Love life part 3!

SO! Part 3!

The next part of the equation came of when and how we were going to announce this. Jeremy looked at me in the hammock and said “So. Do we tell people in a few weeks? Or do we tell everyone tomorrow? Or even in a few days??” I looked at him and I said “Well, I do pull epic April Fools jokes (just ask my family and roommates about the prank I pulled the year before!), let’s post it tonight!” 

“Tonight?” He asked and looked at me like I was crazy.

“Yeah… if that’s ok with you!!” 😬 I responded.

So. We posted it on facebook. 

I posted this

And Jeremy posted this: 

The next thing we know, our phones were dinging from notifications.

Hold up. Rewind. Before we posted on FB, I did FaceTime my little brother and told him. He was half asleep, and I had to call twice since it was late at night, and he was half asleep. But he answered. You see, Wendel and I have a VERY special relationship. Before he even asked his now wife to be his girlfriend, he called me to tell me that’s what he was going to do. Then he called to tell me he had a girlfriend, and then he told me before anyone else, that he was getting married. So! Wendel and I have a habit of telling each other the big things before they happen, or before we tell anyone…. including our mother (sorry mom!) I can honestly say that before Jeremy stepped into the picture, Wendel was my BEST friend. Therefore, it was only fitting that he be told before anyone else. Thanks for being a good sport bud!

The next thing we know, Jeremy’s dad comments on his FB post. Apparently, his little brother Jason had seen Jeremy’s relationship status change, saw it, went to the top of the stairs and yelled “JEREMY’S IN A RELATIONSHIP!” 

His mom and dad and sister grabbed their phones. Sure enough, it said he was in a relationship. No one really knew what to say. Did they play along? Was it real? So his dad posts the following

Kelly: Is it still April first?

Kelly: Tell me tomorrow and I’ll give it a big thumbs up.

Jeremy texted his dad instead and said something along the lines of “I’ll tell you when I get home in about 45 minutes.” 

Which is when it would be about midnight.

About 30 min later, it was 11:45, and Jeremy needed to leave so he would be home by about midnight. I stood up, butterflies in my stomach and walked him to the door.

If you don’t know this about me, I’m sassy, and blunt. 

I opened the door and he walked out. He looked at me. I put my hand on one hip and popped it, and just starred at him. In my head I was like “dude. this boy. he BETTER kiss me tonight.”

We had the following conversation

Me: What?

Jeremy: I know what you’re doing. I know what you want.

Me: I don’t know what you’re talking about. 

And then he leaned in and he KISSED ME. 

It was quick. It was fast. It was over before I had time to process it. It was a very quick peck. 

I teased him about it later, but in his defense, I was the first girl that he’d kissed since he got home off his mission. 

He later told me that he had a rule that he wouldn’t kiss a girl until they were officially dating. While it was cute and sweet, it annoyed me to no end. It also explained why it took him SO FRIGGIN LONG to kiss me. I’m not a slut… well, my prior roommates would say that I was a lip whore, but that’s a different story. I didn’t wait to kiss guys and I pretty much always got what I wanted. So for Jeremy to take his sweet time… It was cute, but it was also the start of me learning a whole lot more about him. 

The next day was saturday, which was general conference for our church. Jeremy was doing the priesthood session with his dad, and I was… well, bumming out at home. Jeremy casually asked me if I had plans for conference. I told him that I would just be watching it at home. To which Jeremy responded with “well, you could come over here if you wanted. We have cinnamon rolls and stuff…” He knows me well! Cinnamon rolls!? Uhm. Yeah. Sure. You got me. On my way over friend!

When I got there, I started to have a bit of a panic attack. I was really nervous. I was hanging out with his family. I was going to be right there… and… it was all… blah. 

I hadn’t been in a relationship in years, and the last relationship I had been in ended badly. So I was scarred. I almost didn’t go in. But at the last second, I got 30 seconds of insane courage. I told myself if I wasn’t feeling it, I could come up with any excuse I wanted to leave. It was just temporary. I just had to stick it out for a little bit.

I rang the doorbell. 

He answered.

He walked me in. Got me a cinnamon roll. And we sat down on the couch together. 

After eating, he took my plate. He grabbed a blanket. Sat down next to me again. Put his arm around me, and the next thing I knew… I found my place on his chest again. I found my spot. 

And just like that, all my fears were wiped away.

The following week I had to leave to go to a music festival. It was going to be 3 days of LONG hours, lots of shooting, and lots of editing. It was hard to leave him. Harder than I thought it would be.

I worked that entire weekend and I busted my butt. We texted. We talked in between sets. I actually even called him one time during a set because our conversation was just so good. 

Here’s a couple of shots from the festival.

I may have a camera addiction. But I refuse to admit it.

Anyways. Sunday night. The festival ended at about 9, but I could only realistically stay until about 7 (that’s when the last performance was. And it was Erich Church. Amazeballs performance). It was an hour and a half drive home. 

I had a sneaky plan up my sleeve. I kept telling Jeremy that I would prob get home around midnight or so and that I needed to edit and just get to work, but if I had time, I would stop by his house on my way home to see him for a few minutes. But, with me getting done at about 7:15/20ish. I was out of there by 7:30. 

I texted him at 7:30 telling him that the last performer just went on and that it wasn’t looking good for me to get home.

At about 9 I called him. He asked what I was up to and where I was. I lied and told him that I had just finished and had gotten in my car to come home. But in reality, I was 5 min away from his house. 

We chatted for a few and then I pulled up into his drive way. 

I said “So… you should come outside…” and giggled. 

He was like “What!? You’re lying!! You’re still an hour a way!!” 

I said “Nope! I lied! I’m outside! You should come out!”

He came outside and gave me one of the BEST hugs. After the long weekend I had, it was totally worth it.

Our relationship kept growing in different ways. 

While I was gone, I kept thinking, I’m pretty sure I love this guy. But I refused to say it until he did.

On Thursday night he came over to my house so we could have some alone time. I knew on Sunday night when I surprised him that I loved him, and I knew again on Monday night when we were together until 2:30am. After talking and hanging out, and let’s be real, making out, he as getting ready to leave, but I wouldn’t let him. It started to eat me up on the inside to tell him. I felt like I was going to combust if it wasn’t said soon. I had an idea of where he was at, but still had no clue if he felt the same way.

As he was getting ready to leave, we sat on my couch (it’s L shaped) in the L corner. He sat head to head, holding hands, knees in between each others, like… as much as you could possibly get. He asked me if I had said everything I wanted to that night.

I said no.

I told him that I had been feeling something for sometime, but I wasn’t going to bring it up until I knew where he was. He told me that it was funny that I should mention that because he felt the same way too, but didn’t know when to say it. He said that he’d been asked if he loved me, and he knew, but he didn’t want to push it.

Forehead to forehead. Nose to nose. We just sat there. 

The emotion building

The anticipation.

I felt like I was going to burst into tears at any minute.

In whispers we started talking. He said “I’ve never said it to anyone before… Wait. We ARE we talking about the same thing right!?” And I laughed and said “Yeah. I’m pretty sure we are…”

He said “I’ve never said it to anyone else before, anyone like this.”

I said “I’ve only said it once, but I never meant it like would now…”

Our breathing got shallower. He took in a deep breath. He told me he was scared. I told him that I was right there. He tried a couple of times to say it. I could feel it on the tip of his tongue. I knew it was coming, and I knew I had to be ready for it because I knew I needed to reciprocate it immediately.

FINALLY after what felt like HOURSSSS!!! He finally whispered, really quietly, and after a deeb breath, “Oh Leavitt, I love you!” and then he kissed me! It took me by surprise! Mentally I was thinking “Uhhhhh… wait. That was it? That was it right? He said ‘I love you’ right? Yes? YES! Yes! He said ‘I love you!’ NOW YOU SAY IT BACK GIRL!!! SAY IT!!! SAY ITTTT!!” 

So I whispered it back. 

And then we kissed a bit… and then realized it was late and he really needed to go home and I needed to go to bed.

That night, we started my favorite tradition of falling asleep on the phone together. When I woke up, I had a text saying “Night babe, I love you 😘 <— your goodnight kiss.” 

And I guesssshheeeedddd… and died.

Ironically, that same month that Jeremy and I started dating, my parents came into town for my dad’s business. It couldn’t have been more perfect timing, but it sure was entertaining to say the least! 

My parents very quickly fell in love with Jeremy. They liked who he was. They liked the way he treated me. They liked his goals. They liked all the same things about him as I did. My dad commented that for the first time, he saw me become grounded and not so flighty, that Jeremy had a way of calming me without controlling me, that he was my anchor. 

This is a text exchange between me and my mom.

My family has a fun tradition for us kids when we start dating. It was mostly for high school....but it's spilt over into adulthood :)

When you hold hands, you owe the family m&ms. When you kiss, you owe ice cream, but the type of ice cream says what kind of a kiss it was. Obviously if it's your favorite (mine's rocky road) that is counter-active and it shows it's a really good kiss, when you go steady you owe hot fudge sundaes, and when you get engaged you owe banana splits.

Since my family was in town, Jeremy and I opted to pay up while my parents were in town. My mom grabbed this photo of us.

Within 3 weeks of Jeremy and I dating, we knew we wanted to get married and spend the rest of eternity with each other.

Stay tuned for part 4! It's gonna be even better!!