Ring on finger!

Yay! It happened!

Here's the story...

On Saturday I had plans to have dinner with my friend Tara at Wasabi, which happens to be across the street from David's apartment. Being a caring, loving girlfriend, I brought him a pizza from the Mack (he loves that BLT pizza) and promised him I would come by after dinner. He called and texted a couple of times during dinner wanting me to give him a 15 minute warning before I came back so that he could make sure he was home from running errands. I thought it was weird, but I did--David's usually not needy like that.

After dinner, he met me in the hall and led me to his door. It was all dark and he had lit a path of candles from the door to the table in the living room. On the table where a TON more candles and the ring box. He said to open it up and when I did it had a key chain in it. I turned around with the key chain and he was holding the ring out to me. He said, "Will you marry me?"

Ahhhh.

Of course, I said yes. Then we split the bottle of wine that came free with the ring purchase. I love a freebie!

We joked later that it was just "confirming our appointment" since I have already reserved a church, bought a dress, and told everyone I know. We're cute.

Announcing and setting dates!

So this past weekend, David's parents came to town. We sat down to dinner Friday night and "officially" told them the news....pretending like they didn't already know. :) In their defense, Dan and Debra pretended to be surprised and even initially denied that Danna had informed them of our plans. However, the fault doesn't totally lie with Danna for spilling the beans...apparently, David's mom had found cards for jewelry stores in his apartment before Christmas. Oops.

As the weekend wore on, we found out that Debra didn't just "know" we were going to get married--she had shared it with her friends. Apparently, at lunch one day last week, they had asked about David and she stated that he was getting married but "don't tell anyone yet--he hasn't told us yet." Cute.

On Monday, I called both of my grandparents to tell them the news. Grandma Stainbrook was excited and informed me she thinks another of my cousins will be getting engaged soon. She also said that St. Louis was pretty far to travel, but she would make the exception for my wedding. Thanks. The phone call to Grandma Brownback was a hoot. She first asked me what size I thought my dress would be (whatever fits and can be found at the Goodwill, Grandma) and then said, "Isn't that quick? But, you know, it's ok. Because you're old. How old are you now? 27? God!" She also questioned whether David would love my dog (she's amazing, of course he does!).
AND Grandma Brownback is supportive of our August date because the planting will be done. Yes! Planting is done!!

On that note...a date has been set. We decided on August 1st...and the church has been reserved!

So now I've got a whirl-wind of activity. On Friday I meet with a mortgage counselor and a real estate agent about buying a house (oh yeah....that too) and then on Tuesday and Thursday Mom and I are going dress shopping. I'm pushing hard for the Goodwill, but have made appointments at "real" places too. David filed his taxes so I'll be getting a ring eventually (you can laugh--I think it's funny too). I'm glad it's coming--I had figured we would be celebrating our 1 year anniversary before he officially proposed :)

Thank goodness for Spring Break!!