Life is Beautiful (Part 7)

The next morning, I woke up to a text from Steven saying he'd miscalculated his travel time and was sitting in the church parking lot. I don't remember exactly what time it was, but I think it was around 8:30. I jumped out of bed and got ready as fast as I could, and I think that day we made it to church early. (Be impressed, I think church started at 9.)

The night before, I'd had this weird dream about a couple people who, last I knew, were in far away places, and they were at church, and then, when I got to church, THEY WERE ACTUALLY THERE. Weirded me out, just a little.

But the unexpected visitors didn't distract me for too long, because Steven came over when he saw the van, and I was the last one out, so he was right there waiting for me. ^_^ We went quickly inside with the rest of my family (we weren't that early), found seats, and listened to prelude. It was first Sunday of the month, so this was a fast and testimony meeting. I don't remember too many things about it. I do remember (1) singing the hymns (my favorite part of any church meeting, usually, and because I love listening to Steven sing) (2) Getting up to bear my testimony and just thinking the entire time of temples and eternal families, how grateful I am for my family and for Steven (3) An enormous feeling of peace and gratitude throughout the entire meeting. This was my day of confirmation, banishing any lingering questions about if I was making the right choice, about if Steven was the one for me (4) getting to introduce Steven to so many people (5) Sister Karchaske coming up afterwards to see if I had a ring yet, because I'd apparently been twisting my ring finger while I was giving my testimony. It's kind of a nervous habit. I also remember her commenting on how alike Steven and I already looked. (You know how couples start to look like each other over the years? Yeah, like that.)


Steven and I stayed for second hour, and I remember a friend asking me how long we'd been together, and I didn't know exactly how long off the top of my head, and I said something like, "Uh, I dunno, two - two and a half weeks?" and Steven leaned over and whispered "Three weeks." Ha, oh. Thanks darling. :3 Time flies when you're having fun!

After the second hour, Steven and I found Mom and Dad and persuaded them to let us leave to go to the branch out at Fort Gordon with Steven's parents. I thought we should ask Dad first, because usually he's the easier one to persuade, but we found Mom first, and then they were there together seconds after we found Mom, and neither one was hard to persuade. As we were walking out to the car I teased Steven a little: "See? They do like you!" =^-^=

I love riding in the car with Steven. Holding hands, singing songs, pondering the things of life, sharing meaningful memories... Yeah. This time they're my memories, to dwell on with immense amounts of happiness. ;) Here's a related video that I won't explain:

We went back to the Farrar house, first, and carpooled with Steven's parents and Kevin to the Fort Gordon branch. I remember it was raining, but it didn't start absolutely down-pouring until the moment I was safely into the car. Everybody else got wet. I guess I'm just a lucky kid!


The branch out at Fort Gordon was smaller than I'd thought it'd be.
I don't know what I had expected, but it was really just a handful of
amazing people. When Steven bore his testimony, I caught a better glimpse of his heart and the depth of his character. So many times I've met people and had a good first impression, but the more I would get to know them, the more I would find that they just didn't have the same understanding that I did, and that they didn't see why some things were so important. Steven gets it, though. He understands. He understands not only those things that are important and the reasons why they're important, but me, too. We don't always have the same opinion on things, but we understand where the other person is coming from. Usually by the end we end up on the same side, anyway. :) I love talking with Steven about anything and everything, and I love that we do talk about anything and everything.

After church, we headed back to the Farrar house and had leftover chicken soup and biscuits. It was as delicious as before. ^-^ Mmmm. I love good food. So yummy! Kevin also commented several times on how delicious the soup was, 'the best he'd ever tasted'. Steven laughed the first couple times, but after so many times he only half-kiddingly growled 'back off dude, she's mine'. HA! (I don't know if it comes across as funny as it was then, but I nearly snorted into my soup. Luckily, I managed to keep most of my composure... I think, I dunno. I have a really terrible poker face. It was most likely blatantly obvious that I was very pleased with myself.)

That night we went to YSA FHE, but I think we were late. I don't remember why. And then I don't think we stayed very long, either. I do remember that afterwards, Steven, Kevin, and I went back to the Farrar house and tuned into the Olympics. For the first little while, I had my head on a pillow in Steven's lap and he was running his fingers through my hair. New favorite activity! :3 Then we swapped places, and I got to run my fingers through Steven's hair. Also new favorite activity! I remember absentmindedly thinking out loud that one of the gymnasts was very pretty, and Steven, being the perfectly adoring Prince Charming that he is, glanced at the TV and then said, "Nah, she's not as pretty as you are." ^-^ hehehe

Eventually Dad came to pick me up, because Steven's car didn't have enough gas to get to Aiken and back after all that driving that day. I was still stroking Steven's hair when the doorbell rang, and his hair was completely messed up when he answered the door. Dad smiled knowingly. It's a good thing I would never want to hide anything from Dad, because I'm convinced I could never pull it off. He's too perceptive. :) I remember talking about serious relationships on the way home, and just saying that, unless some enormous divine sign came out of the sky and told me otherwise, I was done looking for my eternal companion. I think I might've sprung it on my parents a little fast, but they handled it all very well. I love you Mom and Dad!!

Life is Beautiful (Part 6)

The next day was Friday again! Woohoo, time flies fast! This particular Friday was August 3rd. I had been looking forward to this Friday for a *long* time because on this particular Friday my red-headed friend Elizabeth was going to be coming for a whirlwind visit and slumber-not party. It really was quite a whirlwind. When she arrived, we immediately left again to go dress shopping (because Steven had invited me to go on the temple trip the next day, I'm maybe a little bit selfish, and Elizabeth is a good sport) and we found a cute, suitable dress right before the store closed. Afterwards we went to Red Bowl, because it's delicious and open late. :) We caught up, I was a little distracted the whole time, thinking of Steven, but we had a good time. When we got home, we watched Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. We fell asleep at our slumber-not party (because we're not as young as we used to be ;) haha) and woke up relatively early. Elizabeth had to be back down to Savannah ASAP and I was off to the temple.

"I love to see the temple, I'm going there someday."

I got there late... to nobody's surprise, really.... but I don't think it was too late. I still got to participate in the baptisms. Before we went into the water, I warned Steven that I have terrible balance and that I'm always asked if I'm okay, but that I'm always okay, just off balance, and that he didn't have to ask. Sure enough, however, after the first few names Steven stopped and asked me if I was okay. Yep. Just totally have no technique here... later he'd finally give me a few tips that would help a lot. People always tell you to "just sit down" but when I sit down I sit back. Steven figured that out and let me know that what those people really mean is to just bend your knees and go straight down. Oh... well, that makes sense. :3 hehe

Being there with Steven, both of us in white jumpsuits, serving others, felt really, really wonderful. Everything just felt right. Even the cool room temperature, because it meant that Steven would take it upon himself to warm up my hands. He did. (Mmmmm.)

Because I'd been late getting in for the baptisms, I was late getting out of the dressing rooms, too. Steven was there waiting for me, the rest of the party had left. Mom had given me the Riverbanks Zoo pass that morning, and I suggested it to Steven, since it would be a shame to have to part ways so quickly. ;) Steven was game, and so without too much time taking off jackets and ties or whatever we were off. I had forgotten my driver's license that morning (or so I'd thought, I'd been looking for it all over, which was part of the reason why I was late. I'd eventually decided to just go without it) so Steven was driving. Lots of holding hands, singing with the radio, some dancing in the car, and, of course, we got lost a bit. It's a gift of mine. Thankfully, we didn't get too turned around because Steven has a very handy Navigation app on his phone.

Parking at the zoo was crazy, thank goodness the Prius is relatively small. Walking from our parking spot to the zoo entrance, Steven offered to buy me flip flops so I didn't have to wear my high heels. I declined, I like wearing high heels. But I kind of forgot I hadn't really broken this particular pair in, yet... I would've been smart to take up Steven's offer. But I still didn't, throughout the whole day.... I'm sort of stubborn that way.

Nina heels, man. They're cute.

We walked around and looked at all sorts of animals. We even went into the fish and reptile house, even though Steven really doesn't like being next to large tanks of water that are taller than a person. He's such a good sport. :3 I really do like aquariums. I don't think we ever managed to find the tigers, though. But we did talk about families and kids while we walked around. I remember asking, "When you picture your future family, how many kids to you see?" Steven responded, "Well, I know this girl, who's pretty perfect, and she comes from a family of eight. And both of her parents, too. I think eight's probably a pretty good number." I agree, eight is a pretty fantastic number. (Later we joked about rounding it off nicely to an even ten or maybe even a dozen.)

This, obviously, was not the aquarium to which we went. But I'd love to go to this one (Atlanta, GA) someday.

Towards the end of our zoo adventures, Steven and I took the train to the botanical gardens and walked around there for some time. Everything was so beautiful. My feet were starting to complain, but I kept ignoring them. Steven sang a little bit of Jason Mraz and Colbie Caillat's "Lucky." Ahhh!!! <3 <3 <3 (I only the tune to the chorus... definitely going to have to learn the other half! :3)

I'd forgotten my camera in the car, so there are no pictures of this day. Guess we'll have to go back to the zoo with a camera sometime.... ;)

By the time we got to the car, my feet were almost screaming at me. It did hurt, but I didn't think it was a big deal, because this happens kind of a lot to me (Dad says I'm a glutton for punishment... I just think the shoes were cute... ) but I felt bad that it made Steven feel so bad. I insisted it wasn't his fault, and this was the consequence to my action, and thanked him for not obstinately insisting on buying me alternative footwear. (We did see crocs at the zoo, but no flips flops. Friends do not let friends wear crocs. At least not with a dress. Ew...)

We stopped at the grocery store on the way back to the Farrar house and picked up some stuff for chicken soup. I had so much fun making the chicken soup with Steven! It turned out really well, probably because it was made - of course - with lots of love. ;) His mom never could catch it on camera, we were too sneaky. Hehe, neener neener? She did make some very yummy biscuits to go with the soup, though.

After dinner we didn't have any plans, and we ended up going on a double date with Steven's parents to Walmart. I borrowed some clothes from Steven's mom so I didn't have to wear my dress, and I borrowed somebody's flip-flops.... I think they were Jody's, too. Steven and I played a game that involved tossing a ball back and forth while naming movies and TV shows while his parents were running their errands, and when we got back to the house we continued our game out on the back porch. Steven lit the tiki torches and we sat together on the bench swing... Mmmm... the only downside was that my legs were completely eaten up by mosquitos by the time we got around to going back inside. Oops.

When we did go inside, Steven pulled out some of his old art doodles and songs he'd written to share them with me. It was really cool to really see Steven opening up, all our barriers (on both sides) were just disappearing. Steven also shared with me Vocal Point's Nearer My God to Thee, which is now my favorite arrangement of this hymn. It's so beautiful. For a long time afterwards, more specifically after I'd gone back to BYU, I would play this video when I felt lonely and think of this incredible, wonderful day that I got to spend entirely with Steven. :)

To wrap this post up: I stayed really late, and eventually Steven simply carried me out to the car, apologizing profusely for keeping me so late and very obviously worried about my safety while I drove home. I was really sleepy, but I made it home okay, thanks to some watchful guardian angels, I'm sure. I was out before I collapsed on the couch.

To be continued! ;)

Life is Beautiful (Part 5)

The next day was Tuesday, July 31st. Got up for work and spent all day physically present there, but my mind spent most of the time far, far away. That morning I caught a ride in with Paul Smith and was talking about Steven, and I mentioned that Steven had a ukelele, and Paul Smith told me to send Steven a text that said "You me Wednesday combined activity ;) bring ukelele. Pretty pretty please and thank you <3" (I added the last bit.) Steven was more than happy to come. :)

I've been pretty slack in my journal-writing, but at work I made a habit of writing down thoughts and reminders and general stuff on sticky notes. I also had the little pocket sketchbook I'd gotten in my stocking for notes that I knew I'd want to keep for a long time. On this particular day, there is a little note that says, "I think I'm going to marry Steven Estep." (Later I showed the note Steven. He approved. :D haha) The only other note for that day was "Happy Birthday Harry Potter." Hehe, because I'm a nerd like that. :)

At Institute that night I had to explain my text to Steven, and he was still willing to come. :) Hurrah! And, I finally remembered to bring his grill back. I really love going to Institute with Steven. It was always a time when I got to see his strength in the gospel.

Wednesday was much the same as Tuesday. Got up, went to work, thought about Steven, eventually got off work, came home, and freshened up to go see Steven. :) Except Steven was coming to Aiken, instead of me going to North Augusta or Augusta. He got a little turned around in downtown, and after I'd dropped of Kylie, Chet, and Savannah at the church I went to go find him. He found his way out before I found him, so I met up with him next to the Little Caesar's we'd stopped at before the Big Mo. I felt so happy to see Steven! And the first thing he said when he saw me was something in Spanish, which he immediately repeated in English: "You are more and more beautiful every day." Ah, I love him!!


We made our way to the church, went inside, and found the YM/YW without any trouble. Introduced Paul and Steven, and joined in the games. We started off playing a game called Headbands. It is what it sounds like: you put a card in a headband without looking at it, and then you have to ask Yes/No kinds of questions until you guess the card on your forehead. I like these kinds of games. :) Next we switched to a table playing Boggle. Also a fun game. Turns out, though, that while I do enjoy playing these games, I kind of stink at them. Hehe. And while we were playing Boggle I grabbed a chocolate cupcake, with the intent to 'accidentally' smear some frosting on my lip to see if I could convince Steven to kiss it off. Yeah, I didn't get any frosting on my lip. I just scooped the frosting off the cupcake onto my finger and sucked it off. Didn't work at all. Steven just kind of looked at me oddly and said "Oooookay??" Oops. hehe :3

After mutual was over, I went to drive the Esselmans home, and we got caught up in the line for Chick-fil-A's defense of marriage day. The line took forever, but we stuck around and got some sandwiches and shakes, and after running the Esselmans home I didn't take Chet and Savannah all the way home, because I'd left Steven with Paul Smith to get some ukelele instruction. So I hurried back, Paul left, and Chet practiced driving the Prius in the parking lot, Savannah riding in the passenger seat, leaving Steven and I sitting and enjoying our sandwiches on the steps. We shared the strawberry shake (it's both our preferred flavor, as it turns out) and watched Chet driving in circles. We had to help him a few times... "Hey Elise! Which one's the brake??" Heh, fun times.

Once our sandwiches were finished, it was really late. We'd mentioned that Kylie's birthday tomorrow, but Steven had planned to be spending time with Kevin on Thursday, so I wouldn't see him until at least Saturday, but probably Sunday. (Saturday there was a group going to the temple to do baptisms that Steven would be joining, and he invited me to come along, but I had a friend coming up from Savannah on Friday and I wasn't sure I'd make it in time.) So, for the first time in almost a whole week, I wouldn't see Steven. It was a really weird feeling, because I'd grown so attached. Time had sort of warped... we'd only known each other for a couple weeks but I felt I'd known him much, much, much longer than that.

So, Thursday I carpooled with Paul Smith to work again, and on the way he mentioned something about marrying a doctor, and I didn't think about it, I just responded that I didn't think Steven wanted to be a doctor. Paul just laughed and told me that Steven had been pretty straight-forward about it, too. I felt all warm and fluttery inside. It's a good feeling. An even better feeling was when Steven started texting me at the end of the day, and he was going to be coming to Kylie's birthday dinner after all. YAY!! Hehe :3 So when I got home, Kylie and I went grocery shopping to pick up ingredients, rushed home, I hopped into the shower, and when I got out, Steven was there. He was talking with the family and helping to get dinner started. I hugged him from behind to get his attention. :) So happy! And, he'd brought me the most gorgeous bouquet of flowers; it had the colors of a vibrant sunset. Awwww!!

So, Steven helped cook the hamburgers while I cooked up the bacon and beans. We got everything together, everyone gathered around the table, and we had dinner. Everything was delicious!

After dinner Grandma and Grandpa Taylor stopped by for birthday cake. Grandpa talked to Steven while I helped the others finish clearing away dinner, and afterwards I came over and slid myself under Steven's arm with both of my arms around him. Grandpa looked at us for a minute and noted that we looked pretty serious, and after another pause he added that he was excited for us. Steven and I agreed that we were both pretty excited, too. ^-^ By this point we had become an official item, updated it on Facebook and everything. I don't remember when exactly that happened, but it did... :)

After Grandma and Grandpa had gone and the dessert and dishes were cleared away, Steven and I stepped outside for a minute. Steven mentioned that his dad had told him not to mess this up, and I just had to laugh a little bit, because if Steven was the person that I understood him to be, there wasn't anything he'd do that could mess it up. We also talked about schools, and grades, and future goals... eventually I temporarily banished Steven so that he could leave. We're pretty goofy that way. :3

To be continued :)

Life is Beautiful (Part 4)

I'm really bad at getting up the first time my alarm clock goes off. Exceptions to this flaw are on days when I can barely wait to get up and go, like the first day of school or Christmas day (when I was younger, anyway). This bad habit is especially bad when I've stayed up late the night before.

(I sometimes feel like this, minus the coffee. I'm pretty sure I usually look better, though.)

I was definitely out late Friday night. Technically speaking, I didn't get back until Saturday morning. It was completely worth it! But it meant that it wasn't a huge surprise when I woke up late. I did sort of panic a little, because I really do prefer being on time. AND I was going to be picking up Samantha and maybe Lucy to go to the YSA activity. Oops. Ran around the house quickly trying to grab anything I thought I might need, and I threw a lot of clothes around trying to quickly find something really cute but casual. Eventually flew out the door as I was texting my apologies to Sam and Lucy for my delay. But, as luck would have it, Sam woke up late, too, and Lucy ended up not being able to come, so it all sort of fell together anyway. :) We even stopped at the store to pick up some drinks for the pool party. I mean, we were already late, why worry about being a little bit later? 

On the way over, Sam was good enough to listen to me gush and gush about Steven... the way he makes me laugh; the way he makes my heart flutter; how much fun we have just doing little things, like finding shapes in the clouds; how incredibly good he smells all the time; the courageous way he tried to make up a song on the spot on the ukelele he was just learning how to play; his endlessly deep eyes that sometimes make me forget to breathe; his strong and gentle hands, holding onto mine; and above all else that even though I had shown some of my quirkier sides, he still seemed to like me. That was perhaps the strangest part of it all. He must've thought it was cute or something, huh? At some later point Sam pointed out to me how happy and giddy I was every time I got whenever I was around Steven, or even just thinking about Steven. (It's so true, too.)

When Sam and I got there, we found the small handful of YSA people in the Family History Center working on indexing, and we pulled out our stuff, got everything set up, and joined in. I took a few minutes to upload the picture of Steven and I from the Big Mo and make it my Facebook profile picture. Sam laughed at me. Steven wasn't there, and I was a little bummed. But he had been up really late two nights in a row, and I figured he'd probably slept in later than he'd intended, too. He texted me shortly before the group was to finish indexing and head over to a pool at a member's home, and I was very happy that he was still coming. Sam threw a knowing smile my way, 'cause I was unabashedly grinning from ear to ear. :D

The indexing was really exciting, too. I gotta put a plug in for indexing. It's such an important work, and it's so readily accessible! And it's fun to work on with a buddy, and really exciting when you find someone you've been searching for. One of the girls in our indexing group found one of her relatives, and ended up calling her grandmother and finding out a whole lot more family history than she'd probably thought she would by just going to a YSA indexing activity. What an awesome blessing!

Right, now back to Steven. :3 ('Cause he's my favorite!)

So, got to the pool, changed into my swimsuit, felt a little insecure... This was the first time Steven would see me in a swimsuit, and my legs were sort of fuzzy. Not exactly an ideal situation. I'd thought I'd grabbed the gear to fix that, but I had accidentally left it on the bed in the hurry to get out the door... Ohwell. I don't think he noticed at all. Not even when we had a chicken fight, and he was holding my legs while I was on his shoulders. (We won the chicken fight, by the way. The other team could barely even get up.) Maybe Chet's right. Chet's always telling me I'm just paranoid about it.  

Anyways, when Steven got there, I wasn't sure where exactly we stood, since we had kissed, but it was all so fast. I didn't want to just watch creepishly as he took of his shirt and got into the pool, so I tried to look busy until he was in the water. (Alright, so I did watch out of the corner of my eye just a little bit, he's just so handsome. Mm-mmm. :3 hehe) Once he was in the pool and we'd said our hellos or whatever, we started throwing balls, trying to dive through intertubes, or make the biggest splash, and he even tried to dunk me a few times. I think I defended myself rather well, because I got him under the water a few times, too. :) He also ferried me around the pool for awhile, which I enjoyed quite a lot. I remember we talked about what we would do if we had a million dollars (after paying tithing first, of course), and zoos, and what kinds of things we thought would be cool in a house, and I remember I said something (I don't remember exactly what it was) to which Steven responded "This is why I love you", and my eyes probably got really wide. That was fast. But without thinking I heard myself saying back "Awww, I love you too" really quietly. I wondered if he'd heard me, but I didn't repeat myself. I just enjoyed floating around the pool in his arms. Until Audrey and the others started throwing pool toys at us, that is. Vanessa threw one of the water balls and it happened to hit Steven's ear just right, and later that night he'd find out his eardrum had been punctured. OUCH. 

Eventually the pool party was over, so I kissed him goodbye, headed home and worked on this, that, or the other to get ready for Sunday. I didn't want to That Sunday (July 29th... which means I must have misspoken in my earlier post when I said I met Steven on July 15th, because there wouldn't have been enough time... I must've met him July 8th... funny how the time is sort of warped. I feel like I've known Steven forever, and that our time together over the summer was both an eternity and an instant... which is part of why it's so hard to remember exactly the timing of things...) I don't think was the Sunday Steven came to the Aiken ward. No, it wasn't, I'm sure. I did see him that Sunday at YSA FHE, though. That was the FHE when we sang all seven verses of A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief a cappella, and I got to hear Steven really sing for the first time. So. Beautiful. Because we were singing a cappella and I wasn't very familiar with this tune, I had tried to find a harmony part more within my range for the higher parts of the song, but rather unsuccessfully. But when Steven got there and joined in, he sang a harmony part that changed sometimes, verse-to-verse, and I think he might've just made up off the top of his head. I followed as best I could and sang his harmony, and was very thoroughly impressed. I remember thinking how incredibly lucky I was (and I still think that!).

Not sure about our conversations... Steven had brought his ukelele to that FHE, I think, and was playing along with Kevin, who was on another ukelele. It was very pretty. I spent most of the evening talking with Brother Criswell and getting to know him better. Sometime, though, I was invited to go with Steven to the FHE out at Fort Gordon. Maybe it was when we were talking about the grill, because I kept forgetting to bring it and it was still sitting in our driveway.

Steven and Ladybug

The next day I got home from work and texted Steven. The plan was that my whole family might come, but we decided that I would just go. I asked Steven if I needed to bring anything besides the grill (I didn't) and then I forgot the grill. Again. But I found Steven's house for the first time without any trouble. (Not like when I had tried to draw a map to my house... turns out, I'm a terrible cartographer.) I sat in the driveway for a minute, pausing to just breathe and think. I was really, really nervous about meeting Steven's mom, Jody. What if she didn't like me? There are a lot of stories based on conflict with the mother-in-law, and I really, really, really wanted to make a good first impression. So, of course, she was the one who opened the door, with a bright "You must be Elise!" and me standing there witless but trying to be friendly and sociable. (My mind always kind of blanks when I'm under duress, and I can't remember what happened afterwards. This happens every time I have to speak in front of a large group of people or even just a single person I'm nervous about because I really want to please them.) I must've done okay because she invited me inside without any delay, where Steven and I settled on a couch across from another couch where his parents sat. It sort of felt a bit like an interview. I don't know why, Steven's parents were very welcoming. I was just really glad Steven was there with his arm around me. (Although, part of the reason I felt a little funny was probably because I recognized the rooms from pictures I'd seen from waaaay back at the beginning of Steven's timeline.) Ladybug and Edgar approved me quickly, though. :) I don't think the cats cared one way or the other, especially Reese. (Reese is my favorite, because Reese embodies the quintessential cat: cute and fluffy with a serious attitude. It makes me laugh. :D )We talked about a lot of different things, I'm pretty sure, but the only one I really remember is camping. I like camping, and Steven likes camping. Jody isn't so crazy about camping. That was the gist of it. 

(This was the room where we sat and that I recognized, just past the piano. Reese is the one on the piano.)

Eventually we headed off to Fort Gordon, with Steven and I cozy in the back (Mm-mmm!). At the gate I had to show my Driver's License... I have quite a ferocious picture, so mine earned some laughs. (it really is quite a photo... remind me not to show you later) I wonder when I get to change that... haha, not that the next one will be a whole lot better. It's just sort of a rule that Driver's License pictures are terrible. :) Before I was anywhere near ready to get out of the car, we got to FHE. 

I don't really remember the lesson, I think it was just a short message taught by Micah, but I do remember that afterwards we played Scattergories. (Scattergories is one of my favorites, right up there with Catch Phrase and Bananagrams.) Jody and I had a lot of the same answers, but Steven and I (we were a team) came up with a couple more and managed to score fairly well. :) FHE ended sooner than I thought it would, too. The more precious the time is, the more quickly it will pass. 

After FHE Steven's parents took us out to eat. I'm naturally a very indecisive person, and I wasn't really hungry, so Steven let me share his order. He has good taste, with the only exception being that he likes spicy foods, and I haven't grown fond of them yet. Thankfully, Steven didn't order anything really spicy and it was all very tasty. :) The drive back felt even shorter than the drive there. I remember leaning against Steven's chest and listening to his heartbeat... and then we were back at the Farrar house. Bummer. 

Once we were back at the house, Steven's parents went inside and we were going to go inside, too, but Steven and I talked for a while outside, standing by the car. We talked about some very personal things, and I was amazed and deeply moved by Steven's openness and frankness, and by how deep his devotion to me was after such a short time span. I had only just started praying about how far I should let this go, and it was quickly sinking in how far this would go if I let it, and while I did feel a little unsure because I wanted this to be right so badly I didn't know if I'd given enough time listening to know if it was really okay, but I felt a great amount of gratitude, and a desire to be just as open about whichever way I would decide in the end. (Obviously it turns out well, otherwise I wouldn't be writing all this down! Never fear, good readers! haha :3)

We eventually said our goodbyes, I stepped inside just briefly because I'd said I would, and then I slowly made it back to the car, we said even more goodbyes, and I drove home with a lot of things to ponder over. 

To be continued!