hopefulheidi
Shiny_Rock
- Joined
- Jan 10, 2005
- Messages
- 335
Where we left off…
BUSTED...he packed the ring in his carry on!!!!!
https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/busted-he-packed-the-ring-in-his-carry-on.73906/
As you can imagine I was totally freaking out when I confirmed that the ring box was really missing from its usual hiding spot. I tried to act as cool as possible but I desperately wanted to jump up and down and call everyone I know and there was a lot of shouting and cheering going on inside my head hehe. Instead I slyly posted on Pricescope and sent a few secret text messages since Nate was keeping a very close eye on me by that point. I finished planning with him what we would wear to the Christmas party and he did a very good job of acting as unconcerned as usual. I’m sure I was acting just as coolly 
Somehow I managed to fall asleep that night but I woke up incredibly excited Friday morning knowing that this could possibly be my last Friday as a single gal, my last plane ride as a girlfriend, my last few hours in TX without being engaged. It was a lot of emotion to try to hide. About half way through our first flight a horrible thought struck me. I was reminded of something Nate had said earlier, when the ring first arrived, about wanting to have someone to show it off to. He has work friends and whatnot, and he was tempted to carry it in with him one day to show them, but he didn’t think a bunch of 30+ year old guys would really care about seeing the ring. In that moment I suddenly wondered if I was getting all worked up for nothing and if he had just brought the ring along to show to his family while we were home!
Luckily for anyone reading this post, you’ve no doubt noticed the title of this post so you know how it all ends, but you can only imagine how conflicted I was at this point. A huge part of me wanted to enjoy the anticipation and looked forward to the possible proposal and the other bit of me wanted to protect myself from yet another disappointment. Talk about torture!
Everything was pretty normal on Saturday. We ran some errands, watched some TV, and chatted with his family…nothing out of the ordinary. As it got closer to party time I found myself increasingly distracted and I can’t even tell you how freaked out I was when we started to get dressed and I couldn’t get my hair to cooperate. Normally this family Christmas party is anxiety inducing enough because it’s little old me surrounded by 70+ members of Nate’s family and I probably only know about 20 of their names…you do the math. On this night however, the idea of a proposal was more than I could handle and when his parents suggested a pre party cocktail, it was game on!
I think I had finished my pink zinfandel long before we all gathered for a few family photos but I was still able to look somewhat alert in the resulting pictures…
Can you tell which of us looks more nervous?
It wasn’t long before the first guests started arriving and I seem to recall hitting up the wine bar a number of times after that point. Nate was doing a pretty good job of keeping up with me until he unexpectedly stopped drinking (highly unusual behavior at any family function I know). I kept asking him when we’d be able to sneak into the guest room to hang out with his sister and her boyfriend and to avoid one of his crazier aunts and he kept telling me to wait a bit. He had agreed on that particular plan the day before although he had curiously asked if I would watch Santa deliver presents to all of the little kids when the time arose which was also quite suspicious. Of all of these family Christmas parties that I’ve attended, Santa has only brought gifts for us the first time and after that we all determined that Nate and I were a bit too old to participate in this event so it was weird that he would want to watch it this year. Still, he was acting very calm, so I was beginning to have my doubts that this was the big night.
After about 100 adults and almost 40 kids had piled into the house, Santa and Mrs. Claus finally arrived with their sack full of gifts. Nate and I stood in a room just next door to the living room chatting with a family friend about vacations and Las Vegas and some sort of insurance that her kids have begun investing in and he didn’t seem all that hurried to see Santa so I continued drinking and chatting and waiting.
At one point he left the room and peered into the living room and came back to where I was standing. Without apologizing to the woman I was chatting with, he grabbed my hand and started pulling me out into the hallway saying “Come watch Santa with me.”
About that point it really started to click but I was feeling pretty relaxed so I didn’t freak out entirely. I watched as Nate’s younger and handicapped brother was called up to Santa’s side to receive a gift and I remember saying something about that being awfully sweet and then I watched as Nate walked up to Santa and was handed a small gift bag. He turned towards the crowd and pulled out a small red cardboard box that said Museum Company on it. Then I heard him say something to the effect of “Thanks Santa, this is definitely what I wanted.” I’m not really sure what happened after that but I found myself being pushed into the room to stand next to Nate as I watched him pull a small black ring box from inside the now opened red box. This kind of threw me for a loop because *my* ring’s box is red and wooden so I was a bit confused, but it didn’t take long for me to get up to speed.
One would think that picking out the stone, picking out the ring, trying on the ring, taking photos of the ring, wearing the ring around the house when Nate wasn’t around and having a good idea of exactly when the proposal would happen would take some of the element of surprise out of it for me but I’ve gotta tell you, I was almost as shocked as anybody when Nate got down on one knee in front of me (and basically everyone he knows), opened the ring box and said “Will you Marry me?”.
Or at least I think that’s what he said. Honestly he could have told me the moon was made out of green cheese because I really wasn’t hearing or seeing much of anything at that point. It was just he and I in that moment as I clasped my hands over my mouth in a look of pure surprise and starting crying. As I stared into his face I saw that he was teary eyed as well. It was an amazing moment.
I’m fairly certain I said yes then or I at least know I shook my head yes, but Nate just stayed there, on one knee, with the ring box open for what felt like an eternity. After what was probably only a couple of seconds I asked him “Well aren’t you going to put the ring on my finger?” and I’m guessing he did (or maybe I did eheh who knows) because the next thing I knew we were hugging and I was bawling like a baby and I’m sure people were clapping and cheering but I was in my own little world.
And that''s basically the story of how I ended my almost 3 year stay on the amazing Ladies in Waiting List!!
Thank you all so very much for your advice, support, and well wishes
P.S. If I can ever get his family to send me photos from the actual proposal I''ll be sure to share them with you guys as I''m sure they''ll be quite entertaining
~Heidi
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