The heart apocolypse

So the man that was texting me, the one that saved the day, his name is Ben Downard. When I came home from my mission Ben and I kept in contact via facebook and then cell phones. Well I wasn't into him. I went to the singles ward, ish, and was hung up on some other guy. Well the guy I was hung up on was kind of....mean...ish. And the boys in the singles ward were....the same. It stunk. I just got done being friends with EVERY GUY IN THE WORLD (cause that's all you can be as a missionary, friends, so it was super easy) and then I came home and came back to "we don't talk/hang out/be friends/I don't put any effort into you unless I want to marry you". And it stunk. I hated it.

So as I was talking to Ben about my man woes and we joked about marrying each other (he had lady woes). And that slowly escalated. Which was kind of...hard for me. I really wasn't ready to get married. I was very closed off and way too independent and very..done with the opposite sex. I was extremely into simply taking care of me.

Well one night, after Bens confession that he really would like to marry me and he actually did love me (I said he didn't) in a moment of sheer panic, um excuse me Ben's beautiful [for seriously]) I said "Well what if I suck at kissing?" (let's go back to this post [less than ten fingers people I ain't no pro here]) and he said "Then we'll practice." And my whole world just...exploded. I had never ever EVER in a million years had a man that would "practice" kissing with me if I sucked. EVER. Ben would be willing to put in the effort and work with me BECAUSE I WAS WORTH IT.

And in that moment my heard did this weird banshee thing and that was it, I was hooked.

Pause on the story, random thought time.

Okay so I'm trying to get back into blogging, it's slow going, but I had a thought hit me today that I wanted to blog (always a good sign!) and it was this:

Only the helpless damsel needs a knight in shining armor.

I recently got married, which is incredible given my posts from two years ago (a miracle even!), and I was out driving in the rain and a thought hit me that I really wished Babes (aka the husband) was the one driving me because he does so well in the rain. Then a little swell of pride hit because I knew I could drive in the rain and I was doing it, and well btw, hadn't hit a thing! And oddly enough that thought made me really happy. Super happy. And I pondered how, even though my husband wasn't perfect (ie. he doesn't chauffer me everywhere when it rains), we were still a wonderful happy couple because I can drive myself in the rain.

Which led to the above mention thought: Only the helpless damsel needs a knight in shining armor. Now I'm not saying that you don't need something good, or great, or wonderful, just that he probably won't be a knight. But that's okay because only that lone helpless damsel needs him. You need someone else. Now that someone might be Mr. I chauffer in the rain cause she hits walls. Or Mr. I like to snuggle and I snuggle her out of bad moods. Or maybe Mr. I don't touch her when she's mad, I back away and buy chocolate and flowers and I'm good at it. Who knows.

My point was: be happy with your strengths and find the person that helps with your flaws and you can help with his. Life will never be perfect, so find your strengths, strengthen your flaws and always always always find ways to be happy. There is no other way to live!!

Alive Again

Going on a mission, in one sense, is a lot like dying. You die from the world, you die from TV, you die from family, you die from everyone and everything that you once knew. BUT you get a new life, a new birth, you become this person that never turns on electronics to distract herself, you work 24/7 and have a schedule 24/7 and become this person who learns to truly depend on Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ to help heal the hurt because you have NOTHING else to take it away. It's there 24/7, just like the work that calls your every attention. It's hard, it's long, it's frustrating, it's weird and it's rewarding.

And then one day you leave that world and go home. And that's like dying all over again. The difference is that you fall flat on your face because this new world is hard and mean and cold and empty. But it's your old world. Your old you. An old shell that you have to try and fit the new you into. Needless to say it's been hard.

But then an interesting thing happened. I started talking to this boy...