Wonder

Wonder of wonder miracles of miracles...today has been wonderful and miraculous.

Yep, that's it for now. Better post tomorrow but wanted to keep my promise--

Cordelia

"Would you please call me Cordelia?" -Anne Shirley

I have always loved Anne of Green Gables and Anne of Avonlea. I particularly chose this line because I am marrying William Robert Cline Harcourt, a name I can hardly keep up with. But if my name were Sara Elin Cordelia Oldroyd, then we'd make a pair! Maybe even claim we could trace our ancestry back to royalty like Henry VIII, King Tutankhamun or Sarcuse the Hammer.

Anyway, since I know many of my family and friends are also Anne fans, I wanted to share some of my favorite quotes from the book, just for fun:

Anne Shirley: Don't you ever imagine things differently from what they are?
Marilla Cuthbert: No.
Anne Shirley: Oh Marilla, how much you miss.

Anne Shirley: Can't you even imagine you're in the depths of despair?

Gilbert Blythe: What are you thinking?
Anne Shirley: I'm afraid to speak or move for fear that all this wonderful beauty will just vanish... like a broken silence.

Anne Shirley: [about Diana becoming engaged] Of all the stupid, sentimental things for Diana to do.

Anne Shirley: Fred is... extremely good.
Marilla Cuthbert: That is exactly what he should be! Would you want to marry a wicked man?
Anne Shirley: Well, I wouldn't marry anyone who was really wicked, but I think I'd like it if he could be wicked and wouldn't.
Marilla Cuthbert: You'll have better sense some day, I hope.

Behindhand

Behindhand: remiss in fulfilling an obligation.

That's all I have to say concerning yesterday's post...but the good news is: I moved into my soon-to-be house with my soon-to-be husband! It felt good.

The final countdown, dada da daaa...da dada da da

Don't get too excited but I decided I would post every day until the wedding--one word on how I am feeling or what I am thinking or anything that relates to the wedding or me and Will. (I had to make it broad so I could come up with really enthralling and entrapping blog posts. Once you start reading this series you will not be able to stop, no matter the sweetness, syrupy-ness, or silly lovesickness. Even you Laura.)

So the word for today is: Novelesque. When I was a tween, I loved reading the Mormon romance novels about couples meeting in a single's ward at BYU, falling in love after some drama with an old girlfriend, and driving away for a honeymoon in a 1989 Civic. Ah, how that would be bliss.

Our relationship has only been a little like that, but I'm going to re-write it so it fits into that genre of novels...

The Escapade of Falling in Love, Will and Sara Harcourt

Will is tired of the same old routine. Sure, he likes tennis and photography, but the girls in his life just aren't the kind he wants to get to know better. His old girlfriend, Flaura, calls him up for Disney movie nights with popcorn every week, but Will knows the flame just isn't there anymore. Flaura's best friend, Jhosie, tells her she needs to get over him. Flaura doesn't listen and devises a secret plan to capture his heart forever.

After a sweaty afternoon of tennis one particularly sunny Wednesday, Will stops by the local soda fountain pharmacy. He slides into the round red seat in front of the counter and asks without looking up for a Shirley Temple on the rocks. He hears, "Do you want that with real lime juice? Higher Vitamin C content you know."

He looks up to see her...her back anyway. It was flat and proportional. This is definitely the girl! he thinks.

She turns around and sees his muscly arms and is actually afraid to hand him a normal glass for the Shirley Temple. He will crush it like a fly, if he's an insect assassin. She couldn't imagine that from his perfectly wonderful face though.

"So is it with or without the fresh lime juice? I should also probably add that the juice is a great source of phytochemicals."

Well Will couldn't pass that up! "Whatever you say miss. What are you studying at school anyway?"

"Oh, nutrition and health policy and graphic design. You?" Sara says.

Knowing he's a master of communication, Will responds, "Organizational Communication actually. But I'm working with the news station right now, BYU Cougs Go Global! Arise and Shine Forth, Stand Tall Forever, Never Fall Never Fail."

"That's a long radio station name," says Sara, "but I can already tell it's a going to be a success if you are part."

They fall in love in one day and decide to get engaged.

Meanwhile...Flaura is scheming. She tells Jhosie of her plan to bubblegum Will to a chair until he promises to take her to Homecoming, the biggest dance of the year. All she needs is an accomplice to get him to sit down on the chair... Jhosie says no. She asks Klauryn. Another no. Jmessica? Never! She finally finds an accomplice in her Freshmen kid brother, Jake the Blade. Little did she know that while she was planning with Jake, Jhosie, Klauryn and Jmessica are making plans of their own! Bwahahaha.

Jake the Blade calls Will up for a tennis match. Good thing he had recently spray-painted his racquet. The tennis court would be the spot of the crime...

Jake is waiting at the court when Will drives up between wedding planning parties Sara is hosting at his house. Will gets out and walks towards the court. Once he is within feet of the bench near the doubles alley, Flaura jumps out from behind a concrete wall in leopard-print thermal pajamas! She runs to the bench while chewing the biggest wad of bubble tape.

Little did she know that Jhosie, Klauryn, and Jmessica had also been hiding behind the concrete wall in purple sparkle jumpsuits. They run to meet Flaura before she can get the gum on Will's bum. Instead, they confuse Flaura with a shower of sequins near her eyes. Will turns around. There is no more chance at a bubble bum for Flaura. She is defeated. Her three friends say in unison, "Flaura we love you, but you can't be a lying cheat. We love Sara too."

Flaura agrees and dusts the sequins off. She wants to find a more archeological fellow anyway.

Will returns to Sara for the third wedding party of the day. He brings her the sequins he gathered at the tennis court to use on their wedding favors.

They get married and live happily ever after, forever and ever.

THE END

Photography 101, for me anyway

Will is a photographer. We just talked last night about turning the coal room in our basement (and yes, I'm starting to use 'our' instead of 'his'!) into a dark room for film developing. He just got a medium film camera and is so excited...like a little boy at Christmas! He couldn't sleep the night before he picked it up.

On that note, I realized how much he is like my dad. We hiked to Cecret Lake a couple of weeks ago and he took his wide-angle lens to get a panorama shot. I thought we'd be moving around, snapping pictures of fish, greenery, mountains, here a little there a little. But he informed me otherwise. You go to a place, set up your camera on a tripod, and wait for the exact time of 'golden sunshine' at sunset to take that perfect shot. Very meticulous. I think we have at least 20 shots of Cecret Lake from the same place, and one is absolutely stunning, just like he said it would be. If I would have been in charge of the camera that night I'm pretty sure I would have gotten some cool rocks (up close to see the geological patterns :)), a bug on the pond, the girl who was laughing so loud it created a ripple on the water, the cloudless sky, and Will's face. And then I would have accidentally dropped the camera in the lake...probably.

How did I know Will was the one for me?

Countdown: Day 14 (or 15 depending on how you look at it)

Last night Will asked me if I still wanted to marry him. I answered with a resounding yes! He was just checking in, he wasn't worried or anxious, and this wasn't the first time he had asked me. I think he does it more to start a conversation about how I'm doing and feeling with it all. Yes, he's always pretty sweet and very caring towards me. (No one throw-up about my love-y comments...I'm engaged and have the right to be loooove-y dove-y.)

Here's the story behind my resounding yes...

I've always felt a strong and personal relationship with my Heavenly Father. I believe He watches over us individually and knows us well enough to tailor a life here on earth with experiences and a whole gamut of emotions that will make us, eventually, like Him. This being said, I don't think He intervenes in our lives often or ever takes our agency away, but I do believe He orchestrates something beautiful from the choices we do make in order to refine us. I know He knows me well, that I am His daughter.

I haven't always had faith in Him answering prayers though. I know He hears me when I pray, but don't expect answers to really big life decisions (e.g. Whom should I marry?). I feel like He leaves a lot of things up to our discretion.

That viewpoint has changed. Now I do believe more than anything that He wants and cares so much that He does answer really big life decision pleas.

It was partly fear holding me back from asking about whether or not it was right to marry Will. Not because I would receive a 'no' answer, but because I wouldn't receive an answer at all, and I didn't want to feel that. My faith was lacking.

Will had taken time to pray and study out marrying me. I knew he had specifically asked God and received an answer that it would be good. He told me. I felt like that was enough for both of us. I knew I wanted to marry him and that God would bless me in it, I didn't need to pray specifically. That was not enough for Will though, and I'm so glad. He was ready and anxious to ask me on August 6, a Monday, but I was feeling ill and hadn't gone to the temple to talk with God about it myself. On Tuesday, he was a little frustrated at the end of the day when I still had not gone, nor had plans to until 'later in the week.'

Don't get me wrong, I wanted to go and to talk with God, I just didn't think it was necessary or that I would receive any special kind of feeling. When he was so concerned and wanted me to go so much, I realized I was being a bum, a real canker, and rescheduled things so I could go in Wednesday morning bright and early.

I went by myself and climbed the stairs directly to the celestial room. I read a particular passage from D & C that was a sweet answer to my question, "Would Will and I make a good match? Is this something You want me to do? Is Will right for me?" After a reading of the scriptures I pondered for awhile and during that time I felt another reaffirming answer of "He is exactly the kind of man I would choose for you, my daughter."

That is something special and sacred to me. My prayer had been answered, God did hear my plea. My faith has been buoyed.

And now you know why, when Will asks me, "Are you sure you're still in for this ride called marriage?" (Because he would totally say something like that...) I can answer with a resounding yes.

Day 23

Sometimes when I'm just sitting somewhere by myself tears will spring to my eyes when I think of my family. I couldn't love them more. I get that 'bosom is full' feeling (I know bosom is old-fashioned but I think it fits best) and have to physically manifest it somehow. How could I ask for a better life when I know I have my family and friends to back me up and care about me? It's been stressful but because of that I have realized how much I am loved. Like a Brazilian times over. Thank you.