Part 4: How to totally ruin an engagement

At first I was going to stop with part 3, but decided that it just didn't seem "finished."  Therefore I will bring you all the way through the engagement.  I'm not doing the wedding because frankly, that whole day was a big blur to me (as were the planning months leading up to it).  I just know I was deliriously happy.  End of story.  Anyways, where we left off in Part 3, Matt and I had gotten over our first little tiff and were well on our way to blissful dating.  We actually spent four months in totally different states while he was back in KY and I was still in FL.  We took turns flying to see each other every few weeks, spending time with one anothers' families and just doing the long distance dating thing.  It actually went pretty smoothly.  Matt finally made the move down to FL permanently and we got engaged shortly after that.

One of Matt's trips to see me (and Bat Dog)

Now, we had talked about engagement and had even been to look at rings.  I knew it was coming, but we had also been dating for just 7 months, so I thought it may not be coming for a little while.  You know, so we didn't totally send my parents into cardiac arrest.  I initially liked the idea of waiting till we had been dating for a year, but if you know me at all, you know I am the most impatient person ever.  Especially when I know something is coming.  Give it to me now.  I want it now.  You get the idea.

Like I said, we had been to look at rings a few times.  Matt knew what I liked.  I'm pretty specific.  Fast forward to the day before his birthday.  I get home from work and decide I want to go and check out rings.  You know, to see if they got in anything new.  I inform Matt of this and after some hem hawing around, he says ok.  First problem...the hem hawing.  Not only am I impatient, I'm also a little on the over-reactive side.  In all of 5 seconds I have gotten myself in a tizzy because I don't understand why he isn't jumping up and down at the idea of ring shopping for the millionth time.  Whatever.  I decide to let it slide.  We get to the store we had become very acquainted with and I start perusing.

I need to stop right here and say that unbeknowest to me, Matt had already bought my ring a week ago!  From this store!!  And literally picked it up on his way home from work 1 hour ago!!!  Oh, and it was still in his pocket in its pretty little red box.  As soon as I had said I wanted to go ring shopping, he had called the store and told them the situation and to just act like they hadn't seem him an hour ago and show me some rings, but whatever they do, don't show me the style he had actually picked out.  Lord knows the $#&% would have hit the fan if they pulled that one out and I said it was ugly or something.

So I'm trying on different styles, looking at different diamonds and of course asking Matt what he thinks about every single one.  What kind of responses do I get from Matt?  "Eh, it's ok."  "You sure you like that one?"  "I guess that one's fine."  "Want to go grab a bite to eat?"  Livid.  I am seething at this point.  He is acting completely disinterested which I of course translate as meaning he is disinterested in the whole idea of getting engaged.  We leave the store, get in the car and I immediately bust out the cold shoulder.   Looking out window, one word answers, pretending to be asleep.  The whole nine yards.  I think I actually cried and accused him of not wanting to marry me.  Impatient, over-reactive, oh, and a little dramatic too.  Pretty sure I should be a trial lawyer.

We get home and I am in full fledged pouting mode, even though Matt has assured me multiple times that he does want to get engaged and that it will be soon, just be patient.  Ha!  I'm still pouting. Matt comes behind me and drops some bridal magazines in my lap and says how he knows I'm just excited and want to start planning, so he picked up some magazines for me so I could start looking and getting ideas.  Well, the magazines did perk me up a little.  I decided that if he actually took the time to go to a store and pick out some bridal magazines, he must want to get married.  I thank him and start flipping through.  Then he starts saying how he thought about it, and giving me these magazines without having given me a ring yet is kind of cruel and before I start making plans for a real wedding, I should have my real ring. 

I'll never forget that feeling in my stomach.  I knew where this was going (unless he was just really cruel and was going to snatch the magazines back) and I knew that when I turned around he would be down on one knee.  It was like I almost didn't want to turn around because the anticipation was such a high.  I think I just sat there for a few seconds with a big dopey grin on my face.  I finally did turn around, and he was on one knee, and he did have the most beautiful ring I had ever seen (and I literally had not seen it because he picked something completely different from what I had looked at).  I couldn't even believe it...total and complete shock.  I've seriously never been so shocked in my life.

Of course I apologized profusely.  Matt explained to me how he had all these plans for the proposal and was going to wait until my parents were back in town (they were visiting family somewhere), but then he could tell I was really upset and started feeling bad.  Plus in all honesty, Matt is just as impatient as me.  We can barely make it to Christmas Day without opening each others' gifts.  Deep down he was probably dying to whip the ring out of his pocket as soon as he got it.  Regardless, the spontaneity of it was so perfectly us.

Weekend we got engaged

Lessons learned:
1. Patience is a virtue
2. That's one virtue I do not have

So that's our "story." It's not knock your socks off amazing or romantic, but it's so perfectly us. It's crazy how one little thing or event can totally change the course of your life. Matt and I were heading in completely different directions, and then all of a sudden God intervenes and does something amazing. How someone cannot believe in fate and God's plan is beyond me.