There are a lot of things that have happened over the past month. I've done a couple of races, including a Thanksgiving day Turkey Trot where I PRed a 10K with 1:11:41. I ran a Santa Shuffle in Moultrie with milk, cookies, and Santa at the end. It was a lot of fun, although mostly filled with people who don't run races. I defended my prospectus and now I'm all set for dissertation research. I went to Kentucky where I met my very first nephew, Grant. All of that is wonderful. All of it marks my personal, academic, and professional successes, but something happened last night that changed everything.
Really, it changed everything.
Brandon and I got engaged!
He did the whole thing beautifully and I wanted to write it here because I wanted to share it and also because I want to remember it before too much time passes for me and I start to get the details fuzzy.
I came down to Moultrie on Christmasday from Kentucky. Our family celebrations were a little different this year so the whole family went home on the twenty-fifth and instead of going home with my parents I drove straight to Brandon's apartment. Brandon took me to the family farm where all of his immediate family was in for the holiday. We spent the evening eating leftover Christmas dinner and watching holiday movies. I spent the night at Brandon's apartment and he stayed at his parents' house.
The next morning I came over and Brandon's mother made the family pancakes for breakfast. Brandon and I then went and saw what may be the most depressing movie about marriage ever, This is Forty. We really wanted to like it; I really wanted to like it, but I just couldn't. Brandon dropped me off at his apartment and went to run some errands, I stayed to put on a dress and get ready for a dinner in town. Brandon told me he wanted to take me on a date since we hadn't seen each other in over a week and because his house was really busy with people. He also wanted to take me to drive under the Moultrie Christmas lights as they turn them off on the thirty-first and I wouldn't be back before the New Year. On Thanksgiving night we went to the Christmas tree and lighting ceremony and throughout December we'd driven under them several times.
When he asked me where I wanted to go I picked Mexican, so we went to El Cantador, a local place in the Wal-Mart plaza. Later when he asked me if I knew what was happening all I could think was 'Chips! I just got engaged and I ate chips! No one eats chips right before they get engaged.'
After dinner we drove to the Moultrie downtown center by the courthouse. I was wearing a dress, gloves, a scarf, and my new coat that I got for Christmas. I had bare legs so I was freezing in the wind, I mean really, my teeth were actually chattering. Brandon and I were walking and he started to tell me that he had been praying for us in the car earlier today, while running his errands. He had been praying for our future and some of the plans we'd been talking about, including marriage. He then told me that he'd been praying for his wife for years before he met me and that after he met me he started praying for me specifically. At some point he realized that the wife he'd been praying for and his prayers for me were for the same person.
Then he got down on one knee and the rest gets a bit blurry but I know he asked me to marry him. I looked at him and then I bent down and kissed him and looked at him again. He said that he knew what my answer would be but I took forever to actually answer him.
"Everyday yes. Everyday yes. Yes, everyday, always." Or, really, something almost exactly like that. I really wanted to say that phrase. I'd thought about it. I wanted to say 'everyday yes' because I wanted to tell him that if he asked me again in a week, in seven years, and in twenty three years and so on that my answer would still be the same and that everyday I would make the same decision.
And so now Brandon and I are engaged. We will be getting married this summer in June. We are both overwhelmed with excitement and I am happier then I knew I could be, then I thought I deserved. This relationship is the answer to many prayers.
The next six months cannot pass soon enough.
Brandon and I got engaged!
He did the whole thing beautifully and I wanted to write it here because I wanted to share it and also because I want to remember it before too much time passes for me and I start to get the details fuzzy.
I came down to Moultrie on Christmasday from Kentucky. Our family celebrations were a little different this year so the whole family went home on the twenty-fifth and instead of going home with my parents I drove straight to Brandon's apartment. Brandon took me to the family farm where all of his immediate family was in for the holiday. We spent the evening eating leftover Christmas dinner and watching holiday movies. I spent the night at Brandon's apartment and he stayed at his parents' house.
The next morning I came over and Brandon's mother made the family pancakes for breakfast. Brandon and I then went and saw what may be the most depressing movie about marriage ever, This is Forty. We really wanted to like it; I really wanted to like it, but I just couldn't. Brandon dropped me off at his apartment and went to run some errands, I stayed to put on a dress and get ready for a dinner in town. Brandon told me he wanted to take me on a date since we hadn't seen each other in over a week and because his house was really busy with people. He also wanted to take me to drive under the Moultrie Christmas lights as they turn them off on the thirty-first and I wouldn't be back before the New Year. On Thanksgiving night we went to the Christmas tree and lighting ceremony and throughout December we'd driven under them several times.
When he asked me where I wanted to go I picked Mexican, so we went to El Cantador, a local place in the Wal-Mart plaza. Later when he asked me if I knew what was happening all I could think was 'Chips! I just got engaged and I ate chips! No one eats chips right before they get engaged.'
After dinner we drove to the Moultrie downtown center by the courthouse. I was wearing a dress, gloves, a scarf, and my new coat that I got for Christmas. I had bare legs so I was freezing in the wind, I mean really, my teeth were actually chattering. Brandon and I were walking and he started to tell me that he had been praying for us in the car earlier today, while running his errands. He had been praying for our future and some of the plans we'd been talking about, including marriage. He then told me that he'd been praying for his wife for years before he met me and that after he met me he started praying for me specifically. At some point he realized that the wife he'd been praying for and his prayers for me were for the same person.
Then he got down on one knee and the rest gets a bit blurry but I know he asked me to marry him. I looked at him and then I bent down and kissed him and looked at him again. He said that he knew what my answer would be but I took forever to actually answer him.
"Everyday yes. Everyday yes. Yes, everyday, always." Or, really, something almost exactly like that. I really wanted to say that phrase. I'd thought about it. I wanted to say 'everyday yes' because I wanted to tell him that if he asked me again in a week, in seven years, and in twenty three years and so on that my answer would still be the same and that everyday I would make the same decision.
And so now Brandon and I are engaged. We will be getting married this summer in June. We are both overwhelmed with excitement and I am happier then I knew I could be, then I thought I deserved. This relationship is the answer to many prayers.
The next six months cannot pass soon enough.
