Today is my wedding anniversary.  Ethan is so sweet, he wakes up and comes bounding out of bed and into my bedroom, ‘happy anniversary mom!’  How freakin cute is that?  Said the same thing to his dad.

Anyway, since it is my anniversary I thought I would revisit my wedding journal on the wedding channel and dig up the story of how we got engaged… the way I told it 8 years or so ago.

CD and Prince get engaged, or battle of the titans

So I don’t have quite enough to do today, NOT, thought I would tell our engagement story. First off, you have to understand that it is all about control for the 2 of us, ain’t nobody gonna tell either one of us what to do. So, when it came to getting engaged, of course we both wanted some control. And, I knew I should just stay out of it and let him do whatever, but you know I couldn’t… I digress.

We were on a plane one day coming back from some business trip, and I knew that I had him cornered for a couple of hours so I decided to have a ‘where is this going’ conversation. Evil of me, I know. I had been freaking out about it, what am I doing, why am I thinking of leaving this big wig job without any type of commitment, I just moved to CA without any type of commitment… you know the drill. So rather than just stew about it and wonder and then eventually freak out on him for no reason, I figured I would just up and ask… Well, he was great about it… he said exactly what I was thinking… he thought we would have a one year blissful ‘dating’ stage, and then a one year ‘planning’ stage, and then we would have ‘an event’ and then we would have babies. Cracks me up the way he is so analytical, everything in stages.

Well anyway, what he described was exactly what I was thinking. Yipee!!! Of course in his male brain this was just an idea, but in my female brain, this was an arrangement, a contract, a promise, a commitment, a year from today we will get engaged, OF COURSE.

So we went along blissfully for about 6 months, and then I started thinking, I wonder if he thought this was a commitment, hmmmm, better ask him… so you already know what happened. Of course he didn’t think this was a commitment, he was just rambling. We talked about why or why not this timeframe would work for us, and we both agreed that it felt right. He knew he wanted to marry me, I knew I wanted to marry him, and there was nothing holding us back, so lets go for it!

Engaged yet???

So, the magical month was September, and we had been ring shopping. In fact, every time I would get nervous about whether or not this thing was actually going to happen, he would take me ring shopping. And in his ‘I need to be in charge’ way, he would every once in a while say, well I could just wait until October, what if I waited until October. uggggggg, MEN. And in my ‘I am woman, hear me roar’ way I would declare that if he didn’t propose in September, I would have to move out because that would mean that he did not honor his commitments. And he would say, yeah, where are you gonna go, and you know we are supposed to be together, so you are just going to leave… This is just cracking me up writing this, what a pair. I am constantly saying that if either one of us would just give in to the other we would have no problems.

He had done all this investigation, asking and stuff, how I wanted the actual proposal to go, was there a movie that I liked that had a proposal, how did my friends get engaged… I really just wanted it to happen when I felt closest to him, and I feel closest to him right when we wake up in the morning and we are all groggy and I realize that he is next to me all snuggly and warm. Hint, hint…

We took several trips in August and I thought, well maybe he will do it early, NOT.

Then he told me the ring was in, I could have strangled him.

I didn’t want to know the ring was here available to be put on my finger! He thought that the more info I had the more comfortable I would be with his intent, because I have trained him that this is the case. Well then I had to explain the TOO MUCH information theory to him. Now I knew he had it, so WHEN WAS IT GOING ON MY FINGER???????

I was filing some papers one day, and noticed behind the files was the bag from the jewelry store with a box in it. He was sitting right there reading the paper, and looking at me. I said ‘I think I found something I am not supposed to find’ and he smiled and said get out of there. So, the next time I was alone in the house I am feeling this magnetic pull to THE BOX. It was like in the movie Close Encounters when Richard Dryfus kept building that mountain out of mashed potatos, dirt, whatever, I was PULLED there, I couldn’t help it, it was completely out of my control. I rationalized that if I could just LOOK at it, that will satisfy me…

pulled out the bag

pulled out the box

opened the box

carefully unfolded the tissue paper…

what is this? chewed up chewing gum! Fell on the floor, LOL, this man knows me so well. He came home that night with a wry smile and me with a wry smile… we both cracked up.

Engaged FINALLY!

So, when is the damn thing going on my finger!!!????? It was nearing the end of September and no ring, and where was the damn thing, where had he put it? So he tells me one day that we are going to Northern CA for a romantic weekend getaway, the last weekend in September.

What a relief, finally this day is coming, and of course it has to be the last possible day in September. I go get my nails done to get ready (why do we do this?) We head north, I of course am thinking that he is taking me to this romantic place that we went to a year ago this time, yes he has thought ahead, why was I ever doubting him… well, no, he takes me to this place that the Best Man has recommended and because he just made the reservation 3 days ago, we get the last room in the house, hmmm. I told myself, SHUT UP, the man is going to propose, who the hell cares if he didn’t plan ahead and who the hell cares where you stay, you are with him.

So, we get there and we are both sooooooooooo nervous. It is late afternoon and we head out to the patio to start drinking and playing this trivia game… HIM: What part of your body do I like the best, boobs, butt, or head? We get drunk and have so much fun. And then at some point he has to say he could still wait until October, and my drunk self freaks out… I am shaking my head, shaking my finger, ME: you can just wait until whenever you damn well please because I am not going to be around, blah, blah, blah, more drunken mumbling.

He calms me down, more playing of the trivia game, then we stumble upstairs to go to bed and he has to say AGAIN that he could just wait. What is wrong with this man, torturing me like this! So, this time I get even more pissed, and start stripping off my clothes getting into bed, because I am just not listening to him anymore. He sits me down on the bed, half clothed, me still mumbling under my breath about ‘yeah, you can wait, wait on this, blah, blah, mumble, mumble’. And out comes ‘Would you do me the honor of becoming my wife’. We both start cracking up and crying and then he says it again and I say YES.

This story cracks me up and is so special to me not because there were horses and carriages and candles and flowers, but because it is so US!