#4. the boy who proved me wrong

you may recall this scene in the movie Hitch. If not, go watch the movie. This picture is simply to illustrate a "doorstep scene". via

How did this happen? This boy that I had previously been SO annoyed with, suddenly here with me, making me laugh... Also making me go country dancing, which was something that I swore every year up here that I wouldn't do. Nothing is fun to me about swirling and twirling around the dance floor to "Honky Tonk Be Donk a Donk" or whatever in the heck that song is. But there I was tonight, enjoying myself. Doing awkward under the arm dance moves, and enjoying being with this kid.

We got out of his little red Eclipse, and made our way slowly across the deep snow of the parking lot. They never plowed our street. When we got to the little pathway up to my front door, he grabbed my hands suddenly and said, "lean backwards."

Well, I knew exactly what he was up to. He was going to drop me in the snow! At first I resisted, but finally I decided it didn't matter, and leaned back as far as I could. And... what do you know, he didn't drop me! So I stood back up and told him I wanted to do the same thing to him. So I grabbed his hands, and he leaned backwards. But, let's face it, I'm not exactly the strongest person in the world, and he fell into the snow, yanking me down with him. We laughed about this for a while, and I thought, is it going to happen? But soon enough, we both stood up and walked up to my front door.

We stood there hugging for a while. A long long while. And we kept saying good-bye. We kept saying goodnight, see you later, I had a lot of fun tonight... but we kept holding on anyway. I thought he wouldn't let go of me, but thinking back on it, maybe I just didn't want him to. (He would later say it was all my fault.)

Talking and talking and talking... it just kept going on, until finally...
I was teasing him, "Your Australian accent was totally fake!"
"No," he said, "I went on my mission there! It's normal to pick up the accent, I wasn't making it up!"
"You were faking," I said, "that's why I was always so annoyed with you!"
"Annoyed with me!" he cried, "it was real!"
I just laughed, because I never thought this would happen.
And then, without even thinking about it, we kissed. Oh yes, we kissed.
As the snow felt softly, with his car still running in the background, and the Asians driving back and forth on the road, we kissed.

p.s. it's been fun reminiscing with you guys... but i think the kissing posts will end here :)

#3. the tall boy who had it all

this is a picture of a lilac bush. you'll find out why later. via

He pulled up to my house in his car, and I was disappointed to see that my sister had all her friends over. Not because I wanted the house to myself, or anything, but more because that just meant the house would be loud and crowded. So he wouldn't want to stay inside. Or would he? I guess I didn't really know him all that well. I honestly was just happy we had gone out together. Our conversation from a couple weeks ago played in my head, "I don't want to get into a relationship right now... a lot of things are happening in my life, and I know that if we continue to hang out..." blah blah blah. Guess he couldn't resist me, huh?

He noticed all the people as well, so we just took a walk around my yard. Talking about nothing. Talking about a lot of things. The night was perfect. The summer air was still warm, and the moon and stars gave my backyard a calm glow. We walked through the grass the full length of my backyard until we got to the garden by the lilac bush. Then he stopped. I stepped up onto the small garden wall, because talking to him would be a lot easier if I didn't have to tilt my head all the way back to see him. 6' 5" is almost too tall...

He said, "Do you smell that? What is that amazing smell?"

"Oh, it's my mom's lilac bush,"I answered, nodding at the bush next to us.

"Really? It's that bush?" He stepped closer to me.

My voice got a little caught in my throat when he put his hands on my waist, but I choked out an intelligent sounding, "Yes."

"What do you do to make it smell so good?" he asked.

Caught off guard by the weird question, and also the fact that he had started kissing my cheek, I could only say, "ummm... a lot of stuff..."

"Like what?" kissing my other cheek.

"Uhh... sugar." I said, completely losing my mind. Sugar? You don't add sugar to bushes Madeline. But I couldn't stop myself.

"What else?" he asked, continuing on with the kissing or various parts of my face.

"umm... honey!" I said desperately. I honestly felt as though my brain had stopped working. 

"What else?" (and on with the face kissing...)

Trying ridiculously hard to think of something else to say, and failing, I gasped out, "I don't know! It's a... uhh... SECRET!"

And then he kissed me for real.

(and this time, I didn't think it was weird. :) )

p.s. you guys. i got a JOB. a good job. an "i'm so extremely happy that this happened!" job.

#2. the boy with the blue eyes and sweet smile

this is basically where this story takes place. ha ha. just kidding. but it was pretty anyway. picture via

Sitting at work, pretending to be busy, even though I really and honestly had nothing to do. IM'ing the cute boy sitting one computer over from me. Funny, how things work like that. You know, we barely even knew each other when I told him I would go camping with him and his friends a few weeks ago. Who knew that it would turn into something more?

Him: I have a question...
Me: Yeah?
Him: Do you want to go on a hike tonight?

I start to panic a little... my mom always told me that if boys wanted to go on walks or hikes, it usually meant they wanted to kiss you. What should I do? Is that what I wanted? I thought about it for a good five minutes... didn't want him to think I wasn't going to answer.

Me: Yeah, that would be fun!
Him: Cool. I'll pick you up around 6:30.

6:30 came around eventually... me, sitting at my kitchen table, barely able to choke down dinner because of the butterflies in my stomach. He came, we got in the car and drove off toward the mountain.

Up we walked, the ground was steep, and I felt like I was about to slide all the way down almost the whole way up. He was sweet though, and made sure I didn't fall. Finally we got to the spot he had chosen, set out a blanket, and sat down to watch the sunset.

He admitted later that he timed it perfectly. He looked up what time the sun would go down, and had already made the hike earlier to check how long it would take.

And so, there we sat. Him on one side of the blanket, me on the other. Watching the sun set quietly over the salt lake valley. And after a while, he mustered the courage to say what he wanted to say. He told me a lot of things. Things about how he liked me, and why he liked me. Told me I was pretty, and funny, and smart, and kind... and I couldn't help but feel good about that.

And then he asked me if I had ever dated anyone before. I told him about my brief try at anything close to a relationship the past spring, and then asked him the same question. He said no. He hadn't dated anyone, hadn't kissed anyone, hadn't held hands with anyone until me a few weeks ago. I felt almost sorry about it as I admitted I had kissed someone before. Almost.

He asked if he could kiss me.

I always thought that would annoy me. If a boy asked. But I looked at him, and the setting sun sparkling in his blue eyes, and I thought... why not?


So we kissed. And I laughed. Because it was still weird.
And then he asked me to be his girlfriend.

p.s. i have my first test all school year today. bleh.

#1. the boy with the curly hair and the backwards hat

All right everybody, here we go...

I've decided that this week,

EACH DAY I will write another first kiss story.

Why get them all out of the way on the first day? That's boring.

So here, you have chosen... let's take a step back in time.

via

Sitting on my bed, desperately sketching one last building, and I feel as though my hand is about to fall off, and my brain about to collapse. Why, oh why, do I leave my homework to the last minute? Sketchbooks aren't even hard... until you leave 15 sketches till the day before their due. And look at these. I will not get accepted into the Interior Design program with this kind of artwork. But honestly, it's too late now. I lean back on my pillow, and close my eyes, dying to just fall asleep and not wake up for a long time. 

My phone vibrates across the room. I left it over there so it wouldn't be a distraction from my homework. A feeling of nervousness and excitement washes over me. PLEASE be him... I haven't heard from him all day! I pick up the phone, turn it over, and go to my text messages.

Him: Hey Madeline, how was your day?

Me: Good! I just got done with a mountain of homework. Seriously haven't left my room since 3 this afternoon.

Him: Same! I was just wondering, would you like to go out tomorrow?

Me: Sure! What are we doing?

Him: It's a surprise :)

And suddenly, with those last words, I knew exactly what was coming. Hadn't we talked about it? Me, never been kissed. This was definitely it.

So, with much anxiety, I got ready for bed, and fell asleep.

The next day, after talking my best friend into going shopping with me for a new shirt, showering, getting ready, and eating some tater tots, I was sitting in the kitchen waiting for the boy. My roommates were laughing, and watching a movie on tv while I sat quietly waiting for my date. 

He came. He told me I looked pretty. We left.

We went to dinner at a Mexican restaurant. And afterwards, he took me to a movie that I had been dying to see for quite a while. A chick flick, I guess you could say, but afterwards he admitted to me that he even liked it.

On the way home, he asked if I wanted to go for a walk. Butterflies jumping around inside of me, I said sure. Our walk consisted of walking across a parking lot, over some grass, and onto a dock in the middle of what we here in Logan call "first dam". We stood on that dock for, oh, I don't know how long. His arms wrapped around me, the first warm night Logan had seen in a long long time. And we stared at the stars and the water and the geese for a while, just talking. Talking was what we were good at. Talking to each other, laughing, joking, being happy. And I knew, I knew he wasn't going to leave that dock until he did what we came for. Boys are funny like that.

But he was so tall, I'd have to look straight up at him, and I wasn't sure I was quite ready. But after a few hours of talking and talking... I decided it was time. So I looked up.

"You look really pretty tonight," he said, "I bet you didn't even have to try."

"Oh, uh... thanks," I mumbled, "I tried really hard actually..." 

And then, he kissed me. 

It was the WEIRDEST thing. That's all I could think. This is so weird! And then I thought, this is my first kiss. I should be enjoying this. And then it was over.

And I laughed. Short little giggles, and hid my face in his jacket.

And then we chased the geese around on our way back to his car. 

p.s. did anyone watch general conference this weekend? so amazing.