(This should probably be a "journal only" post, but since no one reads my blog anymore, I think it's safe.)
Since I've posted about all of my kids' first loves, I find that I can't really delete Glo from the spotlight. Per the usual post about my kids, I wish that they would write the details since they are living their own lives, but per the usual actions of my kids, they don't. So here I go!
Back at the end of September, I was on the phone with Glo (at BYU), and she told me to hold on--there was someone at her door. I then proceeded to hear what sounded like a very nice, very deep-voiced man ask her if she'd like to go out to dinner with him. Olive Garden, I believe. She came back on the phone, acting like nothing had even happened, and it took a minute for me to say, "Glo, did you just get asked out on a DATE?" Yeah, in true Glo form, it was no big deal...
Turns out, Ethan (yes, what are the chances?) had been thinking about asking Glo out for a while. He is an RA in Heritage Halls, and had met her through Hannah (being an RA as well). He was so insecure though about asking her out, that it wasn't until Hannah held Ethan's phone hostage until he did so, that he finally got up the courage (or desperation for his phone) and walked over to her room and asked.
He was obviously motivated because within a week, Glo had had her first kiss. And yes, she was so good about sharing all of the details with the family that it was really fun for all of us to relive "the first love", make-out sessions and all ;-)
I can't even begin to express how amazing Ethan is. Although I have never met him personally, his actions speak very loudly. He has got to be the most devoted boyfriend I could have asked for for one of my girls.
And yes, you know when you think of what kind of boy you want for your girls, you have a certain idea? For me, I don't care so much about what the boy looks like, but I sure care about how he treats my girls and what kind of provider he will be.
Well, within two weeks, Glo was feeling rather "meh" about him. One of her first strange comments to me was, "I wasn't really planning on having a boyfriend this semester." And in her defense, she is leaving on a mission in January. But for this kind of kid to be her first real boyfriend (sorry, Cole--you held her hand and took her to prom and were a good friend, but you didn't quite cut it)? I told her yesterday, while sitting in the pool at The Sunshine Suites, I think she's going to be hard-pressed to find anyone like him when she comes off her mission. Not that I mean any kind of pressure--it's just he treats her like a queen.
First off, he's smart, Like, he's studying economics so that he can go to law school. And he does well in school.
He's 20. He was sent home from his mission for medical reasons. Nobody asks him more than that so I have no more details.
He was a competitive ballroom dancer before his mission. Like, he qualified for the BYU DanceSport team, one of the best collegiate ballroom teams in the world. And he likes to dance with her in the kitchen while he's cooking. *swoon*
He is devoted. None of the other stuff really matters to me. He literally wants to spend every wakinghe makes her dinner. He found out that she hates Provo and all of its development and pollution, so he drove her up north of Salt Lake to see the beautiful part of Utah. And as if that wasn't enough, he drove her to Arches National Park one Saturday...while she slept in the car both there and back.
He basically wants to spend every waking moment with Glo (and probably some sleeping ones too ;-)).
He takes her out to eat all the time, or makes her dinner. Yes, he makes her dinner.
He brings her flowers. He drives her to and from the airport. He comes to her concerts.
There are times I want to shake Glo and ask her if she's crazy for not falling head over heels for him. I know that back in the day when I was 19 and single, I wouldn't have looked anywhere else. Oh wait, I didn't.
Yep, when I read a couple of the texts that he sends her to John, he looked right at Glo and said, "That's the kind of thing I say to Mommy." And in our house, that means a lot because the girls always ask me how they can find someone to marry like Ethan or Mark, or Daddy.
Two problems--he's shorter than Glo, and in our family, height is venerated. He's about an inch shorter. Obviously, it doesn't bother him, but it bothers Glo. And she just doesn't find him attractive at all. I must admit that this is hard for me to understand, because as a young single, I just wanted someone who would love me (of course, I got lucky when I met my man, John, getting both love and sexiness :-)). But the kids carry family love and acceptance in their back pockets, so I think they feel like they can be more choosy. At least my girls do. And it drives me up the wall.
And in all honesty, I wish Glo would just break up with him. He cares so deeply for her (and I found out last night that he even tells her that he loves her) that it pains me to see her stringing him along. She keeps saying that she's dating him for "experience", but I was the first person to notice that he has changed Glo. She is kinder and sweeter and more patient around the family now (which, as you know, there's never seemed an end to Glo's snarkiness). And she seems much more confident and sure of herself--and who can blame her? Having someone who sees you as something so terrific? Always good for the self-esteem.
As a side note: Ethan was Hannah's best friend for the first little while, but Hannah can't stand him now, mostly because he takes time away from her and Glo. And because she says he's a "fair-weather" friend. I think there's more to how he acts than Hannah allows herself to see, and she seems to expect perfection from any man, but she has to work and live with him so she's allowed to feel how she wants to feel. But it's difficult for Glo when neither wants to be with the other person but she wants to spend time with both of them.
But he is too good to just keep waiting in the wings. A couple of weeks ago, he sat her down, and I thought he was going to break up with her and probably would have if she hadn't cut him off at the pass. He told her that she just doesn't show any of the love back, and that's not a product of not caring about him. Glo just isn't good at showing love, and she is the exact opposite of a drama queen. Yep, no drama ever. When we go to hug her, any of us at any time, she just keeps her arms at her side. And she's pretty emotionally distant, not really telling any of us how she feels about anything. It works great for things like life (not riding an up and down emotional roller coaster about daily struggles), and it's really terrific for auditions (only good nervousness manifests itself for her), but it takes me getting mad at her for not appreciating me for her to remember that she needs to express her feelings. She does love us and she does want to be with us, but she isn't good at showing it unless she is specifically reminding herself that she needs to do so.
And her boyfriend is amazing at doing so? Yeah, I can see why he probably feels like he needs to move on. But in true Glo fashion, she apologized (she's very good at that--again, no drama) to him and asked for another chance at doing better. She asked for a week. And he said okay. Again, she is doing this under the guise of "learning", and I'm glad that she's looking at dating that way, but this poor guy deserves better. She has had this incredible first experience with real dating, and she's been really open and mature about the whole thing--I've seriously been so proud of her, and I couldn't have asked for her to handle it all better. But I do believe she's going to come home off her mission and wonder if maybe she didn't miss out on someone really great.
Since I've posted about all of my kids' first loves, I find that I can't really delete Glo from the spotlight. Per the usual post about my kids, I wish that they would write the details since they are living their own lives, but per the usual actions of my kids, they don't. So here I go!
Back at the end of September, I was on the phone with Glo (at BYU), and she told me to hold on--there was someone at her door. I then proceeded to hear what sounded like a very nice, very deep-voiced man ask her if she'd like to go out to dinner with him. Olive Garden, I believe. She came back on the phone, acting like nothing had even happened, and it took a minute for me to say, "Glo, did you just get asked out on a DATE?" Yeah, in true Glo form, it was no big deal...
Turns out, Ethan (yes, what are the chances?) had been thinking about asking Glo out for a while. He is an RA in Heritage Halls, and had met her through Hannah (being an RA as well). He was so insecure though about asking her out, that it wasn't until Hannah held Ethan's phone hostage until he did so, that he finally got up the courage (or desperation for his phone) and walked over to her room and asked.
He was obviously motivated because within a week, Glo had had her first kiss. And yes, she was so good about sharing all of the details with the family that it was really fun for all of us to relive "the first love", make-out sessions and all ;-)
 |
| This is the first picture we had of him (because he doesn't have a FB account, darn it!). He would bring her flowers on dates, and even gave her flowers on her birthday. |
And yes, you know when you think of what kind of boy you want for your girls, you have a certain idea? For me, I don't care so much about what the boy looks like, but I sure care about how he treats my girls and what kind of provider he will be.
Well, within two weeks, Glo was feeling rather "meh" about him. One of her first strange comments to me was, "I wasn't really planning on having a boyfriend this semester." And in her defense, she is leaving on a mission in January. But for this kind of kid to be her first real boyfriend (sorry, Cole--you held her hand and took her to prom and were a good friend, but you didn't quite cut it)? I told her yesterday, while sitting in the pool at The Sunshine Suites, I think she's going to be hard-pressed to find anyone like him when she comes off her mission. Not that I mean any kind of pressure--it's just he treats her like a queen.
First off, he's smart, Like, he's studying economics so that he can go to law school. And he does well in school.
He's 20. He was sent home from his mission for medical reasons. Nobody asks him more than that so I have no more details.
He was a competitive ballroom dancer before his mission. Like, he qualified for the BYU DanceSport team, one of the best collegiate ballroom teams in the world. And he likes to dance with her in the kitchen while he's cooking. *swoon*
He is devoted. None of the other stuff really matters to me. He literally wants to spend every wakinghe makes her dinner. He found out that she hates Provo and all of its development and pollution, so he drove her up north of Salt Lake to see the beautiful part of Utah. And as if that wasn't enough, he drove her to Arches National Park one Saturday...while she slept in the car both there and back. He basically wants to spend every waking moment with Glo (and probably some sleeping ones too ;-)).
He takes her out to eat all the time, or makes her dinner. Yes, he makes her dinner.
He brings her flowers. He drives her to and from the airport. He comes to her concerts.
There are times I want to shake Glo and ask her if she's crazy for not falling head over heels for him. I know that back in the day when I was 19 and single, I wouldn't have looked anywhere else. Oh wait, I didn't.
Yep, when I read a couple of the texts that he sends her to John, he looked right at Glo and said, "That's the kind of thing I say to Mommy." And in our house, that means a lot because the girls always ask me how they can find someone to marry like Ethan or Mark, or Daddy.
Two problems--he's shorter than Glo, and in our family, height is venerated. He's about an inch shorter. Obviously, it doesn't bother him, but it bothers Glo. And she just doesn't find him attractive at all. I must admit that this is hard for me to understand, because as a young single, I just wanted someone who would love me (of course, I got lucky when I met my man, John, getting both love and sexiness :-)). But the kids carry family love and acceptance in their back pockets, so I think they feel like they can be more choosy. At least my girls do. And it drives me up the wall.
And in all honesty, I wish Glo would just break up with him. He cares so deeply for her (and I found out last night that he even tells her that he loves her) that it pains me to see her stringing him along. She keeps saying that she's dating him for "experience", but I was the first person to notice that he has changed Glo. She is kinder and sweeter and more patient around the family now (which, as you know, there's never seemed an end to Glo's snarkiness). And she seems much more confident and sure of herself--and who can blame her? Having someone who sees you as something so terrific? Always good for the self-esteem.
As a side note: Ethan was Hannah's best friend for the first little while, but Hannah can't stand him now, mostly because he takes time away from her and Glo. And because she says he's a "fair-weather" friend. I think there's more to how he acts than Hannah allows herself to see, and she seems to expect perfection from any man, but she has to work and live with him so she's allowed to feel how she wants to feel. But it's difficult for Glo when neither wants to be with the other person but she wants to spend time with both of them.
But he is too good to just keep waiting in the wings. A couple of weeks ago, he sat her down, and I thought he was going to break up with her and probably would have if she hadn't cut him off at the pass. He told her that she just doesn't show any of the love back, and that's not a product of not caring about him. Glo just isn't good at showing love, and she is the exact opposite of a drama queen. Yep, no drama ever. When we go to hug her, any of us at any time, she just keeps her arms at her side. And she's pretty emotionally distant, not really telling any of us how she feels about anything. It works great for things like life (not riding an up and down emotional roller coaster about daily struggles), and it's really terrific for auditions (only good nervousness manifests itself for her), but it takes me getting mad at her for not appreciating me for her to remember that she needs to express her feelings. She does love us and she does want to be with us, but she isn't good at showing it unless she is specifically reminding herself that she needs to do so.
And her boyfriend is amazing at doing so? Yeah, I can see why he probably feels like he needs to move on. But in true Glo fashion, she apologized (she's very good at that--again, no drama) to him and asked for another chance at doing better. She asked for a week. And he said okay. Again, she is doing this under the guise of "learning", and I'm glad that she's looking at dating that way, but this poor guy deserves better. She has had this incredible first experience with real dating, and she's been really open and mature about the whole thing--I've seriously been so proud of her, and I couldn't have asked for her to handle it all better. But I do believe she's going to come home off her mission and wonder if maybe she didn't miss out on someone really great.
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