Engaged!

Two days ago i experienced one of the best days (if not the best) day of my life. I proposed to my girlfriend of a little over a year. Everything went as planned and more importantly she said yes(!). The majority of the day went by as a blur, but at the same time it seemed like a full week had gone by. To give a little set up, i chose to propose on her birthday to throw her off the scent. I begun the day by going all out throwing her a morning birthday bash including balloons on the ceiling fan (a tradition started by her mom), a happy birthday banner, and a feast of donuts (which are her favorite breakfast). I thought i did pretty well considering all i had to go on was "get me something that shows you put thought into it" (what every guy wants to hear). I also gave her two presents which included a coffee mug and a red "You are special plate". Both which have a deeper meaning: a) she is collecting coffee mugs. b) she always ate off of the red plate when she was little. I let her open the two presents before breakfast so she could use them for the coffee and donuts. It was such a special morning for me although i was so stressed inside wanting to spill the secret of what was going to happen later that night (if i had to wait any longer i would have just dropped down on a knee in the grocery store or something). The breakfast was made possible because we stopped through Abilene on the way to Ft. Worth. I will have to add that the engagement would not have been possible without my Mom, Meriden's sister, brother-in-law, and Mom. They helped more than i could ever ask for. After breakfast we went to Ft. Worth to have dinner with her family, and soon after us my family secretly left Abilene as well. We had lunch at the dixie cafe. Although i was halfway sick upon leaving (because of the mass quantity of food) it was incredible. They had the best chicken fried steak and twice baked potatoes i have ever had. Along with the food they provide a fun environment with waitresses that do and say whatever they please. After lunch was my third favorite part of the day. I took a 2-hr. nap while Mer went to get some new shoes. As much as i wanted to go shopping for shoes it was nice to get a little shut eye. Next we got ready for her sister's baby shower which was the "main reason" we came back to Ft. Worth that weekend. Everything was going perfect and then i realized that i forgot my slacks. How do you forget to bring your pants? It was hard to explain to Mer that it was important that i get pants for the shower. So i gave in and purchased some sweet black (pinstriped) slacks from Wal-mart. Crisis averted! We went to the shower and at that point Josh (her brother-in-law) and I made the transfer of goods to put on the finishing touches for the proposal site. The shower was a lot of fun and was the point at which the nervousness actually started setting in. I began to realize that this was going to be a reality. The shower was over at 7pm and we left to go eat at Blue Mesa (our special place) in Southlake. When we left to Southlake her family left the shower and went to meet up with my family and set up the barn.I chose the barn as the location because it is the place we are hoping to be married at and it provides a cool setup for a proposal. The barn is located in a neighborhood in Colleyville and overlooks a pond and some beautiful houses. Normally it is not lit or open in the evenings but the owner David Bagwell (who is awesome) opened it up for us. The barn is difficult to explain, but trust me it is one of the coolest places i have ever seen. Mr. Bagwell built a replica barn that resembles a famous one built in the New York just for the use of the neighborhood and thankfully other people as well (http://www.heritagebarns.com/completed/whittier-heights-dutch.html). We left Blue Mesa under the premise of beginning a scavenger hunt. The first stop (actually the last) was to the barn and I let her think it was going to be a quick stop. Because it is usually not open i told her we would drive by quickly taking a peak at the barn as we head on for the rest of the journey. As we drove near the barn she saw that there were a couple of lights on in the barn. I told her we could check and see if it was open. We walked up to the barn hearing a faint sound of music coming from the inside. Together we peaked inside the door and she quickly realized that it was for her.Inside was a table set up with flowers (pink tulips), blown up pictures, and a book of all the emails we sent to each other when we were long distance. There was also a video camera inside and music playing through and ipod stereo. She was speechless. I took her to the center and began to remember all of the beautiful poetic words i had rehearsed to tell her. I told her i had one more birthday present for her and dropped down on one knee. She went hysterical, and I as I was about to speak I forgot every word I had ever learned before. In an attempt to recover all i could muster was "Will you marry me?". Thankfully she said Yes and i contacted all our family to come in (she had no clue our families were waiting outside). After we finished we went to her sister's house for a rocking after party. It has still not completely sunk in that we are engaged. We have since returned to Lubbock and living up every moment of our time. We are so exited to see where the story of our lives will go next! In the meantime we are thankful to be just a miniscule part of the overarching story that the creator is writing and are humbled to play a role in it.