THE PROPOSAL STORY

FINALLY, I KNOW! Here it goes.....
Steve just proposed!!! This was taken after I refreshed of course! ;)

My beautiful beautiful beautiful ring!

The "Things Remembered" ornament Steve had engraved!

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SEE MY MONDAY, DECEMBER 22, 2008 BLOG FOR MORE PHOTOS! Just click on “Older Posts” at the bottom right hand side of the page to get to it.

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Just a few weeks before Steve proposed on Monday, December 22nd of 2008 he mentioned to me that he wanted to open our Christmas gifts for each other here in Rhode Island before we left for Virginia to see my family & friends over the holidays. I didn’t like this idea at all because I’m a big fan of opening up ALL presents Christmas morning. I am very much into holiday traditions, plus it’s more fun that way! We kinda went back and forth about this idea; I tried everything to convince him it would be better to bring them all with us. A few days before our trip I packed up all of our family gifts to see how much room we would have for ours, realizing shortly after I started packing there was no way we were gonna fit it all in our suitcases! Sooooo Steve won. Looking back I remember asking him if we could open our gifts the night before he actually proposed. He told me that he thought it would be better to wait until Monday night, the evening before we leave for VA so we can open them closer to Christmas. I honestly didn’t think twice, I just said that was fine with me & moved on. Monday rolls around and it’s a normal work day for me. I actually left a lil late that evening and ended up getting home close to 6pm, roughly 30 mins late. I walked in the door and found Steve lying on the couch in a white t-shirt & his blue stripped pajama pants w/ one of the music channels playing on the TV. He asked me where I had been & said that he had been waiting to open up gifts! I was like geeeze, sorry! I didn’t know you wanted to open them up right away. So I take off my coat & put down my purse, in the mean time he suggests going to taco bell for dinner knowing it’s my favorite fast food place, but also because we hadn’t packed for VA yet & needed to eat something quick. I walk over towards our Christmas tree when he says “Get the camera so we can take pictures!” I was like uhhh OK, I did think this was a lil odd since I’m the picture queen & usually annoy him with my excessive picture taking, but I figured he just wanted to take some shots of us opening up our gifts knowing I would have probably suggested it anyway. I grab the camera and sit Indian style on the family room floor with him. We take turns opening up gifts, laughing, smiling & thanking each other, not to mention passing the camera back and forth to capture each item. Keep in mind at the time I looked like complete butt as I kept saying each time I looked at the photos. I was still in my work clothes but had thrown my hair in a ponytail & had completely worn off my makeup from applying it earlier that morning. As I think about it I should have realized that Steve was more excited then normal & smiled a whole lot more then he normally does, which is usually a lot for those that don’t really know him! So anyway, he hands me my 4th gift & I proceed to unwrap it. I was already nervous in general because I hate being put on the spot, even with him, even though he knows I love (mostly) anything he picks out. The wrapping paper falls to the ground and I open up the box. Inside was a plastic bag from “Things Remembered”. I was like awwwe you got me something from “Things Remembered” I’m such a sucker for anything personal, romantic or engraved so I was already very excited to see what it was! I opened the bag and pulled out a box w/ a silver star ornament inside. I kept saying awwwe because I realized he had given me an engraved ornament for our tree! I look at it and read December 22, 2008---Shannon & Steven. I kinda pause and look up at him. “He asks me do you remember what the date is?” I’m like ummm no??? I start to think really hard about what important or special dates I know of. At that moment I couldn’t seem to think of anything important. He kept asking me, “Are you sure you don’t know?” “Are you sure you don’t remember?” I kept saying no, meanwhile my palms are getting sweaty because I start feeling bad since I have obviously forgotten something; I felt like I was disappointing him. Finally I asked,”Is this the 1st day I came to visit you in Rhode Island 2 years ago???” This totally could have been it, because the first time I flew up North to visit him was in December. He answers “Huh, well it could be, but nooooo”, then finally, he gets up off the floor & gets down on one knee reaching into his pj pants pocket & pulling out the ring box! Keep in mind I am still looking down at the ornament trying so desperately hard to figure out what is so special about that date. Obviously it didn’t really kick in that it had 2008 engraved on it. I look up and he says something along the lines of” If you still don’t remember then now you will (yes, like that commercial) the past 2 weeks have been so amazing, I mean the past 2 years” I think that’s when it hit me! At first my jaw dropped & I felt numb, I kinda felt like I was dreaming. I still wasn’t sure what was going on, then I started to smile and laugh because he said 2 weeks, so I said “awwwe, you are nervous!”, then I laughed more and said “Shut the “F” up!!!” (to be honest, sorry Mom & Dad!) I said shut up a few more times as he was giving his fabulous romantic speech. He kept telling me he was being serious & this was for real! Then he said “Will you marry me?” Of course I answered with yessssssssssss!!! I couldn’t stop smiling & laughing though! I also think I said “Oh my God!” a million times! We both stood up and hugged & kissed, I had tears in my eyes & I’m thinking Steve did too. I then pulled away and asked “Did you ask my Dad???” Steve said “Of course I did! Both of your parents know! They are waiting for your call!” I couldn’t have asked for a better proposal-simple & memorable! It was perfect! He totally caught me off guard! I certainly didn’t see it coming! He was so clever & totally had me fooled! He made it even more perfect by asking the big question the night before I got to go home. It definitely made me even more excited to see everyone over the holidays! As far as my ring? I am sooo in love with it! It’s absolutely gorgeous! Steve knew I loved the antique/vintage style, he really nailed it! (It's going to go perfectly w/ my Great Aunt's vintage/antique wedding band that was passed down to me!) I am still not used to it being wrapped around my finger, I tend to glance down at it many time during the day thinking I still can’t believe we’re engaged! I seriously feel like the luckiest girl in the world! I am so very thankful for him. After the proposal we spent the next hour or so calling our families & closest friends to share the exciting news! Somewhere in between I freshened up really quick & took some good pictures to replace the bad ones! HA! After chatting on the phone with everyone we drove down the street to our neighborhood Ruby Tuesdays & had a celebration dinner there, sooo much better then Taco Bell, don’t ya think? HA! As far as packing for VA, yah, that didn’t happen that evening! I had to take off work a lil early the next day to pack before catching our flight to Virginia!