Tuesday, July 12, 2011

{ DATE #10: Graydon Anderson }


I carefully selected a shirt in my closet to match a new pair of baby blue earrings that I had just received from Ryan Amelia Design. They were adorable and I really felt like wearing them. You can imagine my delight when I opened the door and found that my date, Graydon, was wearing a very similarly colored polo. Wow, two dates in a row that were connecting with my brainwave across the miles!

Once in the car and on our way to lunch, we truly did jump right on the same brainwave. Graydon is a man that believes in the Gospel, comes from a solid family, graduated from BYU and loves BYU sports, and is in accounting. I actually really love crunching numbers, analyzing them, etc. I realize he’s using much higher level competencies than that, but I could appreciate and admire what he did for work. I was impressed when I learned that Graydon had just become aware of The Mormon Bachelorette a week prior to our date. How remarkable to be willing to take a leap of faith and commit to coming out from Palo Alto to take me out, without really having the time to ponder the prospect and all its implications.

We ate lunch at Sweet Cakes, a locally owned cafĂ© and sweets shop in downtown Mesa. I love one and only restaurants like Sweet Cakes. They just have a charm to them. They had lots of great salads and sandwiches to choose from – it was actually hard to pick just one! But I settled on a stuffed tomato salad and felt good knowing that I had made my choice and would love my choice (just as President Monson had advised us to do in dating in his talk at April 2011 General Conference). We were both impressed by a table that was waiting for us, with a bottle of chilled Martinelli’s Sparkling Apple Juice and a rose in a vase. It was such a nice touch! The most concerted effort I’d seen by one of the restaurants I’d gone to up to this point.

Over lunch, Graydon and I easily moved from one topic to another, getting to know about each other. From what I can tell, Graydon is a go with the flow kind of guy. He’s certainly driven in what he wants in life, but he can also roll with it.

Our next stop was his brother’s house in Mesa, to make some rice krispies to then take to an assisted living home. Once more I was in the kitchen working with my date to create a masterpiece. Graydon and I laughed as we tried to find everything we needed (always hard to be in someone else’s kitchen). Eventually we pulled off some great treats, if I do say so myself! Treats that were definitely worthy to share.

Though it was a warm afternoon, Graydon wanted to ride bikes over to the assisted living home. I was totally on board, but I’m the one that’s used to the heat. I give Graydon mad props for being willing to handle the temperature. It turned out to be a really wonderful ride – it made me wish that I had a bike!

Once at the assisted living home we were able to meet with Marie. She was such a sweetheart and was very appreciative of the rice krispies. She enthusiastically told us about her family, but it was actually really hard to get her to talk about herself. Anytime that we tried to get her talking, she would turn the tables and ask us about ourselves. It was a good example to me of the importance of continually looking to put others before ourselves; to always find other’s lives more interesting than our own. When we asked for advice on how to make a marriage work, she told us that we had to stay true to the Gospel. It really is as simple as that.

The whole time I was with Graydon I felt uplifted and at ease. He is such a caring and thoughtful person, as evidenced by the activity he chose for our date. I truly enjoyed the afternoon and add it to the list of wonderful experiences I’ve had through The Mormon Bachelorette.

**A big thanks to Jane Johnson for the beautiful earrings from Ryan Amelia Designs!  Mention "BACHELORETTE" at check-out for a 10% discount**

15 comments:

Dave said...

Wow, that visit to the assisted living facility made ME like this guy. That sort of activity can show you a lot about someone.

Bracken and Bracken said...

Yum! Sweet cakes is my favorite :) I like this guy.

country girl said...

This is getting hard to watch now... I almost feel like she is idyling along till she can date matt again... Almost like she isnt into all this dating anymore...burt out maybe..

Andrea said...

I agree with country girl. I'm bored and not sure I'll be able to handle watching 12 more dates.

Andrea said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Melanie and Jarom said...

I don't think these dates were necessarily in this order so maybe it has nothing to do with Matt- maybe she just didn't have chemistry even though he's probably a great guy.

H said...

Loooooooooong writeup!

Harper said...

That guy seemed like a total catch. Wow, Ashley, if you know your stuff, you'll pick the promising accountant. Your kids will never go hungry.

Leo D said...

Graydon seems like a great guy, but while my wife and I watched this date we saw absolutely no chemistry. I know it all begins with friendship and so on, but there needs to be a little spark somewhere. With Matt and Derrick, Ashley talked about them with a twinkle in her eye. While talking about Grayson, it wsa like she was describing her favorite home teacher or bishop.

Leo D said...

Sorry I messed up on your name in my previous post, Graydon.

Kelli said...

The dates aren't in any particular order. Being friends with one of the dates that was already posted, He was date #12 but posted way earlier. So it's hard to say if this was before Matt or not.

Julie Tomoser said...

Graydon seems like a nice guy but I didn't see any sparks.

ECfinder said...

Hmm. Nice gospel analogy tied into your dating write-up. Were you REALLY thinking that on the date? Or are you just trying to do missionary work in the write-up and kill two birds with one stone? ;)

Shayla said...

Graydon is absolutely precious. Even though I can't see if working out in the long run with Ashley, I can see such potential in him. Maybe this isn't how this is supposed to work, but really ... there has to be some ladies out there that are just dying over Graydon's cuteness. Let's hook him up (with some other ladies) if it doesn't work out, don't you think?

One thing I do know, all of these guys so far have just a fantastic job with planning these dates. Way to go guys!

Heather Jones said...

Ummm....blog people, can you write somewhere on the blog how this whole thing works? I love it! Its such a clever idea, but how many second dates, how long does it last?