The Proposal

I woke up This Sunday morning and upon coming out of the bathroom, glanced over at the sleeping person in the bed and thought to myself "that is my future husband." I can't even begin to describe how this made me feel. This is something that I've been long awaiting in so many ways and it has finally happened. I'm really getting married!!!

Saturday, April 4th was the day, though I was completely unaware of this. Andrew woke up that morning and decided that he was going to pop the question. He had apparently had the ring for some time. In fact, it came in the mail on a day that I actually checked it. So I held the package in my hand, unknowing what was inside and that it was the key that defined the happiest day of my life.

I had to work that Saturday and I remember lying in bed with the dreaded feeling of having to get up so early during the weekend. I also remember in looking back that Andrew had draped his arms across me and held me really tight. I love when he does that. It makes me feel so loved and safe and warm.

I went to work and had kind of a rough day. So when I got home, I just wanted to hang out with Andrew and do something fun. We decided to go to the park and walk around a little bit. We get there and I notice that Andrew is acting a little weird....yes, weirder than usual which I know to most of you this probably seems like a bit of a stretch. We had gotten out of the car and I noticed that he hadn't locked the doors. So I asked him if he was going to because I had my purse in the car.

So this is what he does. He walks back to the car, opens the car door and closes it again.....doors are still unlocked.

"You ok?" I asked him.

"Jeez what is wrong with me?" He mumbled to himself. So he opens the car door again, pushes down the lock and closes the door. To understand what is wrong with this picture is to know that you can't lock the doors on his car without turning the key and locking it from the outside...therefore...the doors are still unlocked.

I stare blankly at him and he starts walking away from the car. "Ok." I think to myself. "Um...the doors are still unlocked...are you sure you're ok? Do you need to eat something?"

"Mumble mumble mumble."He walks back to the car for a third time and finally succeeds in the trying task of securing my purse.

It's a beautiful day outside and lots of families are out and about together. One of our favorite things to do is people watch so we were strolling along the park taking everything in. As we start walking back to the car, Andrew taps his pocket and asks himself..."What is that?"

I freeze and make a slide glace to him....and......

He takes out his cell phone.....damn it. By this time, my mind is drifting further and further away from the thought that a proposal might be coming soon.

We run a few errands and try to figure out what we're going to do that night. I had previously texted Pat and Jenn to see if they wanted to hang out but his friend Andy had also said something earlier in the week about hanging out too. After discussing what we were going to do, we were going to try to play it by ear and most likely stay home and hang out and watch a movie or something.

We get home and we're sitting in the dining room, playing with the cats and taking up the sun. The prettiest time of day is around 4 o' clock when the sun is coming in from our bay window. I was lounging on the little love seat and Andrew mentions that he might just go hang out with Andy anyway.

"Ok. But what if Pat and Jenn call?" I ask.

"I don't know. I don't know what I really want to do."

"But you said about an hour ago that you wanted to stay in."

"Yeah. I think I do."

"Ok then." I go upstairs to use the bathroom when I hear my phone ring. My phone is downstairs and I'm running down to try and catch it before it stops, but merely break my leg in the process so don't quite make it. Me+stairs+running=bad thing.

I check my voice mail and it's Pat wanting to hang out. So I ask Andrew if he wants me to just invite them over and we can still all hang out.

He comes from somewhere upstairs (where he went up to get the ring while I was distracted...who knew he could be so sneaky? and says, "You know. I think I am just going to go hang out with Andy."

Are you kidding me? I hate when he's being wishy washy and he KNOWS this! Why can't he make up his damn mind?

In other words...by this time I'm upset. I stomp around with my phone in my hand exclaiming sarcastically, "I wanna stay in, I wanna go hang out with Pat and Jenn, I wanna go out with Andy, I wanna stay in...blah blah blah! Which is it? What do you want to do? It's not that hard of a decision!"

He stares at me blankly..."Well what do you want to do?"

"UGHHHHHH!!!! Fine! I'll just go hang out with Pat and Jenn and we'll meet up later."

He's standing in the kitchen. staring at me through the opening that separates the kitchen from the living room where I am standing and stops and says "This is so perfect. This is so us."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

He stares lovingly at me and shakes his head. I'm livid and refusing to look at him in the eye for too long because he knows every time I do, I just melt and forget everything we were just arguing about. What were we arguing about? He walks out of the kitchen into the dining room and grabs a book off the shelf. It's my "The Personality of Birthdays" book and he sets it on the counter in front of me.

"Open it to your birthday."

"Why? I know what it says..." Grumble grumble grumble.

"Just...open it to your birthday."

"Fine!!!" I start flipping towards the back of the book, he interrupts me...

"I think it's more towards the front."

"Grumble grumble...I know what it f***in' says."

I make it to the page of my birthday and stop short. There on the page is one of the 365 post-it notes I gave him in his stocking during our first Christmas together. In my writing, it says "I love you" and placed below it is the date he put it there which was sometime in May last year. It's what was beneath this note that caught the majority of my attention. There was another post-it that said "I have a question to ask you......"

I gasped and stared blankly at the page, full of so much emotion and looked over at Andrew who was now standing beside me.

"I've been trying to figure out the perfect way to ask you this. Everyone has been giving me ideas from doing it on top of a mountain or in a fancy restaurant. That's not us and I wanted to do it from the heart and I knew I would know when the right time came. I love you so much and I want to spend the rest of my life with you."
(Let me just say before I go any further that this is only the gist of his speech. What he actually said was so much more beautiful and moving but I could never replicate it. Plus, it's all kind of a blur because it all happened so fast.)

He gets down on one knee and grabs my hand and says "My last name, you, your first name me?" (Translation: Will you marry me?":)

"YES!!!!! Yes yes yes yes yes!!!!!" I'm jumping up and down at this point and practically tackle him.

"Wait." He says. "Did you say yes?"

"Yes! Wait, did I actually give you the chance to ask?"

"Yes!"

We stare at each other and it's so obvious how we feel about one another. We may have our stupid arguments, but....wait.

"Did you start that argument on purpose?"

He smiles at me and says "I got you good."

Wow. I am not an easy person to surprise and he was right. He did get me good. And it was perfect. It was so us and I wouldn't have changed a thing. The day I had been waiting for had finally come and I was speechless. I didn't know what to say. I still really don't.

I'm so overwhelmed by so many emotions, but in a good way. Everything seems brighter and happier and glow-y and good. Everything between us seems that much better, even though only the one thing has changed. We're engaged. But actually knowing. Actually having this ring on my finger that I so adore, is everything and more than I could have ever dreamed of. We can now talk more openly about our plans for the future, our future, and it makes me so very happy to know that we're going to be together for the rest of our lives.

I had woken up that morning expecting to have just a regular ordinary Saturday, but it turned out to be the happiest day of my life. I love you Andrew! 'Till death do us part and longer. "Forever" is what makes us unique, because we believe in it and because it will last and because we are meant to be. But most of all, it's because it's "True love. You think this sort of thing happens everyday?"