I had almost been with Dusting and Lisa's family for a full year. I was working a second job at this time because of the need repairs that had come up on my car through the beginning of the year. It was a McDonalds again, only it was not so great. The group of people you work with can make a huge difference in the work place.
It was about this time that Nate called me up and said he wanted to come visit me. I was SO excited! Dustin and Lisa were fine with his coming, Lisa was in fact so excited for me that she insisted he stay at the house with everyone, instead of a hotel.
The morning arrived that Nate was supposed to arrive. All month I had worked extra hard to get the house neat and clean. The kids had gotten head lice and we had all worked together to wash load after load of laundry, spray the house and wash and comb EVERYONE's hair. We thought we were RID of the lice. The night before Nate's arrival Dustin had had some workers start the job of replacing the roof. The men had torn off all the shingles and put a tarp over the house for the night. It rained all night but the tarp worked fine... Until... About 7 am a HUGE gust of wind came up and blew the tarp off the house. The rain came pooring in. When I heard the noise it felt like I had fallen asleep in the shower. I rushed about my room to pick things up off the floor and move other things where the wouldn't get ruined by the water. I heard the kids crying and came out of my room to discover that Dusting and Lisa had become too stressed by what was happening and locked themselves in their room. I tried to pull the kids away from the door but they were too upset.
So I sat and waited and wondered what to do. The water was pouring through the ceiling everywhere. It was like every room had a waterfall. Finally Dustin came out of the bedroom and went to the deck. He lit a smoke and sat there, saying nothing, watching the rain. I sat with him and tried to think of something to say...
"You know how when people ask me 'what's up?' and I always say 'The ceiling'? I can't say that today..."
Dustin turned and just stared at me. He knew I was trying, but it really wasn't funny...
He pulled out his wallet, handed me a wad of cash, and asked me to take the kids out of the house until he said I could bring them home. And that was when I wondered what this whole day was going to be like... I took the kids to McDonalds for breakfast. They ate up but as soon as we got in the car they started vommitting. The stress was really getting to them. I headed to the airport to get Nate... With the house under water I realized he was going to need to stay in a hotel after all...
With the kids puking in the waiting area, I stared at the line of arriving passengers thinking Nate could not have decided on a better time to visit... I was going to need his support.
Nate came through the terminal looking splendid. He was wearing a blue tropical shirt meant for a sunny vacation and the day was anything but sunny... I laughed as I ran and hugged him... We went to the car and I explained what was going on as I drove away from the airport. I took him and the kids to a second breakfast, hoping the now hungry again kids might keep something down... They did.
After the restaurant we headed to the library hoping it would be warm and dry and we could use the computers to look up a good movie. The library was dry but it was cold and our clothes were wet from walking outside. We hurried to use the computers and found nothing, then Dustin called to say we would all be staying at the motel at the end of the road. We drove there and after getting the kids settled I changed into uniform for my shift at McDonalds.
That night at McDonalds was harder than ever, with all the stress that day I couldn't deal with my manager, a person no one really liked. I mean no one. when I had interviewed for the job I had expressed the possibility of training as a manager. The interviewer was the store owner and had confided in me that they really needed someone to replace this manager.
I had made it almost till closing time. We had two closing times, one for the lobby and one for the drive through. Almost everyone had been sent home after closing the lobby and the drive-thru was slow. It was me, the manager and the person working the food line... Suddenly we got slammed. The line in the drive-thru jumped to 20 cars long and we were scrambling to fill orders. The person working the food line was thick headed and would never really listen to what people were saying. At one point I had to yell for her to hear my instructions on an order and then my manager yelled at me for yelling.
That was it, I was done. I didn't have to put up with this. She shouldn't have sent all the good food line people home. I was not going to stay and tame the blame for how badly things were going. With cars in the drive thru and a half hour till closing I said I quit and handed her my apron. In a panic she begged me not to leave right then, to stay and we could work it out but I was too angry and felt like she deserved to deal with this. I left.
I had given Nate my car while I was at work so that if he wanted to do something, besides watch tv at the hotel, he could. When I came out and told him that I had quit, he was shocked. I guess to him it seemed so sudden but for me I felt like it had been coming for a while
The rest of his visit was still an adventure. The night, with the rain still pouring into the house, I had to pack up my room. I really didn't like having to spend my time with Nate that way but it was the circumstance and Nate was such a good sport. He kept me laughing when I wanted to cry about the state of things. In the midst of the laughter I realized I had prayed for Nate's visit to be memorable, and it was sure turning out to be that! I told Nate about this and it was a running joke the whole week that from now on I should pray for every thing to just go smoothly.
The next day the storm had mostly passed, the sky was only slightly grey but it was warm enough to go to the beach. We loaded up a picnic and found a secluded place on the shore. The water was great after all the rain and the sand was moist and cool. We sat and ate the picnic. By the time we reached the desert the chocolate covered graham crackers had begun to melt. We ate the gooey stuff anyway and got our fingers all messy. I didn't mind this and simply licked my fingers clean, not wanting to waste the yummy stuff. When Nate realized that we hadn't packed napkins he said "What should I do?" and held up his hands to show the mess. I grabbed his hand without pausing to think and stuck his fingers in my mouth. Suddenly I was embarrassed. That was very forward to assume I could lick his fingers for him and that he wouldn't be grossed out. I looked at him, blushing, and apologized. He laughed and said it was okay and offered his other fingers. Eventually we played in the water some more and the stickiness of dessert was washed away. We left and spend the evening at the book store. Nate and I had a very special conversation there, where he told me about the struggles that were keeping him from serving a mission. I didn't judge him at all, I had dealt with some of the same things in my youth and I tried to encourage him. I wanted to be a support to him any time he was tempted and asked that he would call me and I would try to distract him.
Friday came and with everyone packed into the two rooms of the hotel Nate and I decided to go stay at my sister Mitzi's house. At one point Nate and I got a little too cozy and we decided on some ground rules that while we were both cuddly people, while we were dating we would not kiss and we would not reach under each other's clothes.
We watched movies, played games, borrowed some bikes for a ride around the block. I showed Nate my old stomping grounds, all the places I had worked with horses and places I lived when I was littler. Nate said he enjoyed seeing it all for himself and seeing how I would light up.
One of the places we visiting was the ranch where Jack Sursey trained his races horses. When I introduced Nate to Jack, Jack interrogated him, "Are you treating her good?" Nate was surprised, "Yes, sir" Nate said. "You'd better" Jack said, "If there something I learned, it's that the woman's always right, and you need to just say 'Yes ma'am.' Can you do that?"
"Yes ma'am" Nate said to me and we all laughed.
Sunday we drove back to my ward where my calling was in the nursery. Nate and I had a good time playing with the kids.
By Monday Nate was supposed to fly back home to Utah. It wasn't so hard to say goodbye this time since I knew in a few months I would be done working in Florida and see Nate again. As we drove to the airport Nate surprised me and asked if I would marry him.
I was a little flustered... we had talked about marraige, that it was in our future but he was flying back to Utah today! Did he mean he wanted to set a date?
"You're leaving today! Are you asking me to go with you?"
"No, I just wanted to know, after everything this week, would you say still say yes?"
Nothing about his stay had weakened my desire to be with him, if anything it was stronger...
"My answer is yes, but I will give you my full answer when you get down on one knee."
