The Proposal

So as most of you know (since most people who read this blog are my family) I am engaged to be married. And I was asked by my future cousin-in-law to relay the story of the proposal. And here it is. But first, we must start off with a story that seems unrelated but all will be revealed in due time.

About a year ago, Derek (my fiance for those of you in my family who don't know, which I hope is no one...), my brothers Beau and Christopher, my best friend Ashley, and I all went sledding down the street from my house at Rock Canyon Park. It was just an average night, around 10:00 pm and we were all enjoying ourselves.

For those of you who don't know Rock Canyon Park, it is basically a giant bowl. There's really no other way to describe it. It's like there was one HUGE hill and someone carved out the middle down to the bottom. So once you climb the hill, you can either sled into the bowl, or go down the other side which leads you away.

Well anyway, all the hills are different sizes and steepness. We were mainly on the smaller hill for most of the night but we decided to go on the biggest hill that was way steep. We all went down it a few times without a hitch. But of course, it didn't last for long. When I went down it again, I hit a jump that some other kid made, fell off my sled and face planted right onto a sheet of ice at the bottom of the hill. I saw stars. No lie. I've always wondered what it would be like and if that were real and apparently, it is. I cut open my cheek underneath my right eye, as well as receiving a beautiful shiner that lasted almost a month. Once it turned green and yellow, I earned the nickname "Skittles" at work because they said my black eye looked like someone's hand after holding a bunch of skittles in it.

Well back to the proposal. On January 6th of this year, I woke up. Crazy, I know. I went upstairs and noticed it was snowing, which was depressing. Upon looking out the front window to see how much was snowing, I noticed Derek's Toyota Camry was in front of Ashley's house. She lives across the street from me. I found this slightly odd, because it was 10:00 am and he was supposed to be at work. So I sent him a text asking him why he was at my best friend's house, to which he replied that I needed to go back to bed before I ruin him.

I took a shower instead and after becoming squeaky clean, I opened my door and nearly screamed when I ran into something. At eye height, there was an envelope that had my name on it. It was taped to the door frame. Behind it, on the pool table that is outside my bathroom, was a vase with a single rose and another envelope which had a number 1 on it.

As I finished reading both letters, I got a text message from my best friend Ashley who told me to come over as quick as possible. When I got there, there was another vase that had two roses, and another envelope with a 2.

After finishing that one, another text message proceeded to jingle my phone. It was from Derek's brother Michael, asking if I could come down to his apartment really quick. So of course I went to my car, where a third vase sat, with three roses and a third envelope. Finishing at Michael's, (where there was obviously the fourth vase, etc.) I got one last text asking to come to my friend's house, where I picked up the fifth one.

In all the notes, they simply said, "I love you" and gave me reasons why Derek and I are meant to be together. They were really sweet.

At 5:30ish, Derek got off work and came up to my house. We went out to dinner at Olive Garden and came back to my house to get geared up to go sledding.

Once we had put on so many layers that it felt like I was melting, we headed down to the same bowl as mentioned above. We went down the mild hills, having fun and laughing. But after a while, Derek started to go toward the big hill. I kept saying that I didn't want to because I didn't want to push my luck after what happened the previous hill. But he just kept saying that I could just walk up with him and walk down when he was done.

So we trekked up the hill, wearing us both out of course, and resulting in having to sit down to breathe. We sat there for a while, looking at the view of the valley when he started to talk. He said that the hill reminded him of life: it was bumpy, you weren't sure if you were going to make it to the bottom; if you fall off all you can do is get back on and pray you make it the rest of the way, or you can just give up and stay there. But he said that, like life, it's much better to go down with someone else; someone you care about and that will help you get back on when you fall off. He said that with each other by our sides, we could accomplish anything. And he got up on one knee, pulled out a ring, and said, "Will you marry me?"

And of course I said yes. And no, I did not cry.

After that, we went down the hill together.

It was really corny and cheesy but it was so cute and sweet.

And so now, we are getting married on April 8th, 2009 at 5:30 pm. That is approximately 55 days, 15 hours, and 36 minutes from right now.

And that is how Derek proposed.