3 to 10

To preface the engagement story I must tell you...

1. Very early on John learned that I love surprises.
2. He also learned that I happen to be very clever and end up spoiling a lot of surprises for myself on accident.
3. So from a few months in he started planting seeds about wanting to take our time and date for "3-10 years". (As mentioned in number 2 I am clever and so I knew that 3-10 was an exaggeration, but I was going to let him drag his feet for at least a year, so that I could travel. Naturally.)
4. He and Lacey Gchat.
5. He made me cry before I moved down to Texas because I felt that he wasn't putting as much effort into this relationship as I was. (Little did I know he already had purchased my ring.)

So I made the big move down to Texas and that first Friday I was awoken by this message from John. "It's May 6th. It's going to be a great day! Write that down." I fell right back asleep not thinking a thing of it.

I had a fairly mediocre day that involved nail painting, sun bathing, and hanging out with his dog. The symphony was on the docket for the evening so I got dressed up and he came to pick me up. We ditched out on the symphony at intermission because he was moving the next day and we had a lot to do. (Again a ploy to get me to do what he wanted. The truth was that he left the ring in his truck and was out of his mind nervous about it.)

When we got back in his truck he told me that he had a surprise for me. (I thought that meant that we were going to get ice cream. I am a simple person. Easy to please.) I soon realized that we were driving to his new place and not his house. Being the "clever" girl that I am I figured that was the surprise, but didn't want to ruin it by saying anything.

We got to the apartment, to which he had just gotten the keys that afternoon, and he had a beautiful vase of tulips waiting for me. (This is not anything out of the ordinary. He is very sweet. There is still no inkling that anything "special" is going on here.) Gave me a little tour of the apartment. And then we sat down on the new carpet in front of the empty fireplace in the darkness.

I didn't realize in all of my supposed cleverness that John was steering the conversation somewhere, I was busy all wrapped up in the feeling that it was one of those nights that was so wonderful that nothing could bring my feet back to the ground. Just being next to him felt magical. All I knew was that sitting on the floor in the empty apartment, so dark I could just make out his face, so close I could feel him breathing, that everything that I needed in this world was right there. Right in front of me. The night would have been complete had it ended then.

It didn't. :)

Basically he just told me that he woke up on April 1st and knew that I was the girl that he was going to spend the rest of his life with and he asked me to marry him right there, kneeling on the floor, in the dark. I thought he was joking, and was pretty mad at him because that is not something funny to joke about. Remember the "3-10 year plan"?

Turns out he wasn't joking, pulled out the most gorgeous ring, and succeeded in pulling off the greatest surprise of my life!