Engagement

So I am getting married! August 7th, in the St. Louis temple! It's all kind of crazy and a bit unexpected. I should put the story here, with some pictures of the ring, since people have asked for it.

It's funny, because back in January, I went to the wedding of a young girl in my branch, and got depressed by it. Something about it really got to me, and I had to get a blessing of comfort from my branch president. The blessing worked wonders though, and I went on with my life as normal.

I moved into my grandparents house in mid-January to house-sit for them, as they had just bought a home in Independence and fixed it up. They weren't planning on moving there until May, and wanted someone in it, keeping an eye on things. So I moved in, and in February, a friend of mine, Tara Miller, moved in with me. Early that month, near Ground-hog day, I went to a family home evening activity with the branch where we played games in groups. I ended up in a group with Michael Blake. I had known him ever since I had moved out to Missouri, he had three siblings in the branch, and his family was one of those families everyone knows and looks up to. I had never really thought about Mike as anything other than a nice guy, partly because he had been dating someone when I first moved there.

We had a really fun time that night, we talked a lot and joked. I left, thinking how nice he was. He started chatting with me a bit on Facebook after that, and then I decided to have a party for Valentine's day. I called it Anti-Valentines, and invited the single people in the branch. I had tried once before to have a party, but it had flopped, noone came, so I hoped this would go better. Mike got their first with his brother Jeff, and I showed them around while we waited for everyone else to show. He enjoyed my books and my computer.

A handful of people showed up, and we had a really fun night. By the time it was over, Mike and I were talking about everything. When he left, my roommate asked me, and I quote, "Is he macking on you?"

Anyway, we spent the next week chatting on Facebook everyday, and then, on Thursday, he tagged me in this.

I was surprised! I hadn't been asked out in a long time! In fact, it took the message he sent me at the same time to convince me that he really meant to ask me out. I was also pretty sick at the time, but determined to go anyway. So I told him I'd go.

The date was lots of fun, we went to eat and to a movie, and when he dropped me off, he sad he'd like to go out with me again. I said for sure!

Over the next week, he began texting me, as well as chatting with me online. I had to upgrade my text plan twice by the time we became serious. As he kept texting me and talking to me, I got the feeling that he was planning on asking me out for the next weekend, but I had promised my aunt and uncle I'd watch their kids. So, I decided, with some prodding from Uncle Bruce, to ask him to come help me with the kids. I was realy nervous, who asks a guy out to babysit! But it went really well. In fact, he said it was the best date he had ever been on, and still is, last I checked.
After that, things really took off. The next week we spent almost everyday together, and continued to do so for the next couple of months. He started talking about marriage pretty quickly, although he made silly jokes for the most part at first. He kissed me for the first time on my birthday, May 7th.

About the middle of May, Mike went out of town for a school trip. He left me a bag of goodies for while he was gone with a different trip. The day before I went out of town, I found this in my box of Goldfish.




I was at work, so I called Liz and had her check the other boxes. This is what the collection held.
The deck of cards explained it was a riddle I needed to solve. It took me about five seconds once I reallized what everything was: "Wheel u Mary Me?"

I went out of town the next morning, and while I was gone, Lizzie delivered my answer, two eyes and Captain Crunch (Aye, Aye Captain!) When I got back, Mike picked me up at the airport with this:







He asked me officially, down on both knees actually. So we were engaged. I love my ring! And I love my Mike!