The Engagement

These are a few of our engagement pictures.

I have always loved the first pic. We look happy, [Ahem. I was skinny], and I love the wind blowing through my hair as if we're on the set of some major photo shoot. And Jeff's open eyes as he kisses me. Wait! What? Why the heck are Jeff's eyes open? In all the pics we got with Jeff kissing me, his eyes were wide open. To this day I do not let him live it down.

Notice the bare feet in pic two? Yeah, I didn't want to be taller than Jeff in all our pics [like some amazon woman towering over the man]. Oh the things you worry about.

Like I said before, Jeff and I had planned on getting married a year before we actually did. That's why when it came to ring shopping, we kind of already had that covered. Jeff had gone and picked out a ring, in a round about way got my final approval, and we just always knew that would be the ring. So when we decided to postpone our engagement for a year, we both just figured that when the time came, that would be the ring we got. I was a little disappointed because in my fairytale mind, my engagement would always come as a complete surprise. Not knowing when it would happen, my prince would pop a ring, and I would happily say yes. At this point in my life I was also aware that life isn't quite like the movies, so I didn't really let it bother me either.

However, a few months before we were getting ready to commit to buying the ring, Jeff told me that the design we'd chosen had been discontinued since the company only like to release their designs for so many years. I didn't know at this point that he was lying. Everytime we revisted the jeweler Jeff had them trained to hide the setting we had previously chosen so that I wouldn't see it still existed.

The summer we were going to get married, then postponed, I went to a couple of the bridal shows around town to get a head start on the next summer's wedding. The jeweler we were using had a booth at one, and when I looked at their display, I saw my ring. I was so surprised, brought my mom over to see it, and told the girl working the booth that I couldn't believe they had it available again. Hearing me say that, she remembered who I was, and quickly told me that it was still discontinued. This was just a model they took to shows since they wouldn't have to be worried it would get stolen. After the show I went home and told Jeff that I had seen the ring again, and told him the rest of the story. If I would have been suspecting anything I guess I would have picked up on the panic in his eyes as I told the story, but no. I was still oblivious.

Time went on, and I didn't think much about getting engaged. I knew it would happen, and we just had so many other things going on with building the house, etc. Behind my back Jeff had moved some money around, ordered the ring, and was just waiting for it to arrive. Jeff had taken my mom out to lunch and formally asked her for my hand. She asked when he planned to propose, and how he was going to do it. He told her that the ring was due back in a week or so, and that he wanted to do it as soon as the time was right.

A few days later Jeff got word that the ring had arrived. He let my mom know, and she began trying to plan a fun way for him to propose. We had a softball game that night, and my mom thought it would be fun to run out on the field when I was up to bat and insist that the umpire stop the game. At that point he'd get down on one knee, and our engagement would begin.

However, when Jeff picked up the ring that day, it must have burned a hole in his pocket. He'd picked it up at 4, and by 5:30, we were engaged. After work he called me to see if I wanted to drive down and see how the progress was going on our house. This is something we usually did, and since we had some time before the game, I agreed.

We walked around the foundation that had been poured, and stopped in the backyard and just kind of stood to take it all in. Jeff hugged me from behind and we just stared. Then he said [not exact quotes], "Isn't it weird that we met each other, we've dated, and now we're just staring at the place where we'll start the rest of our lives together?" And I said, "Yeah, but we still have a lot to do before that happens. We're not even engaged yet." To which he replied, "Well why don't we just do it right now?" I was confused and went to turn and look at him, when I looked down and saw the ring in his hands. My ring. The one I thought was gone. It was beautiful, and sparkly, and MINE! And we'd done it! We were finally engaged.