An Engagement Q&A With C

I know this is my little corner of the internet and all, but I knew I wanted to write up a post about this soon after it happened. All in C's words. It's more for me than any of you. I just wanted to know his feelings throughout the whole thing. So? I asked him a few questions, and this is what he had to say...

Tell me the moment when you knew Ashley was 'the one'.

One night when we'd only known each other for a few weeks, we were laying down on the floor. Our bodies were lying in opposite directions with our heads nearly touching. Both our arms were outstretched and with one hand each we were slightly touching each other's shoulders and I was playing with her hair. I don't think anything was being said, but I remember thinking at that moment that I really liked this girl. Just that moment of connection, everything felt real.

Tell me what you want everyone to know about the proposal (besides of course the fact that u aren't a douche ((his words!)) who never buys her flowers). 
I really wish that I hadn't waited so long. I know in the grand scheme of things it didn't matter, but what if Ashley had decided to move on? I don't know what I would have done without her.

At what point during the night did you start getting nervous? Or where you ever nervous?
There wasn't any one particular time I got nervous, it was every time I realized the culmination point of the night. Thinking about the ring I had, and the act of asking, that's when I felt nervous. Instead, I needed to force myself to think about the current moment.

How did you feel right when you got down on your knee? Relieved that it was about to be over or more nervous than ever?
I was excited! My heard was pounding, I was just so excited to finally be asking "the question". I'm pretty sure I was grinning ear to ear. He totally was.

What was your favorite part of the night? 
The most obvious part was when she said "Of course!" and we both laughed. I felt like the luckiest guy on Earth. Then my second favorite was when we were walking down the path before we sat down, just the look on her face when I'd catch her glancing at me.

How long did you have the ring before u decided to pop the question?
Gosh, I'd only had it for barely a week. Something like 5 days. The moment I had the ring, I thought to myself: "I'm ready for this now!"

Was there any point during the evening when you thought she knew what was coming? When?
Actually, I thought she had no clue about the ring part! I knew, she knew where we were eating the night before when Tyler(her brother) said "Bring me leftovers!" and she said "If we go where I think we're going, there will be leftovers". I had no idea she knew about me popping "the question", although I don't know why I was surprised. I'd been thinking about this moment for the last 6 months, so I can only imagine she'd been thinking about it for years.

Why were you so insistent on going to the first park? Why not just go to the park y'all always go to (that you ended up at anyway)?

It wasn't really about the first park, there was nothing special about the location. It was about the moment. I was afraid that she'd just insist we'd go home and my opportunity would be wasted. I was just scared that I would have missed the chance to ask her to marry me.

 Why November 17th? 

I wish I could say it was for some romantic reason, or that I did it to make it easy to remember, or anything like that. It wasn't. I just one day decided I wanted to pay off the rest of the ring, then the moment I had it I was just too excited and I had to do it... soon.

Name two moments from the whole night that you never want to forget.
There was a candle on our table at dinner and I pointed out that it wasn't lit. Then a while later our waitress noticed the unlit candle and lit it. When I looked up from the candle, Ashley was looking at me and I just stared into her eyes for a few seconds and I felt complete. Then the second moment was after we got to the park and we sat down on the bench. We were talking a bit and it was so romantic (but Ashley was noting the creaking in the woods), I had my head on her chest and we were just holding each other. I didn't want that moment to ever end. It was dark! And I kept hearing rustling across the river. I was a little scared.

I look forward to being able to come back and read this post. None of his answers surprised me really, they did make me tear up a bit though!

Proposal Night-Part Two.

For part one click here.

So we're driving into Austin and he's messing with his phone (maps) to get us where we're going and we're sitting at a red light. He was in the wrong lane, and I told him that he needed to be in the other lane to turn left. Remember, I'm supposed to have no idea where we are going. He just laughed at me. He knew I already had this part of our night figured out. 

We finally got to dinner. Maggiano's-

We'd only ever been there once before and I remember telling him that it would be a sweet place for a proposal. So we ordered. He got even more quiet-if that's possible. The food came. We ate. I texted my brother (who text-yelled at me to get off of my phone and enjoy my night. I love that boy). Nothing happened. I just new it was coming. We skipped dessert and then I knew it wasn't happening yet. The check came and we paid and left. Who wants to be proposed to over a huge bowl of pasta anyway? 

Ahem.

So we walked back to the car and I asked what else was planned for the night. C acted like he had no plans and he asked me what I wanted to do. I told him I didn't really care (ok, so I was bummed that dinner was a bit uneventful). I was pretty tired and cold and I just wanted to go home and get comfy in my pajamas. 

Then he insisted that we drive to a park. I was like, okay, that's fine (nothing too unusual). But he insisted on driving to a park that we never go to. A big one. In the dark. It was 50 degrees out. I was in uncomfortable shoes. I was also tired. During the week I go to bed around 9 because I wake up so early for work. It was past 9 at this point. Old lady right here.

Yeah, this was getting interesting. 

After 30 minutes of googling maps of trails in the park and finding nothing, plus it was too dark in this particular park, he said, "I guess I didn't really have this all planned out too well."

And then I knew. 

It was happening that night. So I changed my attitude and forgot about my achy feet and cold hands. I finally talked him into just taking me to the park that we always go to. It's closer to our house anyway. 

But first I needed something warm to keep me awake and alert. We stopped at Starbucks, I grabbed a drink and went into the bathroom to give myself a quick pep talk. I knew it was close. 

We got into the car, he snapped a pic of me with my first red cup of the season and we headed to the park.

As soon as we got there and parked, I was sitting there putting this photo on Instagram-

As I was sitting there looking at the creepy chick in the background of this photo playing on my phone, C jumped out of the car and went to the trunk. He opened my door for me and had these in his hand-

You guys. Six years, ten months and two days later the man bought me flowers. Again, another first. I always gave him grief about never buying me flowers.  Also, I knew this is where he had gone* earlier when he told me he was going to 'put gas in the car'. He went to get me these! Then left them in the trunk all evening! So, dinner reservations and flowers in the same night? Big things were happening!

He opened the door and handed me the flowers and I almost started crying right then and there. Thank goodness I didn't though because he wasn't ready to pop the question just yet. 

C grabbed his jacket (apparently my ring was wrapped up in it) and we started walking down the trail a bit. It was dark and chilly (I kept telling him to put his jacket on but he wouldn't), but so...us. 

We found a bench not far from a light post so we weren't in complete darkness (the light was all behind us). The river was right in front of us and we sat there for a while. Just talking. 

This is when C got nervous. He started fidgeting on the bench, and breathing hard. It was so cute. At this point I'm just thinking to myself, 'COME ON C! GET ON YOUR KNEE!'

And then he got on his knee. He talked to me about commitment and a few other things (man how I wish I could have recorded everything he said), said he had something to ask me, then he said it. 

'Will you marry me?'

And what did I do? 

I started laughing at him. LAUGHING. For. The. Love. 

Then I burst out crying and said, 'Of course I'll marry you, YES!' 

I cried for a while. I think it was shock. I'm not sure. I was always ready for him to ask me, and I knew it was coming, I just couldn't believe it! 

He pulled out a white box, which he had wrapped his jacket around (like he thought I would pat him down looking for a box or something, no wonder he wouldn't wear his jacket!) popped it open and all I saw was a sparkle.

Honestly. 

It was so dark that I couldn't see the ring. He slipped it on my finger and he came back up and sat on the bench next to me for a while. Finally, I said, 'Let's go walk over under that street lamp.' I needed a good look at the ring after all.

We stood there for forever just hugging. I said to him,  'This is one of those moments that we'll look back on in 50 years and remember vividly.' 

The night was perfect. And nothing I expected. 

I only told five people that night. One of which was my brother who lives with us. The others were my best co-worker E (she gave me her bouquet at her September wedding), my friend Kim, my dad, and my oldest younger brother. 

I sat on this big fat secret for over 14 hours...when we finally told my family. Over a week later and I think they are still in shock as well!

*If you read part one, you might remember that he took off like a lightning bolt when he left to go 'put gas in the car' buy me the most gorgeous flowers in central Texas. Literally ran out of the room-he had the RING BOX IN HIS HAND. I was standing in the bathroom fixing my hair. How did I miss that? 

Date Night Turned PROPOSAL Night.

I can't believe I'm finally able to post our Proposal Story. I knew it was coming, I just assumed it'd be in December. 

We're engaged!

It was kind of a long ordeal (that I loved every second of!), and I don't want to forget a single detail, so here we go...

It started out with a text last Friday evening that C sent me while he was at work-

As soon as I got the text, I turned to my brother T, and said, 'Why is he trying to butter me up? Is he going to propose?!' I was only half kidding. 

Let me back up. C has never asked me out on a date. Ever. I'm always the one who has planned everything. Type A say what? Anyway. As soon as I got this text I started throwing every photo I could onto Instagram because I wanted to document this, but if I would have pulled out my big camera, he would have known I knew what was coming.

And no, I wouldn't have felt like an idiot if this wasn't 'it' either because? I was at least documenting the first 'date' we'd ever been on that he'd fully planned. Aw.

When C got home Friday night, I asked him where we were going to dinner (I had an idea, but wanted to see if he'd tell me) and he wouldn't tell me. He only said that I should dress cute and comfortable, and maybe no jeans (yeah, right, C). So,  I dragged him to the mall because I needed something cute to wear, ok? This was finally happening after all. He also picked up a few new things, which helped confirm my suspicions. 

Moving on. Saturday (ENGAGEMENT DAY!) was a normal day. I did make sure to make time to paint my nails.

Ahem.

Around noon I asked him what time we were going to dinner. He said he wanted to be there around 7. Which in my brain meant only one thing. He'd made reservations. What?! That's never happened. Ever. 

The day continued on and by the time I was getting ready for what we were calling 'Date Night', I'd talked myself out of anything special happening. He was acting completely normal. So I put on my brand new jeggings (oh yes I did) and some cute shoes-

C was already ready at this point and I was just finishing up when he said, 'I need to go put gas in my car.' I was like, 'Ok that's fine, I'm almost ready, we can get some on the way.' He wasn't having that, so he insisted on leaving right then (like, he literally ran out of the room) to go 'get gas'. I had a feeling I knew where he was going but I wasn't going to let my excitement get to me. Forty-five minutes later he drives up and I was ready to go! He walked in the door and I expected him to be carrying flowers, but I didn't let the disappointment show on my face when he came in empty handed. We told my brother bye!  (he knew something was up, but C hadn't told him anything) and off we went. 

But only after snapping this photo-

We got into his car and I expected flowers in my seat, or SOMETHING. But no. Still no flowers. At this point I'm wondering where in the world he went off to for 45 minutes. Oh well. So we start driving South into Austin. I still had 'no idea' where we were going, which I may have tweeted about. I was feeling very nervous (ok and I was secretly writing this blog post in my head). This is around the time C got really quiet. As in, we didn't talk much on the 30 minute drive to dinner, and he let me turn up the radio when Bruno Mars-Locked Out of Heaven, came on the radio. Something was definitely up....

Check back for part 2!

Our Thanksgiving

It was a gorgeous day. I started it out by shredding and ended the day by eating my second dinner.

Honestly. 

I didn't take a single photo (of people) all day. I always regret it when I do that. 

We have so much to be grateful for this year. Health being number one. It's always around this time of the year that we remember three years ago when C was diagnosed. It's also around this time of the year when he goes back for a check up, and my heart starts beating a little faster until the tests are done and the results are in. 

I'm certain he feels the same way. 

We also have a cute new place to call home this Thanksgiving. We are so grateful.

Not to mention my weight loss journey. I'm kicking this weight thing in the ass. Between The Shred and Weight Watchers, I'm winning. But that's a whole 'nother post. I'm so grateful.

More about what else I'm grateful for coming soon...

Oh and? I'm BACKKKKKK!