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!