The Big Proposal

Okay, so I was working the Bri dal Fair yesterday, and of course, it got me to thinking all about when I first got engaged, and I realised I had never blogged that particular story, so here goes. Let's travel back in time- November of 2001. Caleb and I had been dating on and off for about two and a half years. We had talked about getting married some, but not enough that I was all that suspicious when he said that he was comming to Kansas City to visit me over Thanksgiving Break. He spent that friday morning playing pool with my Dad, which I didn't find out of the ordinary, cause they do that, but apparently he was asking if he could marry me. My dad said, "Are you sure you want to do that? She is really high maintience." Thanks dad. Anyways, when they emerged from the basement, Caleb told me that he had our whole day planned, and he wanted to take me out to lunch. He wanted me to get all dressed up, but I told him that all my dresses were at college! All I had brought home with me was jeans and sweaters and stuff. He said, no problem, he had raided my closet before he left, and had several options for me to choose from. Now, I will say that the dresses he chose we nice and everthing, but the shoes that he brought to go with them, were definatley not the shoes I would have picked to go with them, so the whole time we were walking around down on the plaza I swore people were staring at my shoes! Anyways, so we both get dressed up, we get in his car, and there is a big bouquet of flowers and a little wrapped present. I was like, "Is this for me?" and he was like, "The flowers are for you, but the present is a birthday present for my mom." I am still not tipped off that something is going on here, so I totally believe him. I did think he was acting a little wierd, though, all sweaty and nervousy. But I swear I didn't really put two and two together. So we are driving along, and I was like "So what did you get your mom for her birthday?" And he was like "I haven't gotten her anything yet." And I held up the little box and gave him a look like "you are crazy", and he blushed and said I would just have to wait to see what was in that. So now I am suspicious. But you should know that the box was not ring box size. It was sort of book size. So I wasn't really sure what was going on. We went to the cheesecake factory, which is one of my all time favorite restaurants. Caleb brought the box in the restaurant with him, but he won't let me open it, and I keep waiting for him to do something with it, but it just sits there on the table all through lunch. We finish eating, and Caleb suggests that we go for a walk in the park. He took me to English Landing park, in parkville and we walked along the river. By this time it is dark out, and I am starting to get cold, so I asked if I could wear his jacket and he said "NO". Which I thought was odd, but I still wasn't really sure what was going on. So we sit down on this bench, overlooking the river, and he says I can open my present now. It was a photo album that he had created. He had taken all these pictures around Bolivar, and added a question that went with each of them, like "Will you always remember where we began?" and it had a picture of the dorm that I lived in when we first started dating. "Will you make a way where there is no way?" a picture of a bulldozer. "Will you continue to grow spiritually? a picture of our church. Finally, the last question was "Will you walk through this life with me? Will you be my wife?" I looked over at him, as he was just sitting there on the bench next to me, and I was like "Are you really asking me?" and he was like "Oh yeah, this is the part where I get down on my knee, huh?" And he did, and I said yes, and the rest is history.