Proposal

Once the ring options were handed over I turned into a crazy person, anxiously waiting for the proposal. Over the next few months I started with subtle reminders that I was waiting and then got so impatient I threw in some angry pleas. I was tired of waiting - we both knew it was going to happen, I felt like he was ruining the whole experience for me.

Then my grandfather died. Two days after Thanksgiving. I was devastated. I was hurt that he never made it to Tampa to see my house. I was hurt that he wouldn't be at our wedding, or meet our kids. I was hurt that he wouldn't ever even know that Andrew proposed. It should have put things in the perspective of: life is too short to be angry. But instead all I could think was: life is too short to be waiting for something we both know is coming!

I felt like Andrew's window of opportunity had passed. I always told him I didn't want to get engaged around the holidays. So it was starting to look like it wasn't going to happen for 2011.

It wasn't until January that I really lost it. We were going to be visiting my best friend in Boston at the end of the month and I knew if he hadn't already ordered my ring that it wouldn't come in before we left (the original saleslady told me it would take 4-6 weeks to come in). I was furious. I flat out asked him one day why he hadn't done anything yet and told him how mad and hurt I was. That I felt stupid for thinking for an entire year that it was coming, and nothing happening. He apologized and said there was no reason behind it that he just hadn't done it yet. After that I started to get the feeling that he took me seriously but still assumed he would have to wait 4-6 weeks for the ring to come in. I suspected hoped maybe he would propose on January 22 - two years after we met. We had already planned on going to try a restaurant we always wanted to try and it was just a few days before we left for Boston - and a ring would have been a nice addition :).

Sidenote: the weekend before, Tiffany (the girl from the night we met story) got engaged and it was all I could do to keep from crying when he told me that night as we laid in bed. I was devastated - and learned after our engagement that he was disappointed too. I wanted to be next. Everyone expected us to be next. Looking back I know how stupid and selfish that is, but in the moment I couldn't think clearly.

His plans did revolve around that week. However, I was rear ended on Wednesday night on my way to class. On Thursday I ended up in the ER with a sprained shoulder and was planning to work from home on Friday so I could keep ice on it. This serious of events made him change his plan. I guess he was clued in that I was hoping for expecting the proposal on Sunday (the 22nd) so he was planning on beating me home Friday night to make dinner and do it then. Since I was going to be home all day now this was obviously not possible. He formulated a new plan and stopped on his way home Thursday night to get the necessary supplies.

Thursday night I went up to bed as Andrew stayed downstairs to finish watching tv. Around 2 or 3am I woke up and noticed he had never come to bed, which has never happened. I walked downstairs and found him asleep on the couch. I decided not to wake him up just to make him go upstairs because I was afraid he wouldn't be able to go back to sleep and our couches are sooooooooo comfy.

Friday morning, my alarm goes off as usual at 6:45 but something was different, I smelled bacon. Could my wonderful boyfriend be making breakfast because I had a rough week? As he entered the room with a tray (that he bought the night before just for this) and came around to my side of the bed it hit me... this was more than just breakfast in bed. This was it. I saw a ring lying on the tray as it set it down next to me. He started to kneel but then stopped, our bed is pretty high and this moment seemed a little awkward. I could tell how nervous he was - he was about to ask me a question that would change his life forever. And then he said it... those magical words. However, they were not proceeded by a beautiful speech with all the reasons he loves me. Instead Andrew looks at me and simply says "I made you breakfast with a side of will you marry me?" Perfect. Absolutely perfect. He is never the mushy, tell me all his feelings type of guy and I surely wouldn't expect a proposal to be any different... it wouldn't have felt natural. But I must be honest, I do have one regret: that he didn't get down on one knee, that is what I had pictured for months and was disappointed when it didn't happen. The proposal will only ever happen once and I had made it up in my head to be something that ended up not happening. But I couldn't have been more excited that it was really happening. I quickly snatched up my ring as if I thought he were going to take it back or it would get up and run away. I'm not sure I ever really answered him just started kissing him out of excitement. Soon after that we called to wake up tell everyone the good news! We were engaged!