10 things about DH and me

The how-we-met-and-got-engaged edition

1. It was love at first sight...sort of. Before we had our first conversation, we were sitting across the room from each other. I would look over at him and when his eyes met mine, I would look away, blushing. He was doing the same thing.

2. Our parish was placing an order for Theology of the Body CDs. I was organizing it. He ordered one just so he had an excuse to talk to me.

3. After some gentle nudging from a friend, I invited him to a dance sponsored by a group I was in because he told me he loved dancing and hadn't been to one in a while. It was NOT supposed to be a date...even though the attire was semi-formal, and you had to be invited by a member in order to attend. I told him to expect to dance with lots of different people—that's how the event was designed. In retrospect, it totally turned out to be a date, and we sort of bent the rules and didn't dance with (or talk to) other people.

4. He invited me for coffee (our "real" first date) the following week. I was 20 minutes late. He thought I was standing him up and was just about ready to leave.  :(

5. We went ring shopping after dating for 2.5 months. When you know, you know.  :)  He wrote down which ring I liked. I left the store slightly in shock.

6. Shortly after that, I kind of freaked out. I told him I wasn't thinking clearly when we went ring shopping and that we needed to go again so I could pick a different ring. I no longer liked the one I picked out. I was very insistent. I was prepared to tell him to return the ring if he had already bought it.  hahaha  :)

7. We went ring shopping again at 3.5 months. I picked out a ring that was a completely different style. I felt much better about the whole thing. He sent me out of the store so he could "talk" with the salesperson for a few minutes. After a half hour in the nearest department store, I began to wonder what was taking so long. I sat down in the mall's lounge chairs with a direct line of sight to the jewelry store. He was still there! When he finally came out, he looked really embarrassed. I didn't dare ask if he had bought the ring right then!!

8. A few weeks later he came over to my apartment after work. He left his work bag by the door and headed toward the bathroom. As the door was closing he said I could look in his bag if I wanted. I peeked in and saw a box from the jewelry store. Not what I was expecting to see!! I didn't think this was his way of proposing... When he came out, I said that he shouldn't tell me to look in his bag unless he was planning on proposing. He was confused. He thought I would want to just SEE the ring. He had no plan to propose that day.

9. He proposed six months after we started dating. It was probably closer to 5.5 months, but who's counting? ;) I knew exactly when and where he was going to pop the question. He is adorable, but he is not Mr. Subtle. ;) Two or so weeks ahead of time, he had asked if we could go for a walk (on a specific date) to a certain park nearby. That was an odd request. We never planned walks--we just went on them. He had no idea I had figured it out. :) I was really busy and running on little sleep the days before the planned walk, but I made an effort to look cute that day. I even painted my nails the night before knowing there would be pictures taken of my hand! (I rarely painted my nails.) Just in case he didn't believe me that I knew he was proposing that day, I wrote a journal entry about a half hour before he arrived and planned to show it to him later as proof. :) And I secretly slipped the camera into one pocket and my cell phone into the other pocket as we were leaving for the walk--neither of which I would have otherwise brought along. It was a beautiful fall day, so I stopped to take a picture of the foliage as we entered the park. When I lowered the camera from my eyes, he was down on one knee.  :)

10. After taking some pictures of ourselves (including the one below), we started calling family to share the good news. We reached no one! We tried calling a few friends. Still no one! We were dying to share our news but there was no one to share it with.   :(  Four hours later we finally reached someone (my mom).

Bonus #11: I couldn't bear to tell him that I knew he was going to propose on that date until about a month into the engagement. He was so disappointed when I told him. He thought he had me totally surprised. I felt horrible.  :(