Text Messages from the Past

Yep, that's how it feels to get a text!

I am the kind of person who can't bring myself to delete anything. Yes, you read that right - delete. I usually end up saving my papers in at least three different documents so I don't lose any of my original quotes or outlines. I frequently go through old emails to read about and remember different phases of my life. As for text messages, though I delete as many of them as I can in order to preserve space to receive more messages, as of right now I have 126 messages that I can't bring myself to delete, for nostalgic/personal/emotional/girly reasons. All of them are from Matthew, and each one reminds me of a feeling or a moment in my life which I want to remember. If there were an easy way to conserve my text messages, I would do it in an instant. But at least there is a way - writing them down here!

And here follows 10 early text messages from Matthew that I saved, with appropriate following commentary (unintentional spelling errors have been corrected, because, yo, I'm an editor):

1.  Testing 1, 2, .......... Testing, testing, 1, 2, 3. If you can hear this, yell my name... And then message me cus I probably won't hear you yell. -matthew-

Sent: 11:15:23 pm, 9/17/2012

This was the first text message Matthew ever sent me. And the first text message I got from a boy that I liked and was cute and actually responded when I gave him my phone number. I think I knew from the very beginning that we had something special together. I am surprised in retrospect that this text was sent so late - but then, what girl wouldn't be excited out of all reason to get a text so late!!??? I loved knowing that he was thinking of me, and that he was manning up and being the first to MAKE A MOVE. If I remember right, I actually didn't find this text message until a week later (this was back in the days when I never used my phone), and he had to ask me if I had gotten it when we saw each other at church. After that, I became a regular and faithful cell-phone carrier/text message-er (I had probably sent under 10 text messages in my whole life before this, and could barely write a sentence). I owe it all to my hon!

2. Hey! I would just like to say that you're gorgeous! When you smile, it is as if the sun shines from your countenance (cheeziness totally unintended... but I am being serious).

Sent: 10:25:00 pm, 9/26/2010

This was a few days after our first date/weekend together, but it was still a little out of the blue to have a guy be so complimentary - before Matt, I don't think a guy had ever really told me up front (and yes, I'm calling sending a text message "up front") that I was pretty. By the way, WHY DON'T MORE GUYS DO THIS? Do they KNOW how much they would go up in a girl's estimation? I'm pretty sure I blushed or shrieked in delight or something. And then I showed it to Sarah, so we could giggle and squeal together for the next hour. I let him know right away that he got MAJOR points for this text message the next time I saw him again.

3. Either I never heard you sing by yourself before or you're in a bigger choir. But I heard you sing tonight and it was beautiful, just like you. Thank you. :)

Sent: 11:16:36 pm, 9/30/2010

This was sent after I had Matthew over for our family home evening on a Sunday night. We always sing a hymn or a primary song in my family before we have a lesson, and though I don't consider myself a really super singer or anything (in contrast to Matthew, who actually IS a super singer), I really appreciated that he complimented rather than criticized, and also found a way to call me beautiful again. Seriously, guys, call a girl beautiful. Do it!

4. Hey I hope you don't mind, but I've said you're my girlfriend to the entire world thru Facebook. So I guess we're official.

Sent: 12:57:11 pm, 10/4/2010

Obviously an important marker of our relationship officially being declared. And I was so tickled that he changed it first! To be honest, I hadn't been much of a Facebook user before Matthew, either (that changed pretty quick, ha ha), and I hadn't been stressing or worrying about the change at all (I mean, our first date hadn't even been a month ago at this point), but I still recognized that being "in a relationship" was, well, awesome. And it let me know that he was really serious about me. Which I liked.

5. I like your hair, and how it feels when you lay your head on my shoulder.

Sent: 5:38:01 pm, 10/5/2010

If you are gagging at this point, feel free not to keep reading. I mean, not everyone likes to coo over displays of cuteness made public, and that's fine. This text was in response to some exchange wherein we were talking about things we liked about the other person, and for some reason this one just struck me as superduper cute. Also, I have always wanted to lay my head on a guy's shoulder. Like, since I was 14. So there's that bit of evidence that I'll have to say to my 14-year-old self if I ever meet her again.

6. I love that you love your God. You show that in how you fulfill your callings, and I hope that you will always be able to choose him over me.

Sent: 4:50:00 pm, 10/6/2010

Sweet, sweet guy.

7. All joking aside, you know I would never do anything to hurt you. I would sooner cut off my right arm.

Sent: 5:26:56 pm, 10/12/2010

I can't remember what we were joking about, but I love this text. To me it said he wanted to protect and take care of me and treat me the way I deserved, and seriously, that just melted my heart. It still does.

8. Oh good. That will give me a chance sometime later on to buy you ice cream, calm you down and assure you that you did just fine. :D

Sent: 4:37:14 pm, 10/20/2010

This was right after I took the GRE. I wasn't sure how well I'd done, and I was pretty nervous about the whole ordeal, but it was a relief to know that I had Matthew (and ice cream!) waiting for me that evening.

9. I'm plenty manly and you know it.

Sent: 10:57:07 pm, 10/26/2010

This was sent after a flurry of teasing texts which involved my calling him out on his love for musicals, fashion, shopping for clothes, cooking/baking (all of which, by the way, I have now come to terms with as perfectly natural and humanly activities) and his distaste for or lack of interest in sports. One of the things I love about Matthew is how we can tease and banter with each other nonstop and still be crazy in love.

10. Ahhhhh, I love you. And I will never say it again, so listen closely: I kinda like it when you mess with me.

Sent: 9:50:22 pm, 11/4/2010

Lest you get the wrong idea, "messing" with Matthew at this point included a lot of teasing, fake-pouting, and general silliness. But I always wanted to marry someone I could goof off with, and just enjoy being whoever I felt like being at the moment with. He has proven to me time and time again that he is the perfect match for me and that he will love me no matter what mood I'm in.

Sorry if that was a little too sugary for y'all. Congratulations if you made it to the end!

Family Newsletter: April

Celebrating our straight As at Sizzler!

This month can be summarized in a few words: Getting ready for finals, writing papers, grading, taking finals, more grading, taking more finals, finally finishing finals, and . . . . . the usual. I have finished my thesis prospectus and am ready to get cracking on the actual chapters - as soon as I finish the research, that is. But my top priority is a reading list of 21 books to get done over the summer so I'll be prepared for this crazy exam that all the grad students have to take on the first Friday of December. I am not freaking out yet, but I will be. Particularly since I just found out that I will likely be teaching my own class of Humanities 101 in the fall - YIKES!

Matthew, meanwhile, has been applying for summer internships and enjoying the freedom of being home all day or working in his parents' yard after he finishes work at 10 am. He is finally putting together his master resume, inspired by me, naturally, after I spent the last week neatly compiling and organizing all of my work from the last two semesters. I was a little bit annoyed with myself when I didn't remember to change my name on the portfolio cover from "Miller" to "Covington" until five seconds AFTER hitting the Print button. Oh well - I guess I can spare the 14 cents.

We've been hitting the library pretty hard in our spare time and our newest addictions/finds include the following: The Infinite Worlds of H. G. Wells (AWESOME TV series! I can't believe I haven't seen them at the library before! Wow - SO good!); still anything by Brandon Sanderson (especially Mistborn related sequels, but even the immature Alcatraz series); The Princess Bride (the book - though I am pretty sure after reading it, Matthew will want to see the movie again); The Dog Whisperer series (we stumbled on this by accident and now watch them all the time! We totally analyze our own families and relationships using dog psychology, too... guess who's the calm-submissive one and the dominant-aggressive one, ha ha!); The Bridge on the River Kwai (I FINALLY got around to seeing this, and was amazed that it took me so long - what a great film!); and finally, Psycho and Carrie (two classic scary books, and yet I was sufficiently impressed to the point where I have decided that I am okay with reading these to my teenage kids; also, I was appalled that Matthew didn't have a clue who Norman Bates was -  I think a scary movie night is in order pretty soon here).

Moving into our one-year anniversary, we are both amazed at how quickly the time has passed but are still nowhere near moving out of the newlywed mindset. Life has been good to us and we are both so happy right now (and yes, the end of a long tough winter semester has a good deal to do with it). Coming up in May, we are looking forward to celebrating three birthdays, one anniversary, and Mother's Day - not to mention the fact that many good friends of ours have been getting married or are planning to get married this month, and it is exciting to see and share in their reception food . . . ah, I mean, their happiness, of course. May (HA!) your own month be just as wonderful!

Lookalikes, Part 1

Family Newsletter: March

Well, here it is April, and already I'm wearing flip-flops and shorts to school. Seriously? Was it just a year ago that I was worried it was going to snow on my wedding in May?

I have put off posting on my blog during March, frankly because I'd rather forget about this month all together. The third month of any semester is generally when panic/stress/sugar cravings strike my system the hardest. I realize how much I have put off and how much I have to do and how far I will go to put off doing it. Here are some things that happened in March that I would have been happy with putting off for, oh, a very long time/forever:

1. Visit to the dentist. Let me clarify... THREE-HOUR visit to the dentist. On the plus side, it was free. On the negative side, "free" turned out to be $10.

2. I got sick. As in cold/stuffy nose/sore throat two-weeks-long sick.

3. While sick, I a) taught a class, b) gave a presentation in a graduate class, and c) presented a paper at the HERA conference in Salt Lake. All these things occurred over a consecutive Friday and Saturday. FYI, I didn't leave the apartment at all on Sunday.

4. I got allergies. I get it, spring, you're here. You don't have to rub it in my face.

5. I finished the Mistborn series. Thank goodness I still have Elantris to read, or else what else would there be to live for?!?!?!?!?

Now that I've gotten this all off my chest, here are some of the highlights of March:

Decorations courtesy of Matthew (though I did give him the idea for the horseshoe)

Happy St. Patrick's Day! We celebrated the day by going swimming, eating elf cookies, and watching "Holes." Yeah. I don't get it either.

I substituted for the primary pianist in our ward again, and I am officially covetous of the calling. Yes, I know I'm already the organist, but how does that help me for the OTHER two hours of Church? C'mon!

The Big Bang Theory, Season 3.

My volleyball team (team name "Batman") took silver place in our class tournament. I would love to take credit for the win. So I will. They'll never know.

Cherry bars.

Cooking courtesy of Matthew...Say, what WAS I doing this month? Oh yeah, being sick/eating/stressing.