Ben has been gone for a grand total of two, almost three, days. And I'd like to lay down and die at any moment, here. Sheesh. It's funny, I was talking to a girl at work, today, who has a missionary out (and coming home in 8 months! Woooo!) and she was asking why I was so despondent while talking about Ben and when I said that he's in Brazil for the next two weeks, I received an immediate "Oh BOOO!" I'm sure I deserved it, but seriously? I have a hard time going more than a day or two without seeing him... let alone talking to him. And while he's down there, he won't have his phone on and will only be checking his email every couple of days... Yaaaaaay. :(
So, in order to make myself feel better, I'm going to explain to you why this sterling young man has stolen my heart through a series of happenings. (If you honestly don't care, feel free to stop reading now; I'll never know the difference?):
- The first time he ever kissed me, previous to the mission, he leaned in... and kissed my right cheek. Looked into my eyes... and leaned in for the left. Looked into my eyes, once again, and finally placed his lips on mine. WOW.
- Right after Ben was set apart, (yes, I went in... horrible idea) we decided to walk back to his house, together, one last time. Well, the entire time we had been dating, I'd try to convince him to sing to me, okay? Never happened. When does he decide to finally do it? At the exact moment my heart is being ripped out of my chest. What does he sing? "I Want to Hold Your Hand" by The Beatles (Across the Universe version) - perfect, right when we can no longer hold hands. Ingenious... Well, at least he thought so. Okay, so it's not really a cute story, but he thinks he's pretty funny and I'm sure 50 years from now it will be... so I threw it in here, all the same.
- One day, summer of 2008, when I came home from a long day at work, I walked in to the biggest, most beautiful arrangement of calla lilies, my all-time favorite flower, just sitting on my kitchen table, awaiting my arrival. The note in the flowers simply read "Today, in Brazil, it's Valentines Day! Loving you so much, Ben" .... I cried, I'll be honest. And then my mom cried, I'll be honest. Such a good surprise!
- At one point in time, he suggested that we name our daughter... wait for it... "Penelo". ... Okay, so this may or may not have been one of those times when you throw your head back and laugh as deeply as your body allows and, between breaths exclaim, "Ah, how I love you! And how I love that you just fully turned over all child-naming-rights to ME! Hahahahaha"
- Being a Stanfield, and all, Ben's just about the master of loopholes, as is the rest of his family. Thus, it should come as no surprise that he found a rule, in the mission handbook, stating that missionaries were allowed two calls a year - one at Christmas and usually the other at Mother's Day. WELL, since he didn't have the opportunity to call at Mother's Day, he convinced his mission pres. that it'd be a good idea for him to call home on his birthday... Come to find out, over a year later, he actually did it largely because it'd allow us the chance to talk without him breaking mission rules. Loved that, haha.
- I'm not going to go into too much detail on this next one, but the big surprise of him coming home... Who takes at least 6 months time to plan out exactly how they're going to surprise their girlfriend by coming home early off their mission??
- A couple of weeks ago, Ben came down to my apartment in Provo, and together we made breakfast. It started out with some light grocery shopping at Maceys, he then made us some amazing Swedish pancakes, and after that? Well... we just kind of... did nothing! It was FANTASTIC! Amazing, amazing. I love doing anything with him, even if it's nothing. We took a nap, eventually prepared his talk for church, the next day, did some dishes... and just kind of lolled about. At one point, he even was sweet enough to rub out the killer knots in my shoulders. Sigh. Love him.
- Not that much later, as we were driving together from Provo back to SLC, he threw on some Electric Light Orchestra ("Evil Woman", "Telephone Line", "Mr. Blue Sky", etc) and began singing at the TOP of his lungs!! I mean... TOP of his LUNGS. Not to mention he'd let go of the steering wheel, every once in a while, to ring in some good cow bell - hahahahahaha. Sometimes, when I'm with him, I wonder if I can ever laugh harder... that night being one of those times. :)
- For whatever reason, I really do love him more because of this, and don't get grossed out, but... he chews... on my armpits. I know, so weird, but it's just about the most ticklish thing anyone could ever do and he usually will pull it out when we're wrestling, causing him to win every time... Oh my goodness, I seriously crumple and die when he does that. It's horrendous... and hilarious, I'll be honest.
- This past Tuesday, the night before he left for Brazil for two weeks, I asked him to talk me to sleep so I wouldn't cry the whole night long... and so he did. He stayed up until at least 1am, talking about nothing relevant, just to make sure that I'd fall asleep okay... Did I mention that he had to be at the airport at 6am, that morning? No? Well, he did. And he still sacrificed - for me.
And now that my explosion of memories have (sort of) (temporarily) ceased... I don't know if this whole 'blogging about it' thing helped or hurt my case? Oh well, I love talking about him all the same. :)
Before I forget! We went on a hike, together, the other weekend.... This is just one of many pictures captured on our way up the mountain. I think it might just be my favorite picture of us together, yet:
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