Engagement Story

I will admit that I am obsessed with my engagement ring. It is often a subject of conversation for me and the mister is quite proud of his picking-out-engagement-ring steez. After a year and a couple of months of wearing it I still look down and smile. Because its more than just (a carat worth of) diamonds, its Mike. I look at my left ring finger and I remember the day he asked me to marry him, and yes he did get on his knee! And I remember the day he said "I think we should get married" and then he took me to the jewelry store and let me narrow it down to three choices of rings: a modern style engagement ring and band, a simple solitaire ring, or a vintage-classic looking ring and a band. The day was our two year anniversary, March 13, 2008.

I know this is not the "typical" way that a man proposes to his girlfriend. But we're not a typical couple, and I didn't want to wear something on my hand for the rest of my life that I wouldn't like. Bitchy? Maybe. But times have changed ladies and gents. We should be able to make decisions that matter too, and when it came time for that pretty sparkly little thing to stick on my finger, I wanted a say. And honestly, Mike didn't want to screw it up either. So we went together, and Mike made the final decision. The three rings that I tried on, well, I loved them all. But how could you not love diamonds and gold. Together. In ring form. On the finger that means that the guy you love loves you too, and wants to make if for real and forever.

Once I narrowed down the choice to three, I left. Went to the food court to munch on some Paradise Bakery, and read a book. An hour later my phone buzzed, it was Mike. He said he was done at the jewelry store and we were ready to go. I didn't know what had happened. Had he purchased the ring? Did he have it with him now? When would he propose? In due time I found out the answers. Yes. No. And just seven days later.

Lets zoom ahead to March 20th. A week later I came home from work. Mike was there, which was unusual because he is usually either on his way out the door or had already left for work for the night. But he was home. And opened a bottle of red wine. I changed (into my pajamas), and did my nightly routine:
1. Change into P.J's (check)
2. Park it on the couch (check)
3. Drink a littler merlot (check, check)
4. Open up laptop, and go to work on reading blogs (check)
What I didn't add into my routine on this particular day was Mike coming out of our bedroom with a tiny black box in his hand. He looked at me square in the eyes, I shut my computer and was like "dude, what are you doing", and then he got down on his knee and said "Will you marry me?" All I could say was "Duh". Seriously. I said "Duh" to a marriage proposal. After that I pulled myself together enough to be like "YEAH DUDE, I MEAN YES! YESSSS". And then I cried, and we made dinner together and just hung out. For like two hours, before Mike had to go to work for the whole night. That was a bummer. But I decided to head over to my moms house and show her the goods, and that my friends is how we got engaged.

No sky-writing, no romantic dinner on top of the tallest building in Phoenix, no exotic vacation. Because we're not like that. We are pajama-wearing, wine-drinking, home people. And it was perfect.