The First Date

We last left our story when Nathan had first gotten my number...

*swirly dream clouds appear, within the haze you see me standing in the distance holding my phone*

"Oh, why yes I would love to go on a date with you!...friday night?. ..  yeah that sounds great.. . . see ya then . . . "

Friday Night

party night

The time is 7:00, one half of an hour before handsome man will be to pick me up. I frantically run through my apartment screaming at my roommates, hands flailing in the air.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!! He's coming!!! He's coming!!!!

I experience a variety of similar symptoms that occurred when I first met this man.

Sweaty palms, dry mouth, dizzy head, weak knees, butterflies within stomach.

I am a mess.

But a good looking one. 

I just spent three hours on my hair after all. Duh. 

I pace the kitchen over and over again, complaining about how I will probably vomit out of nervousness.

*knock knock*

Heart stops.

I reach for door knob, my hands shaking. Am I even physically capable of opening the door knob at this point? Hands. stop. shaking.

ok! ha, got it! *opens door*

*faints* . . . . jk.

Handsome man and I walk out to big old pick up truck, we then zoom down the street to Applebee's where we share in pleasant conversation and good food. Somehow I have managed not to throw up yet, my nervous symptoms seem to have died down enough where I am able to form full sentences. 

After dinner we roll on down to play pool at the local bowling alley. I beat him. 

Thus far it has been a good date, however I had not yet been overly impressed, but rather just floating on air because he was so darn cute. 

THEN.

We go and purchase a tub of ice cream and drive out to a farm on the east side of down. We roll down a dirt farm road and back the truck up to face the city lights. We pull the tailgate down and sit side by side, nestling closer to each other due to the combined cold-ness of the ice cream along with the 50 degree june evening weather. Nathan goes into the back of his truck and pulls out a big quilt and wraps it around the both of us.

*butterflies erupt in stomach* ahhhhhhh we are sitting so close to each other!!! this is practically cuddling!!! I think to myself.

As we eat our ice cream, shiver, snuggle and crack jokes with each other I suddenly realize that I am quite at ease with this boy. I enjoy his company. He is making me laugh, and what else is that he enjoy the same types of things that I do. He is simple, a little shy, but also sweet.

Midnight rolls around and right before our carriage is about to turn into a pumpkin he drops me off at home.

I nestle under my covers that night with a smile. 

Thinking silently to myself that, that was simply the best first date I have ever been on. Praying that he will ask me out again.

Actual excerpt from my journal:

6/15/12

. . . I didn't want the night to end! Oh man he is sooo cute. It is killing me. Like honestly. I hope he asks me out again. I really, really want him to. Nathan Hartshorn please ask me out again. I think you're a cutie. . . 

Something tells me that I'm into something gooood. Woot woot.

It all began with a dance.

It all began with a dance.

It was wednesday night, country dancin' night. I was trying to think of every excuse in the world not to go but for whatever reason my friend Ashley drug me out anyway. I was leanin' up against the wall, the steel guitar and the sounds of stomping boot heels in the background, and out of the corner of my eye I spotted something.

Something 6'3", blond, scruffy and handsome. Boots, jeans and t-shirt.

Hmmm he's handsome I thought to myself.

The man inches closer to me and out of the corner of his mouth with a country drawl says So do you know how to Cowboy Cha-cha?

My stomach dropped, hands started getting sweaty, light headedness. Either I'm about to pass out or I think this guy's cute.

I manage to squeak out a response.

And so for the next 45 minutes we proceed to chat and to dance, and to dance some more.

wowireallylikehim, heissupercute and other such things are racing through my brain.

And so I left.

yes. I left.

what the heck is wrong with me?! I know.

But after about an hour I said to this handsome man, "Well, it was nice talking with you, but I will let you dance with some other girls now!!" and I walked away.

I mean what the FREAKING HECK. 

Why did I do that?!

So for the rest of the dance I kept this guy in the corner of my eye, praying that he would look past my stupidity and hopefully not take me leaving him as a sign of disinterest and hopefully *cross fingers* ask me to dance again.

But he didn't! And after the dance I moped all the way home, and when I walked into the apartment I fell face down onto the carpet of our living room and pouted and cried some more about how the cutest boy in the world talked to me at the dance and how I would probably never see him again. I was devastated. Never had something so tragic ever occurred. I was heartbroken. The end of the world surely was near after this terrible event.

I slumped down the hall to my room and got on my best pair of cut off sweats, a holey t-shirt, put on my glasses and washed my makeup off. As I am doing this I hear voices out in the kitchen. I realize it must be my roommate and her date who also happened to go country dancing and I figured I better go out there and talk with them and see how the date went.

So with a sullen face I walk into my kitchen.

I talk to my roommate and her date and then slowly my head turns to the kitchen table and what do I see sitting there but the handsome man from the dance!!!!!!!!

Completely disregarding the fact that I currently looked homeless in my holey t-shirt I pull my glasses closer to my face, walk right up to the man sitting at my table, poke his chest with my pointer finger and in disbelief say "Nate?!?!? Is that you!?! How did you get to my house?!?!?"

It was as if he was a long lost friend. Or cute puppy.

I come to find out that he had seen me talking to my roommate at the dance, and also miraculously happened to be friends with the guy she was on a date with, so he oh-so-slyly tagged along with them after the dance to the apartment on the off chance that he might get to see me again.

This would be a good moment to tell you that he asked for my number and we fell in love from there.

But he didn't.

In fact we sat there at the kitchen table for a good hour and half and he said hardly 3 words.

He left the apartment disappointing me again.

What a poopface.

Is he interested or not?! I thought. 

It wasn't until three days later and after he somehow found out through Emi that I thought he was a hunk of burning love that he finally asked for my number.

And then asked me out on our first date three days after that!

(coming up. . . . The First Date)

This Kind of Love

 

is what I dreamed about. 

 

Guess what.

We're engaged!!!!

story to come

Amen

"The crowning characteristic of love is always loyalty."

- Jeffrey R. Holland

The Weekend

This boy has no clue how to take proper pictures.

But you know what, I think I'll keep him anyway.

What a lovely weekend full of General Conferencing, Del Taco, BYU football, friends and family. Oh and also the Cheesecake Factory and a mission reunion.

I am so grateful for the time of my life that I am in right now. I am happy, healthy, and while I may not always been on my A-game, things are going pretty darn well I would have to say. 

December

"Attend the temple. You will be blessed for so doing. Every man or woman who goes into the house of the Lord leaves there a better man or woman than he or she was when he or she entered the house of the Lord. The house of the Lord will have a refining effect upon you. It will cultivate unselfishness within your lives. It will build righteousness. It will impress upon you the importance of doing what you ought to do. Go to the house of the Lord."

- Gordon B. Hinckley