Our Story: Holding Hands.

This post is the fourth edition of the Brock and SarahLynn Courtship Story. If you missed the first installment you can read it here, second here and the third here. I am posting this part of the story five years to the day of the first time we held hands. 

I love thinking about the time between our second date and when we first held hands because there were so many everyday experiences that allowed us to become best friends. 

Porch Laying
One of these experiences was porch laying. Somehow, I had come across some strange costume goggles and when I saw them I knew just what I needed to do. Brock and I had discussed the recent trend of porch laying (much like today's planking. It is when you knock on someone's door and then lay there stiff in front of there door) and how if anyone did it to him he would pour water on them. I told him that I had the perfect solution to this I would just wear something waterproof and then his water would have no effect.

Once I found these costume goggles I was ready for the test, would Brock keep coming around if I did something as random and crazy as porch laying.

Getting Ready to jump over to Brock's apartment.

So with the help of my roommates, old roommates and FHE brothers I prepared for my porch laying experience. I got wrapped tightly in clear plastic wrap from shoulders to ankles and hopped over from my FHE brother's apartment to Brock's (luckily it was only a few doors down). Then I was eased to the ground by my many trusted assistants. Then someone knocked on the door and they all scattered according to plan and left me there as the solitary, helpless porch layer.
Sadly Brock was not the one that opened the door it was his roommate who was really confused. So he went and got Brock. At this point I was half concerned that Brock was going to really get me (even though my body was protected from water I wouldn't have been able to move out of the way of his attack).
I still remember the look on Brock's face he had a big smile, shook his head and said, "SarahLynn, what are you doing?" And then he proceeded to help me get up. This was a much bigger task than we had imaged because I was nearly as stiff as a board with clear plastic wrap.

Brock trying to get me up but at this point we both realized we would need more help. Good thing my roommates Mallory and Lori were downstairs.

Mal and Lori getting me unwound so that Brock didn't have to touch me in any inappropriate places

The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day
Fall of 2006, I was really busy with classes and my church calling. On one such day I had a big activity planned. I had not yet realized the magic of delegating and needless to say the activity fell flat on its face and all my hard work had gone down the drain. After this activity failed I felt like I wanted to crawl into bed and never show my face again, but I also wanted to see Brock because of my (over) involvement in the activity I hadn't had much time to spend with him for a couple of days.
I came to him sorely disappointed. Looking back, I realized that a good friend will make you feel better about a disappointment but a best friend will respectfully and kindly help you realize what you did to cause the problem, all the while making you feel better.
That night we roasted mini marshmallows and made mini s'mores with chocolate chips and teddy grahams. It was amazing after a The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day; I went to bed knowing that I could do better at my calling and that I had a friend that would listen.

Roasting our "marshmallows"

A completed mini s'more

Cuddling on the Couch
Even though Brock and I were spending a lot of time together. It was usually very active time, like making dinner, going grocery shopping or helping each other study. I would classify the two of us as physically shy individuals, we both moved incredibly slow (like snail, but that actually might be faster than we move).  So with our active dates/activities we didn't have the opportunity to move to the next level, holding hands.
One weekend to help us out my roommates decided that we should all watch a movie, Brock and I happily agreed. Though I had taken the lead in asking Brock on our first date that as far as my courage allowed me to go, so if we were going to hold hands it was going to be all up to Brock. So there we sat watching Minority Report, Brock slowly moved his hand up over my shoulder. Guess what it took probably 130 of the 145 minutes of watching the movie for him to get it all the way around. By that point his hand was totally asleep. I cuddled into him for a second but then suddenly his arm went numb and he had to put it down. So a swing and a miss on both our parts on getting to the hand holding stage. But I knew he liked me, and he wasn't one of those guys that was just cuddling because I was the closest warm body around (trust me I knew the type). He was way too slow moving to be a player, and that was absolutely endearing for me (pretty darn frustrating for my roommates that were happily cheering our relationship on).
Fast forward to six days later Brock and I were running from one activity to another and no good opportunities had presented themselves for us to hold hands. We went to go watch our friends play some rec sport, afterward they asked if we wanted to do something with them, Brock agreed but interjected that we should watch a movie. I wish I could remember what we watched that night but I know it was a chick flick (totally not Brock's type of movie) but he was focused, within the first 20 minutes he had his arm around me at that point I moved my opposite side hand over and touched my finger tips to his. He quickly grabbed my hand and said, "My arm is starting to fall asleep, do you mind if we just hold hands." I happily agreed to the comprise.
Looking at this story in retrospect is fun because Brock is a real gentleman and he is a planner big time. Now that I know that about him, I know that the second movie he didn't care what it was because he had one goal in mind, hold my hand.
The following day it snowed and we had a meeting to go to. Brock asked me if he could pick me up, I was thrilled. It was nice to have another body to hold onto as I slipped in my heels (at the time I didn't own any short church shoes). That night Brock dropped a few casual DTR (Define the Relationship) phrases without all the awkwardness that usually accompanies a DTR. At one point he talked about us being a nice tall couple, then he moved on to something else and finally ended with we are a nice couple. I agreed and from there we both knew we were in a relationship probably the least painful DTR known to BYU-Idaho History.