Engagment

It was October 3, 2014 and I was up in Madison visiting Josh. The weekend before I planned a date for us, so this weekend it was Josh’s turn. We spent the day pretty relaxed in his apartment, watching movies and catching up, and of course I was grilling him about when he might decide to put a ring on it.

He kept saying things like, “soon” or “I’m in the process of looking at rings.” Well ladies, those two phrases don’t mean the same thing. If you haven’t picked out a ring yet, that means it won’t be soon. So I was super frustrated. I think if I heard him say “soon” one more time I would have lost it. Especially since that had been his favorite word to use in this discussion for the entire previous year. Since I wasn’t happy, I was being kind of a brat and truthfully didn’t care about anything else.

When the time rolled around for us to start the date Josh planned, we ate dinner in his apartment and then he grabbed this duffle bag and off we went. We walked towards the school, and it was dark and pretty quiet. On the top of Bascom Hill he opened his duffle and laid out a blanket. From where we were sitting we could see all the way down State St. to the Capitol. It was gorgeous.

He explained to me that since one of our favorite things to do was lay out on the deck at my house to look at the stars, this was the next best thing. We sat there talking about our memories, shared funny stories, and discussed where we wanted to be in the future. He reached into the duffle again and pulled out two Cokes and Sour Patch Kids, my two favorite things.

As the conversation continued the temperature dropped so we decided to head in. Josh threw the blankets in the duffle and I started toward the apartment.

He called me back to him, and hugged me.

Then he started saying all kinds of beautiful things, and the one that sticks out the most was him saying he feels at home when he is with me. He then let go of me, got down on one knee and said, “I spoke to your father…. Will you marry me?”

Shock is kind of an understatement for that moment. I couldn’t believe it was actually happening. I was ecstatic and couldn’t find the words. (Of course I said yes). He stood back up and placed the most beautiful ring on my hand. His voice was shaky, and we both just enjoyed the moment.

It was absolutely perfect.