Proposal story
Back from my weekend hijinks at my roommate's parent's timeshare condo in Chelan, WA. It was a fantastic weekend! In non-chronological order, we went to a scrumptious restaurant Sunday night, went iceskating, toasted marshmallows in the fireplace, made yummy strawberry dacquiris, put together a 1000 piece Thomas Kinkade glow-in-the-dark puzzle, and had an all-around good time :) But now I'm back in Pullman, so I'm procrastinating studying by filling in more of the jucy little details on me'n'my fiancee (it sure is weird getting used to calling him that!)
This actually pretty much began last semester, one night when Nathan suggested that perhaps we ought to start thinking about what kind of ring I'd like to get (an enthusiastic bearhug followed, as you can well imagine ;) We decided to keep our search a secret until we were actually engaged - which was a lot of fun, but also rather interesting sometimes given that we both live with two or three curious roommates! We started by looking online to get an idea of what was out there, and then one weekend before the end of the school year we managed to sneak over to Moscow mall by ourselves and looked at all the jewelry shops so I could actually see & try on rings. After that I had some better ideas about what I wanted & didn't want, but I still hadn't decided for sure. Nathan & I have been extremely busy this semester, so we didn't have a chance to get back over to Moscow til last Sunday, when we were doing our 'just us' pre-Valentine's shopping run. (Quote of the day: "Better love hath no man than to take his girlfriend shopping") When we stopped at the place I had liked best when we went through before, the salesclerk helping us suggested that they were doing a big combo anniversary-&-Valentine's day sale Tuesday night where they would be bringing in lots more ring settings & some loose diamonds. Nathan & I decided that sounded interesting, so we signed up for it. We went over about as soon as we were done with classes that day, and although we didn't like any of the extremely ornate ring settings brought in for the occasion, the salesclerk pointed out a fairly simple regularly-carried solitaire that we hadn't noticed before. Once I tried it on my finger, I didn't want to take it off! Nathan got the *electronic* paperwork all taken of right then & there, but the ring had to be resized waaaaay down to fit my tiny little finger. They said it would be done by Friday, so we had to leave it there while we went home to do our special dinner. I was sooooo bouncy & excited all week; even with my attempts to restrain myself and act like normal, when it was finally out Rachel said that she had been wondering why I had been smiling so much!
Friday afternoon I was up in Nathan's apartment when he got the message that the ring was ready to be picked up. He ran over to Moscow, and then came back, and then waited... while I was just about bouncing through the ceiling wondering when/how he was going to give it to me! Later on in the evening, we were doing a group powwow down in my apartment to discuss our weekend plans. Nathan was sitting cross-legged on the floor and asked if I would like a massage. I acquised & sat down in front of him. He started massaging my shoulders... I started relaxing & closed my eyes... he quietly slipped one hand into his backpack... and pulled out a little box... and just about the time that I was registering that this massage was going rather unusually, his hand slipped over my shoulder in front of my face, and his voice was quietly asking, "Will you marry me?" I kind of choked up, but I still managed to get out a "Yes" :) Not everyone has noticed what was going on at first, but quickly a rippling pool of silence spread until the entire room was completely still. Then, once Nathan had slid the ring onto my finger, they started unfreezing & saying "wow" or "congratulations" or asking to see the ring :) :) :)
I would post pictures here, but apparently for LiveJournal you have to have the pictures posted on the web somewhere already, so I'm just going to do a mass email sometime tonight or tomorrow with the pictures attached.
This actually pretty much began last semester, one night when Nathan suggested that perhaps we ought to start thinking about what kind of ring I'd like to get (an enthusiastic bearhug followed, as you can well imagine ;) We decided to keep our search a secret until we were actually engaged - which was a lot of fun, but also rather interesting sometimes given that we both live with two or three curious roommates! We started by looking online to get an idea of what was out there, and then one weekend before the end of the school year we managed to sneak over to Moscow mall by ourselves and looked at all the jewelry shops so I could actually see & try on rings. After that I had some better ideas about what I wanted & didn't want, but I still hadn't decided for sure. Nathan & I have been extremely busy this semester, so we didn't have a chance to get back over to Moscow til last Sunday, when we were doing our 'just us' pre-Valentine's shopping run. (Quote of the day: "Better love hath no man than to take his girlfriend shopping") When we stopped at the place I had liked best when we went through before, the salesclerk helping us suggested that they were doing a big combo anniversary-&-Valentine's day sale Tuesday night where they would be bringing in lots more ring settings & some loose diamonds. Nathan & I decided that sounded interesting, so we signed up for it. We went over about as soon as we were done with classes that day, and although we didn't like any of the extremely ornate ring settings brought in for the occasion, the salesclerk pointed out a fairly simple regularly-carried solitaire that we hadn't noticed before. Once I tried it on my finger, I didn't want to take it off! Nathan got the *electronic* paperwork all taken of right then & there, but the ring had to be resized waaaaay down to fit my tiny little finger. They said it would be done by Friday, so we had to leave it there while we went home to do our special dinner. I was sooooo bouncy & excited all week; even with my attempts to restrain myself and act like normal, when it was finally out Rachel said that she had been wondering why I had been smiling so much!
Friday afternoon I was up in Nathan's apartment when he got the message that the ring was ready to be picked up. He ran over to Moscow, and then came back, and then waited... while I was just about bouncing through the ceiling wondering when/how he was going to give it to me! Later on in the evening, we were doing a group powwow down in my apartment to discuss our weekend plans. Nathan was sitting cross-legged on the floor and asked if I would like a massage. I acquised & sat down in front of him. He started massaging my shoulders... I started relaxing & closed my eyes... he quietly slipped one hand into his backpack... and pulled out a little box... and just about the time that I was registering that this massage was going rather unusually, his hand slipped over my shoulder in front of my face, and his voice was quietly asking, "Will you marry me?" I kind of choked up, but I still managed to get out a "Yes" :) Not everyone has noticed what was going on at first, but quickly a rippling pool of silence spread until the entire room was completely still. Then, once Nathan had slid the ring onto my finger, they started unfreezing & saying "wow" or "congratulations" or asking to see the ring :) :) :)
I would post pictures here, but apparently for LiveJournal you have to have the pictures posted on the web somewhere already, so I'm just going to do a mass email sometime tonight or tomorrow with the pictures attached.