So it's official! After over 10 years of knowing each other, 6 years after our first kiss, and over 1 year of being "together" (I use quotation marks seeing that we saw each other a whole SEVEN days out of that year) I'm officially engaged to Jeremy Stafford, without a doubt the love of my life!!! Everyone wants to know how it happened so I figured blogging about it would save me from writing about a million separate emails.
Well...
To put it nicely, I can be a bit persistent. ;-) Although, "a pester" is probably the word Jay would use. Hehe. From the moment he stepped off the ship about 4 weeks ago, I've probably asked at least 3 times a day about my ring, or when I was going to get it, or what it looked like or where he bought it... Not quite the "every hour on the hour" that his best friend described... but ... well close. I asked his friends, co-workers, family and anyone else I thought might have information for me! Hehe! Unfortunately no one would give anything up, but a girl's got to try! I have to admit though that I take great comfort in the fact that he can't lie worth anything! Every time he'd insist that he didn't have a ring, or that he didn't buy one or that he didn't know what I was talking about he'd get a big huge grin on his face and the most adorable "5 year old caught in the cookie jar" look in his eyes! It was absolutely adorable and the main motivation behind why I asked so many time. Watching him squirm and giggle was priceless.
So, while we were deciding on leave arrangements it was STRESSED that I HAD to be in Charlotte with him. His best friend even went as far as to say that Jay had "an important question to ask. And it'll be quite anti-climactic if you're in VA!" So, I knew it would be while we were down here but that almost drove me MORE insane! I knew it was coming, I even knew it was close but I didn't know when and there's nothing I deal with less well then surprises I knew just a little about!!!! I patted him down on more than one occasion. I went through his bags when he wasn't looking. I know, I'm evil, but I learned from the best... nic. ;-)
So when I woke up, Tuesday the 19th of June, it seemed like any other day. We had loose plans to check out a few possible wedding locations while we were in town but nothing major. Nothing to tip me off that it would be the day I had waiting so long for. Well... I take that back... there was a phone call he took out side and waved me back in when I came out and some requested private time with his best friend. But I assumed they were planning something for later in the week. So, it's decided that his best friend's fiance is too under the weather to go out to dinner that night so we head back to the apartment we're staying at. We hung out ;-) for a little while and decided we were hungry. He offered to grab take out from a near by restaurant if I'd figure out some way to set up the lap top and speaker so we could watch a movie.
When he got back, he walked in with his hands full and said, "hey babe. Guess what happened to me." I have to admit, being the paranoid person I am, I assumed the worst and figured he'd run into someone he didn't want to see or something. Then he said, "when I went to get the food, they told me that I was the one millionth customer!" Being completely unaware of what was going on I of course called his bluff and said, "They did NOT! You are so full of it!" At which point he said, "no really! And they gave me this!" and he pulls the ring out. I look down and suddenly realize what's going on!!! It's the most beautiful ring I've ever seen in my life and he gets down on one knee (I'm already crying at this point!) and says, "Bonnie Louise, will you marry me?" I can hardly answer between the crying and the OMG's! I was COMPLETELY caught off guard! I had absolutely NO idea! And it couldn't have been more perfect!
I love him more than anything else in the world. He is my perfect compliment and there's nothing I want more than to spend the rest of our lives together! And I can't believe that after all this time, and an extremely fortunate second chance, I'm finally where I'm supposed to be... in the arms of my soul mate and best friend.
