Otherwise Engaged

This picture was taken the night Mike proposed, December 14, 2002. I had on my favorite sweatshirt and no makeup and we both look a little tired — but I wouldn’t change a thing.

Yesterday, M at My Sanctuary had an interesting post about getting engaged. Go read it, I’ll wait.

She heard that 80% of women were not satisfied with how they became engaged and asked about how others were engaged. “Did he propose? Did you propose? Did you hint and/or nag for him to ask you? Were you happy with the proposal?”

Because I am kinda crazy, and apparently like to write about my life, I wrote out my entire day from the day I was engaged. Here it is:

Grandpa woke me up this morning at home. I had gone home to surprise him at Skippers and see Jane about pageant stuff. Mom was frustrated with Fred because he wouldn’t eat so she could give him his shot.

I called Mike on my way to Charleston – as usual. He was up and getting motivated. When I got home he met me downstairs and unloaded my car. I repacked and we started the journey home (yes, 3 homes!).

Our drive home was fairly normal – just regular talking, plotting and planning. We stopped at a McD’s in Gibson City. I ordered hot cakes and sausage. Needless to say I managed to drip syrup all over my outfit — good thing I was bumming it today…

We arrived home and decided to go out to lunch with Jim and Sherri at Bennigans. Yum. Then Mike and I were off to shop. Our first stop was Linens and Things – we got X-mas gifts for Mom, and a new shower holder — then down to the “Commons” for my first trip there. We browsed and bought little but it did end up being the day of the soft beige bear from Pottery Barn. I think he will get a special name.

Next off we went to Geneva to do some browsing on State Street. I knew Mike was having the ring made but I wasn’t supposed to receive it till after the state pageant in January. I decided to head to Starbucks while he went to check on it. His friend, Andy, happened to be in State Street at the time too. Mike came out and was holding his jacket funny but when I got across the street he told me it wasn’t done yet and we continued shopping.

We returned home and soon after Pete and Jenni arrived — tortellini was the plan for dinner. I went to brush my teeth and Mike showed his parents. I was oblivious. We made tortellini and I was in charge of stuffing – while I was getting a lesson from Jim about the wonders of cheese sauce Mike showed the ring to Pete and Jenni.

Mike told his mom he was going to ask me tonight in the dining room. Turns out I walked in soon after so Mike was a bit scared I had heard.

Eventually we all sat down to dinner — tortellini, grilled salmon, broccoli, salad, French bread, and win. We all had a nice dinner with plenty of chatting – as usual.

At the end of the meal – it happened. Mike was staring at his plate and all of a sudden he looks at me and then around the table and said “Do all of you know how much I love this girl?” I said something to the effect of “stop-it” and “be quiet!”. He didn’t shut-up – all of a sudden he flung his chair back and was on one knee. In the back of my mind I knew this was it but it still seemed like he could be joking. That is when both of our brains shut-off and neither of us really remember (even a few hours later) what was said. Mike said he loved me – I make him happy – and he wants to spend the rest of his life with me. Then he asked “Will you marry me?” I said “yes” and he reached in his pocket for the ring. All I remember at that point is saying “Oh My God!” about seven times and kissing him while he was still on one knee. I looked around the table and Sherri and Jenni were both all watery and everyone was grinning from ear-to-ear. Sherri said we should have a few minutes together while they cleaned up – I vainly protested – needless to say we didn’t clean up much.

We stared talking and I laughed that Mike had lied to me — he told me he got a plain band – this one had beautiful side stones! I also couldn’t believe he had known all afternoon. I was so excited I was giddy, giggly and couldn’t breathe at some points.

Pete and Jenni left soon after due to Jenni’s back but Jim, Sherri, Mike and I talked for quite awhile – we found out that stoplights have magnetic detectors in them to see the cars. It was an interesting conversation.

After Jim and Sherri went to bed we went down and talked by the pool table — with the intention of playing pool but we never got that far — we decided to get ready for bed and I decided I needed to write down my memories of the day – so here I am – laying on the little twin bed with Mike writing about my day — the day I woke up suspecting nothing and will fall asleep knowing I will be with Mike FOREVER!

I typed that word for word from what I typed that night (I definitely use the word ‘got’ a lot less now!). Typing it tonight brought back so many memories of that night — I can remember so much of it so vividly.

Obviously, you can tell from what I wrote that night that I knew he was going to propose – I just didn’t realize it was going to be then. We had moved in together in June and we were both in school working on our masters. Around October we had decided to get married and set the date for October 31, 2003.

We kind of did things backwards. We were already living together and planning the wedding before we were engaged — but for us, it just worked. I think we would have gotten married 2 months after we started dating if we would have been a little older and known that it wouldn’t have been frowned upon!

Our Halloween wedding had to be post-poned because I won the pageant I was in later in January. And we had to keep our engagement a secret until after that pageant as well (that was such a mess!). Needless to say when I won the pageant the first thought that went through my mind was “shit, what about the wedding?”. I called Starved Rock the next day and decided we would get married on the first holiday after I gave up my crown — Valentine’s Day!

As I’ve stated before, I’m a firm believer in the thought process that ‘everything happens for a reason’. (Even with infertility…) Everything happened for a reason and we ended up with a beautiful wedding. I still get a bit whimsical on Halloween about the wedding that should have been but I loved our Valentine’s wedding and I think it was a lot of fun.

This is ridiculously long now!! Sorry! But suffice it to say. Yes, I was happy with the proposal and how it all played out. I can’t imagine it all happening any other way.