On to the engagement story...
So for the past month I've been antsy. I was trying to be patient, but hey, I'm a girl and I dream and I wonder...so yes, almost every time Mike and I hung out one on one, I wondered if "this is the night he's going to propose?!"
So Friday night I had wonders if he would propose, but didn't want to get my hopes up too high. He had told me about a week and a half ago that he wanted to carve pumpkins. I started thinking about him proposing by carving out "will you marry me?" in a pumpkin. HEY, remember now, I'm a girl...AND we met 4 years ago (possibly to the day) at a pumpkin carving party. So the wheels in my head were turning.
BUT, like I said, I went into the night thinking, "Heidi, just have fun and relax."
So, Mike picked me up at 6pm. He said how hungry he was and asked if I wanted Jimmy John's. Our favorite place to eat :) At Jimmy John's he said, "How about we take it to my place? It's loud in here anyways." As we were driving away I said, "Oh, where are we going to get the pumpkins from?" And he quickly replied that he had already gotten them for us. HMMM...my wheels really got going.
On the way to Mike's house he suggested that we get Juice Stop. Another favorite of ours. So we took our Jimmy John's and Juice Stop and headed to Mike's house to eat. When we got there, we noticed an amazing sunset...we both REALLY love watching the sunset together :)
We then ate dinner and then Mike suggested that we carve our pumpkins. I was thinking, "oh boy, here it goes!" We decided to not show one another what we were carving until the very end. We baked some pumpkin seeds while carving, then showed each other our pumpkins. "One, two, three, go!" Haha. Mike carved a funny face, while I carved a romantic Eye Heart U. No proposal here.
Mike then suggested we go on a walk. We love taking walks together. We usually go right outside of his apartment. As we got outside, I turned to go to the bike trail and Mike said, "Actually, lets drive somewhere to go for a walk. Does that sound fun? You know me, and I like to be adventurous!" I was a little confused but decided it was better to just go with the flow. In the car I asked which park we should go to. Mike quickly responded with "How about the Big Sioux Rec Area out in Brandon?! How about we climb the hill to lookout over Brandon?!" One of our favorite parks :)
As we arrived at the park, we realized that we needed many layers of clothing and a flashlight to find the trails. It was quite the adventure finding the trails, but the stars were out and it was actually a really beautiful night...just a bit cold! As we started approaching the hill, I looked ahead. I figured if he was going to propose that there would be candles or something lit up. When I didn't see anything, I tried to put to rest my hopes of becoming a fiance Friday night. We got to the top and stood there looking out over Brandon. Suddenly Mike stated, "I'm hot. I'm going to go take off my jacket." I was a little confused as it was only 40 degrees out, but didn't ask questions. He went over behind a bench and bent over.
All of a sudden I was surrounded by Christmas lights lit up!!
Mike had bent over to plug them into the car battery he had hauled up there earlier that day!
I yelled out, "OH MY! Oh my goodness, Oh my goodness! Is this really happening? Am I dreaming? The lights are beautiful!" I jabbered on for a while as Mike pulled me to the center of the lights and got down on his knee. I couldn't believe this was ACTUALLY happening!
He then said some things about God's plan for our lives and how he brought us back together. I was so giddy and looking all around and laughing. Finally he grabbed my hands and said, "Heidi! Focus!" I was like, "OH OK!" And he said, "Heidi, I love you! Will you marry me?" I responded quickly with, "I WILL! YES! Of course! FINALLY!!" We then enjoyed the moment in each others arms. I went over to one of the Christmas lights to take a peak at what my ring looked like!
We grabbed some pictures and Mike gave me a dozen red roses :) Roses...another love of mine.
At the end, Mike said, "Ok, this is the not so romantic part! We have to clean all this up!" Needless to say, Mike cleaned up while I stood there smelling the roses and looking at my ring under the flashlight.
As we made our way back down the hill, and arrived at the car, Mike's friend was there switching out the cars. I must rewind for a moment. Way back in April 2009, Mike took me out in his old Camero on our first date. While we were eating at a restaurant one of his friends came to switch out the cars. SO, it was only fitting that our first ride as an engaged couple was in his old Camero :)
SO, there ya have it! He did an amazing job and gave me a more beautiful ring than I could have dreamt of. More than that, I am so blessed to be engaged to the man that I love and will call my husband soon!
