and she smiled and said it was a story for another day.  It's pretty apparent that this guy was a potential love interest and that she didn't want to have to go to this reception by herself.  Cassandra turns 26 this Saturday and said she's trying to get her sisters to visit her.  Mike probably won't be able to go because of work, but is planning on sending her flowers.

I know I'm totally geeking out about this.  I'm obviously very excited for them! :)  I just feel Heavenly Father's hand in this so much.  To have seen all that Mike went through... and to have known Cassandra for a while and know that she's been wanting to get married so much... this is just wonderful.  I think that they will get married.  C's been texting with him yesterday and today, it's all good stuff.  Woohoo!  I'm going to have an awesome sister-in-law! :)  (I hope.)