The Courtship

The time came for us to pick Jenni up for fall break, and, heh, I got to visit Steven for the second time. Things had changed very much from the first time we had met. I was fairly sure that I was ready to see if he really was the one. He hadn’t said anything for certain, however, so I was still fairly nervous and didn’t want to say anything if he was thinking differently. Back to fall break. I don’t remember why, but from the two thirds point on (the drive to Idaho is a good 12 hours) I ended up driving our diesel truck pulling the trailer. I remember that while we were on the Lewiston grade Steven sent me a text message asking where we were, and Dad had to answer him and tell him why I couldn’t talk at the moment. I’m not real sure how Steven felt about that, but I thought it was pretty funny! Anyhow, we somehow made it there in one piece. When Steven came over to see me, he was buried beneath an armful of red roses which he bestowed upon my nervous self. I was completely caught off guard by his kindness, and Steven said that my first words were hello and thank you . . . to the roses. Thankfully for me he just found this amusing!

Though we had talked a few times on the phone, I surprised myself by once again turning mute in Steven’s presence. He and Dad had a great conversation about tools and roofs though. Somewhere in here Steven got a call, and Dad very subtly told me that I could jump in any time. He was fairly tired from driving the first half of the trip, I think. When Steven got back, I made my best attempt at conversation, which means I nodded a lot and tried to look knowledgeable about roofing supplies.

Steven asked Dad if he could take me out that night. Call me crazy, but I got a whole bunch of butterflies inside me. We went out to the The Broiler, and the first thing we did was run into his friend from class, also out with a lady friend. There was some idle chit chat and then a sudden pause for introductions. Steven turned to the lady with his friend and began: “Hi, I’m Steven and this is. . .” he looked at me. I knew what he was thinking. What was I? What do you call courting couples? Courter and courtee? Was it worth it to try and explain things? Wisely, he decided not to. He finished quite smoothly with “— my girlfriend, Katie.” When we were far enough away, he apologized to me since he technically wasn’t allowed to call me that, as he hadn’t asked Dad yet. I probably should have nailed him for that, but by the evening he had already fixed that mistake! It was a beautiful dinner, Steven was charming and dashing and all the things that he is so good at, and I laughed a ton. He did too. I don’t remember at all what we ate, though I do remember dessert was ice cream. And I remember the lone long-stem rose in the vase (more roses! 🙂 ) sort of bobbing in toward us like it was listening.

The most memorable thing about our very first date, however, was while Steven was driving me home. Following a moment of silence, he said to me, “I don’t think I’m supposed to tell you this, but I want to ask your dad if I can court you.” I meditated on this for a second in blissful silliness and then replied, “Well, I don’t think I’m supposed to tell you this either, but I kind of want you to!” 🙂

After we got back, Steven asked to speak with Dad and they went downstairs for what seemed like forever. When they came back up, Steven had this huge grin. But Dad, instead of telling us what he had said right away, continued with the conversation like nothing had happened! Ack! I thought for sure I was going to explode. Finally, after an eternity of conversation Dad looked around and said “Well, I’ve given Steven permission to court Katie!” (apparently Dad told him to act like he had said no, which was terrible and I’m glad Steven didn’t do that!). There was an initial burst of exclamations of happiness, and then suddenly someone said, “But wait, what does Katie think?” Steven looked at me. I grinned and said, “Hmm. . .” and then after holding the moment for a few artful seconds, “Yes!” This was foreshadowing for some other question I made Steven wait on. . . 🙂 Upon hearing this answer, Mr. Iverson burst out with “Whoo-hoo! Goodnight!” He had stayed up late for us to get home just to find this out!

Far too quickly, the rest of the short Idaho trip went by mostly in walks, where I got to hold Steven’s hand and was pretty much ignorant of everything else that went on. We caught two garter snakes (which I had never caught in the wild before and was very excited about) and took lots of photos of them and of us. The time seemed to fly by, and before I knew it, it was time to head back to Nevada.

Emails continued to fly back and forth, and right around this time the phone calls really started to get longer and longer. Also, somewhere between October 9th and November 15th was when I fell in love with him. It’s amazing just how much emailing each other daily can do! 🙂 Then, happily, I got to go to his parents house for Thanksgiving. Now all along the way Steven had been me burying me in flowers, because he is the most thoughtful and best guy in world, but while I was there he included presents for every day, and two for a couple days! 🙂 We went on a walk out in the cold air and beautiful snow where he told me stories of his growing up, and we also spent a goodly amount of time inside just sitting together on the couches talking or playing pool. It was really a blessing to be able to be with him so much in the little normal things like breakfast as well as the walks and holidays. So very special! I had a marvelous week there meeting his parents and relatives and fellowshipping with the whole family. That part goes in a different section, though, so I’ll move ahead the most exciting bit.

The Engagement!