Blog Hop...Engagement Story!

So I'm still behind on Mama M's blog hop, but who cares?

For starters...our engagement story!

I'd been expecting a ring for, oh, months. We'd finally talked seriously about marriage and even went ring shopping together. Two of my closest girlfriends were even ready and waiting with example photos of rings I liked in case he came to one of them for help. He'd even been instructed to go to one of them for help! Finally, around Thanksgiving, he promised me I'd "have bling by Christmas."

Every day that went by and there was no sparkly number on my finger, I got more and more impatient!

One of the weekends right before Christmas was jam-packed with parties and friends galore. I was sure that he'd pop the question at one of those events. Friday night was a party at the house I live in with some close friends. No ring, no biggie. Saturday night was a concert in Annapolis with other friends. Still no ring, I was a little peeved. Sunday night was the annual Young Life Christmas party. STILL NO RING, and I called my mom after crying. He now had seven days until Christmas day, and I still wanted some element of surprise.

Tuesday morning, Lenny happened to pick up a substitute teaching job at the school where I worked at the time. I was excited to introduce him around. At the end of the day though, he was nowhere to be found. He'd left the second the bell rang, I was mad. I called him and yelled at him for being so rude and he apologized. I went to meet up with my sister at the mall for some final Christmas shopping. We were there a couple of hours, and she kept checking her phone and acting a little odd. She kept making up excuses to drive me back to my house, which was 25 minutes away. I had planned to go to the winter concert at my school that night, and really didn't feel like going back to Rockville. Excuse after excuse...we finally ended up arguing. "I do NOT want to go back to Rockville right now! You can come over some other time!" I exclaimed in exasperation. She rolled her eyes, grabbed my shoulder, and said, "Trust me. You need to go home right now."

Oh.

Then I laughed, she told me I was a moron, and home I went, feeling a little giddy and shaky. When I pulled up to the house, I burst into laughter. Our front stoop was covered in newspapers and balloons, a re-enactment of a silly prank some of my girlfriends and I pulled on Lenny and his housemates in college. There was a note attached that was the first "clue" in a series I was to follow on a scavenger hunt around the University of Maryland. My roommate of 5 years was ready and waiting to drive me around to accomplish this feat. We started at Starbucks for some caffeine (he wanted me ready for a loooong night!) and followed the first clue to the house he'd lived in while in college. His old roomates, who still lived there, accosted me and gave me roses and the next clue. The clues took me all over College Park, and at each stop were more friends waiting with another clue and three roses. It was very memorable and very special!

Finally, at the last stop, he was waiting for me with the ring. I don't remember at all what he said, just that at some point he said, "Will you marry me?" and I said, "Yeahhh..." in a very small and choked up voice.

However, he still hadn't opened the ring box! I was going crazy. I wanted to see it! He finally said, "Before you open this, I have to explain some things..."

Turns out, the ring had taken a long time to come in to the store. He kept having to push back the day of proposing because the ring still wasn't in. He'd run out of the school that afternoon ("Oh, uh, sorry for yelling at you!") because he'd gotten the call and had to go to Virginia to get it. But when he got there, they'd made a mistake. No ring. He freaked out, and they said they'd give him the store model (which was 100% FAKE) to use in the mean time. Problem was, that ring was a full carat; mine is a 1/2. So, before he put it on my finger, he had to explain that it was a fake! I totally did not mind; I would have been furious if he'd spent that much. We needed money for our honeymoon!


We drove to my parents' house and enjoyed a fun impromptu engagement party with our friends.

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