Valentine's Day Extravaganza - He FINALLY Asked

Once again, I'm linking up with Mama M. over at My Little Life. 

Today's theme is: Engagement stories

Oh what a special, wonderful day this was!


Our dating years weren't exactly the best years of our lives. We started dating in December 2000 and before our engagement, we had broken up 4 different times and had already had one brief engagement that we broke off. Neither one of us were ready for marriage that first time around.


But, things had been good between us for quite a while and we had tossed around the idea of marriage again. We both knew we wanted to spend our lives together, just hadn't figured out the timing yet. In February of 2004 we decided we were going to ring shop so that he would have an idea of what I liked when the time came.


We found the perfect ring for me at Helzberg Diamonds 

 

 My ring is in yellow gold. (This was the only picture I could find.)

I didn't know it at the time, but Ross actually purchased the ring that day. The sales people kept me busy looking at stuff while they were taking care of the transaction and he had the ring in his pocket and went back later for the boxes and paperwork. 

I actually had suspicions that he had purchased that day, because they slipped up on some of the paperwork they sent home with us to look over. There was a brochure about diamonds and selecting the right one based on the 4 C's, an engagement guide for guys and some other things. There was a card that had all the information about the ring we had been looking at. It had a purchase date listed on it and the first inspection due date 6 months from that day. I asked Ross what that was all about and he shrugged it off and said that it was just a sample they gave him of what it would look like. Yeah, uh huh, nice save babe!

My birthday is on March 30th and I kind of thought maybe he was going to propose to me that night at dinner. *Long pause for dramatic effect*. No proposal at my birthday dinner. I was pretty disappointed but tried not to let it show. 

My birthday was on a Tuesday that year. On Friday April 2nd, we were leaving with my parents and some of my siblings and going to Kentucky Lake for the weekend. Ross arrived at my house early that morning and we were still packing up. He went to St. Louis Bread Co. to get some bagels, a mocha for himself and a hot chocolate for me.

  When he got back, I was in my room putting stuff in my suitcase. My back was to the door when he walked in. I told him to just put my hot chocolate on my dresser behind me. He didn't respond or say anything, so I just thought he was sitting in the chair by my dresser waiting for me. I turned to get something...

....and he was on one knee holding the ring up with a big cheesy grin on his face. I let out a big squeal, followed by tears of joy as I blubbered how much I loved him and was clinging to his neck like there was no tomorrow. I think at some point in all the hub-ub he said something along the lines of, "Will you?" Of course my answer was "YES!"  

My family was as surprised as I was that he had done it at such a strange time, but leave it to Ross to do it his own way, in his own timing. That's one of the reasons I love him so much! I was so excited that I made my family wait to leave, so that I could run over to Sam's Club and show my best friend my ring!

I absolutely love my ring and I get so many compliments on it still! It is quite sparkly. Here is the band that we got to go with it:

 

Our wedding date was set for June 4th, 2005.