Home again, home again...

I was pleasantly surprised to realize that I'm officially thinking of Maryland as 'home' now (although Tucson will always be 'home', too).

It was lovely to be in Arizona--80 degrees, sunny, and the whole world smelled like orange blossoms.

Now it's back to reality, which at the moment includes a jet-lagged, teething, sick little baby and a gigantic pile of dishes, which Jon let accumulate over a couple of days while he worked diligently on an extensive honey-do list.

A preview of posts to come:

*Seth's official 8 month post
*Arizona Vacation post
*Finishing up 'our story' post(s)

Now I'm off to a Young Women's Meeting...

Part 5: The First Date

Friday, April 1, 2005

Eventually Jon got around to informing me about our date plans. It was pretty typical date fare: making dinner at his apartment, then going to a movie. Except it wasn't just going to be us--we were double dating with his sister Elizabeth and then-boyfriend (now husband) Kade.

I have to admit, this made me nervous. Like a first date isn't awkward enough--now I had to impress his sister at the same time?

To be totally honest, the night did end up being a little awkward, at least at first. Everything was great while Jon was there, but at some point he had to run out and grab something he forgot. This left me, Elizabeth and Kade. We sat there and awkwardly asked each other the standard questions for a few minutes, and then sat in silence until Jon got back. Looking back now, I just laugh at myself--I was so nervous about impressing Elizabeth that I didn't have anything to say (and ended up looking stupid). Go figure. I actually brought this up to them last Christmas and they didn't realize it was our first date. I hope that explains a little bit, Kade & Elizabeth!

After our dinner of fajitas, we went to the dollar movie . I wanted to see "Phantom of the Opera", but Elizabeth had already seen it, so we decided on "The Work and the Glory", round 1 instead (I don't know the official name). No offense to fans out there, but Jon & I absolutely hated the movie. Instead, I kept myself entertained by trying to get Jon to hold my hand.

You'd think that a guy who would kiss before the first date would have no problem holding hands on the first date. Not Jon. I'm still not sure if he was nervous, or if he was just so absorbed in whatever he was thinking about (not the movie) that it didn't even cross his mind. I went through elaborate movements to make my hand free, noticible, and accessible, but to no avail. Finally, I just gave up and grabbed his hand. Little did I know that this was just the beginning of my problems with Jon and holding hands...

We survived the movie, but I honestly can't remember what we did afterwords. I'm just glad that my terrible first impression on Jon's family didn't have lasting consequences.

PART SIX

Part 4: First Kiss

March 28, 2005

Monday night I casually called and invited Jon over to watch "The Mask of Zorro" at our apartment. He accepted (along with all the other people we we able to cram into our living room).

I distinctly remember wearing my neon green exercise pants and a black oversize T-shirt featuring a broken heart and the words, "Raging Chester is My Hero" (thanks, Maegs!). Obviously I was going for comfort, not style. Jon wasn't too embarrassed by my outfit to cuddle with me during the movie (or maybe it was too dark to see what I was wearing).

The movie ended just before the magical midnight hour when all visitors of the opposite gender must exit our apartment--how we love BYU and the Honor Code. Eventually the living room was empty except for me and Jon. Being the good boy that he is, Jon noticed the time and started to get up. I was NOT having any of that. I had spent all weekend working up the nerve to talk to him about asking me out and he was NOT going home until I got a date out of him.

I pulled him back down, and the next thing I know he was kissing me. I have never been so surprised in my life. Jon had come across as the 'slow and steady' kind of dater--date for a few weeks, then MAYBE think about a kiss. So this--kissing me before we'd even been on a date--was a complete shocker.

Not knowing what to say, I fell back to my original plan of demanding a date (but I was much nicer about it since he had just kissed me). How romantic, I know... I got him pinned down for a date that Friday with more details to come, and then I let him go home.

Of course, my roommate Sagers (and some friends) had been about 2 feet away in the kitchen during this little incident. As soon as Jon left, she asked if he'd kissed me. I smiled, walked back to my bedroom, and burst into tears. Yep.

I'm not usually very emotional, but this was a big step for me. A little more than a year previous to this, I had broken off an incredibly difficult relationship. Realizing the emotional toll the breakup had taken on me, him, and our families, I promised myself that I wouldn't seriously date another guy for an entire year. I figured that would give me enough time to understand who I was and what I really wanted out of life. My semester at Nauvoo was a huge part of that development, but I honestly couldn't say I was ready to date again until just before I started liking Jon. So in some ways this was a huge relief, and in others it terrified me--did I really want to seriously date someone yet? What if it didn't work out? I spent most of the night calling various friends to discuss the issue (I'm such a girl sometimes).

Jon, on the other hand, went straight to bed without telling anyone (including his roommate and best friend Erick). He told me later that as he was walking to my apartment that night he thought to himself, "I could probably kiss her tonight." How's that for self-confidence? True to his character (as I would soon find out), Jon lost no sleep over the matter. I, on the other hand, didn't sleep for a good week.

PART FIVE

Part 3: The Evolution

March 2005

In mid-March, several things happened that paved the way for a potential relationship:

1--Jon's relationship with girl-in-the-ward sputtered out and died
2--Immense amounts of drama (which I loathe) made me drop all contact with boy-at-another-school
3--Jon & I ended up spending huge chunks of time together, despite making no effort to actually spend time together (if that makes any sense)

It's hard to believe that when a guy & girl spend as much time together as Jon & I did that there really was no crushing going on. At one point I distinctly remember thinking, "Could I ever date Jon Blood?" But I quickly smothered the thought because it was Jon Blood! He was the apartment boyfriend! And I certainly didn't want to interfere with my friend who was crushing on him--no more drama for me, thank you very much.

In re-reading my journal during this time, I have little snippets of the things we did together:
*eating dinner at his apartment
*watching him dance at a ward party and being surprised that he could
*being on his team in Trivial Pursuit--we (plus Chris & Lynda) dominated the game
*passing a deflated balloon back & forth for a week or so (no idea why this was so funny at the time)
*watching March Madness with him & Lynda at Carter's apartment
*taking a personality test with him (we had the exact same results--it just took him a good two hours to take the stupid test)
*playing Frisbee at the park
*going to Guitars Unplugged with him & Jamie

At one point I wrote the following sentence in my journal: "hung out w/Jon Blood for 7 HOURS straight! Funny kid."

Sunday, March 20, 2005 (thank heaven for journals--no way I would remember dates otherwise)

A perfectly normal day. I sat next to Jon during a ward musical fireside (which he slept through). He came over to our apartment that evening to make a card for Lynda, who was sick. If I remember correctly, the card said something about "the sun shining on [her] beautiful Mexican face"...

Since he was over, I dragged him with me to deliver cookies to my friend Christine who had hurt her back at work. I introduced him to her like you would any friend, dropped off the cookies, and headed back to my apartment.

It was on the one-block walk back to the apartment that I developed a crush on Jon Blood. It was the strangest experience--one minute everything was normal, and then suddenly, BAM! I had a crush on him.

Of course, this made things awkward. I have a terrible poker face--if I like a boy, it's pretty obvious. Jon's a smart kid, so it didn't take him long to realize what was going on (not that it was difficult to decipher--I don't think it was possible for me to sit any closer to him during the game of Nertz/Pounce that night).

Suddenly I found myself in that terrible "does he like me?" phase. It seemed pretty obvious that the feeling was mutual--he'd wait for me at church, he'd sit next to me on the couch, etc. One night he finally got up the nerve to put his arm around my shoulders--that was when I knew for sure that he liked me, too.

Unfortunately, that was as far as it went for a week or so. He'd come over, cuddle with me on the couch while everyone sat around chatting, and then go home. One day he asked me what I was doing the next night. When I replied, "Nothing", he said, "Good." I was thrilled--he was finally going to ask me out! I waited, and waited, and waited...but no.

At this point I was getting annoyed. Did he think I was one of those girls who'll snuggle with any boy, just to have someone to snuggle with? Not me. I wanted a commitment (or at least an official date).

After venting to my roommates for a few days, I finally decided that I was going to pin him down--if he wanted to keep cuddling, he'd have to ask me out. We planned a movie night for FHE on Monday just so I could invite Jon over and then force him to ask me out.

(Sorry, no pictures! More to come.)

PART FOUR

Part 2: The Apartment Boyfriend

From that point on, I saw a lot of Jon Blood. A LOT. (And he was referred to as 'Jon Blood', not 'Jon'). His friendship with Lynda soon became a friendship with all 6 of us. It wasn't long before we had ourselves an apartment boyfriend--a guy who everyone in the apartment likes, but no one likes, who is at your apartment all the time fixing your computers, talking to you about boy issues, and eating all your leftovers. That was Jon.

I couldn't have set up the situation better if I'd tried. The first time you meet a guy (if you're single, and especially at BYU), your thoughts eventually stray towards "Could I see myself dating this guy?" If the answer is yes, (and you're like me), then things can be awkward right from the start.

There was no awkwardness with Jon because I wasn't even thinking about whether I could date him. He was chasing another girl in the ward, plus one of my friends had a crush on him (which made him officially untouchable). At the same time, I was crushing on a boy at another school. Our friendship was strictly platonic, and there's no better way to start a relationship than with a solid friendship.

Jon, Lynda & I spent a lot of time just hanging out. Our apartment liked hanging out with their apartment, so we saw a lot of each other. I remember him body-checking me at a ward ice-skating party and then trying to teach me to spin on ice skates. I teased him about his dates with the girl in our ward, and he teased me about the guy in our ward who liked me (I was definitely not interested).

PART THREE

A Little Love Story--Part 1: The Introduction

I realized that I don't have the full story of how Jon & I met, dated, and married written down anywhere. I figured if I'm pestering my friends to tell their stories, I should tell mine, too.

Dec. 2004
I had been living on-campus (Heritage Halls) at BYU with my good friend Val. We LOVED our roommates, but figured it was about time we got off-campus with the rest of the non-freshmen. At first it didn't look like we were going to get out of our contracts, but two girls bought our contracts in December and we were free (thanks, Cori!).

Unfortunately, this didn't leave much time for apartment shopping. Val already had a place, so I was going solo. One night I just sat down in front of Val's laptop and ran through hundreds and hundreds of apartment listings, trying to narrow things down. It was frustrating and completely overwhelming. I was about ready to just give up and head to the Elms when I felt a VERY strong prompting to look at a listing in a complex called The Northwoods. I had never heard of the place and it was on the opposite side of campus from where I was focusing my search, but I clicked on the link anyway. Much to my surprise, the listing was posted by my friend Juliann from Nauvoo.

The next weekend I headed out to check out two apartments: one, the listing by Juliann, and the other an apartment in my friend Dawsha's ward. I checked out Dawsha's first--it had a nice big room, only 4 girls, and it was in a house (so no neighbors above/below/next door). The price was fabulous and I would already know people in the ward through Dawsha. It seemed like a perfect choice, but I decided to check out the other listing, too.

The Northwoods apartments had six girls shoved into tiny rooms. The apartment I looked at was on the top floor (so no one to wake me up by jumping around), but that also meant I had to walk up two flights of stairs every day (and move all my stuff up the stairs). The whole complex was supported by pillars, so it swayed when the wind blew. It was more expensive than the other, and I knew absolutely no one. It seemed like an easy choice, but for some reason I knew I needed to be at the Northwoods. I don't think Dawsha ever forgave me for that...

January 2005
After a nice Christmas break in Arizona, it was back to Provo to meet my new roommates. I was nervous because my roommates were all older than me by at least 3 years, which meant they were either graduated, almost graduated, or working full time. Three of the 5 were returned missionaries. It didn't take long for me to realize that they were so much fun. I especially loved my roommate, Lynda, who became one of my best friends. I figured that was why I felt prompted to move there--to meet these girls, especially the RMs (I was convinced I was going on a mission).

One night, soon after I moved in, I was alone in the apartment unpacking my stuff. There was a knock at the door and I answered it to find a guy from the ward there, looking for Lynda. I told him she wasn't home and expected him to leave, but he just stood there. Not knowing what else to do, I invited him in.

He introduced himself as Jon Blood (I thought it was 'John' for a long time). I distinctly remember making a stupid joke about how he should have been a doctor--Dr. Blood--that still makes me embarrassed today. Like he's never heard that one before... We'd met before, but it was in a big group and I didn't remember him. We ran through the perfunctory questions about ourselves--where are you from, what are you studying, etc. I found out he was from the same small town in West Virginia as another guy I'd dated (go figure). I remember being slightly annoyed that he wasn't leaving--I had unpacking to do, dang it! After an hour of chatting, he left and I called my mom to tell her about this weird guy who just showed up at my door and wouldn't leave.

PART TWO

Guess what we woke up to this morning?

Well, first there was this cute little thing who needed to be fed at 3:30 am and then decided 6:18 am was a perfectly cromulent time to wake up for the day......and then there was this:

Our first decent snowfall of the season (which is still coming down, 2 hours later). And yes, that is Jon outside scraping the car because APG didn't close down like I wanted them to. Stupid uncooperative government.

And finally, a question. This is our 7.5 month old baby, who spends 80% of his life BORED OUT OF HIS MIND!
He won't crawl. He won't roll over. He won't even get on all fours. How am I supposed to keep this kid entertained? Notice the plethora of "toys" around him, including two onesies and a pie tin (as of this moment he also has a serving spoon, a newspaper, and a bag of egg noodles)? I'm running out of baby-safe kitchen equipment.

Suggestions, anyone?

Surviving

January and February have both been those kinds of months that are filled to the brim. In retrospect, they weren't nearly as bad as I thought they'd be, but I'm still impressed I survived. And that, my friends, is why there has been no blogging lately.

Other things that didn't get done:
*Mailing Kenna & Beth's birthday gifts
*Cleaning the bathrooms
*Mopping the floor
*Emailing/calling people who I really should email/call (Adrian and Mindy, to be specific)

Things that did get done:
*Planting (and hoping not to kill) a pot of chives
*Updating my scrapbook to April 2005 (that's right--Jon and I are officially dating in Scrapbook Years)
*Organizing/beginning our 3 month storage
*Organizing Seth's clothes (thanks Sheri & Lenae!)

I now present our Valentine's Day/Week in a short photo essay:
Our V-Day was very mellow--we just relaxed after surviving our 7 hours of Girls' Camp fundraiser (babysitting) the night before. For dinner I cooked Crispy Orange Beef Stir-Fry, which has great potential, but needs some minor adjustments.For dessert we had some chocolate-dipped strawberries I made. Some of them were going to be tuxedo strawberries, but I was too lazy to add the bow tie and buttons. Deliciousness.

We didn't give each other gifts for Valentine's (well, Jon let me take a nap, which is ALWAYS wonderful). We did, however, purchase some lovely new things for our home:
That's right--after three plus years of marriage, we finally bought a bed frame. Which means we can finally use the bed skirt we've been toting around for 3 + years of moves...
My parents and grandparents sent us money to go out for Valentine's, so we promptly used it to buy this lamp, which I love and which will last much longer than the delicious meal we could have bought. Thanks!
We also got our painting framed, which really helps the ambiance in the living room (as opposed to before, when I had it push-pinned to the wall. I'd have to say that was detrimental to the ambiance...). Yes, it was ridiculously expensive, despite Michael's alleged 50% off sale. Funny side note--while hanging the painting we discovered that our piano is not level. So do we level the painting to the ceiling or the piano? Decisions...

We officially had our Valentine's date last weekend. Yes, we went to Red Lobster. It's tradition--that's where Jon & I ate right before he proposed. Are we embarrassed to be eating at Red Lobster when we live in the Seafood State? Absolutely. We may have to adjust our tradition, especially since Red Lobster no longer carries its so-rich-it-might-kill-you Lobster Bisque (which is really why we go).

Many thanks to the lovely Marley for watching Seth so we could eat in peace. Luckily he was perfect for her, despite having forfeited his second nap that day.

To finish off our celebrations, we had the Finnigans & Oliveras over for dinner. Apparently we were going for a cultural theme:

General Tso's Chicken for dinner...

...and crepes for dessert. We then played a rousing game of Acquire, which Carlos managed to win handily despite none of us thinking he was even a contender.

And, since I get in trouble if I don't post pictures of our child, here's Seth texting his Grandma. His accomplishment this week is learning to roll over (again) and then promptly forgetting (again).
PS--recipes are on our Recipe Blog

For all you whiners...

(Yes, I'm talking to you, Mom and Adrian). I apologize for not posting Seth pictures on my last post. I promise this post will more than make up for it.

Seth is officially 7 months old now. This stage is so much fun--I would love to just hit 'pause' for a month or two.

Seth's accomplishments this month include:

*amazing sitting up skills--he can sit up unassisted during my entire hour-long exercise class.

*bringing toys/hand/blankets to his mouth (strangely enough he didn't start this until AFTER his teeth came in)

*picking things up using his thumb and fingers (instead of just grabbing at it)

*eating solid food for breakfast AND dinner. This kid cleans out a Stage 2 food container mixed with cereal at almost every dinner. Squash is his absolute favorite food.

*losing some of his seriousness--he even laughed spontaneously at our squeaky windshield wipers

*had his first play dates, one with Angel, one with Eliana

*experiencing a cuteness explosion. I don't really know how to explain this, but all of a sudden people are stopping me in stores to tell me how gorgeous my child is. I think it's the haircut.

*Seth's Word of the Day--he can say 'do', 'da', 'ga', 'goo', 'puh', and some other noises, but he won't babble. He'll say one sound really loudly, then look at you like, "Be impressed! I have spoken!"

*still having NO DESIRE to roll over (either direction), push up on all fours, or pull up on anything. But dang it, he can sit like a pro.

*surviving 30 minutes of enforced tummy time every day.

*taking at least one good nap a day, sometimes 2

*consistently sleeping from 8:30 to 5am, and then going back to sleep until 8am. HALLELUJAH!!!

And now, three videos for your viewing pleasure:

The links are back

Yes, I removed them intentionally. But now they're back, mostly because I can't keep track of everyone using Dashboard--some of your blogs don't let Dashboard update them, so I keep missing important things (like you, Val!).

So they're back. If I missed you, it's because I'm still working on it. I tried to leave off last names, unless I didn't think you'd care. And those of you who wanted to be unlinked are still unlinked (and any of you who would like to be, just leave a comment).

Let me know if I've missed you--I'll put you up ASAP.