The History of Us: Part 3 (The Proposal)

Brief recap: NAU, dumb jock, change of heart, Fazolis, near-concussion...that should bring us up to speed. So we were in love and finally free to show it (and obviously I felt free to wear overalls).

There was a water-ski trip with friends (where I discovered how hairy my future mate's chest was...but I didn't turn back, just good to know what I was getting myself into).

Then there was the meeting-each-other's families officially (though we had each met them before) and a trip to my grandparents' ranch in Utah with mine.

There was the tractor-driving lesson with my dad (which I'm sure was super awkward for both of them). Jeremy's job was to scoop manure the whole week. I'm sure there wasn't any strategy in giving him that job to do.

Then I went to Mongolia for 2 months.

 

And then, the Proposal. I'm just gonna say as an introduction: Ladies, if you want a good proposal, stick your beau in a boring internship for the summer and leave the country so that all he has to do with his time is miss you and plan your engagement. Jeremy came to LA (for pretty much the first time in his life) to see me when I got back from Mongolia. We knew we were going to get engaged but I didn't expect it to be the first thing we did when we saw each other. I was pretty sure it was starting when he pulled a large envelope out of his bag by the baggage claim at LAX.

I was a little stressed that it was happening so fast and in such an unromantic setting...I mean I hadn't even had a chance to tell him about my trip or make sure that I still liked him. But there he was, telling me we were going on a Bigger and Better Scavenger Hunt and handing me a ring box as the first gift. The card that went with it said "An excellent wife, who can find? For her worth is far above jewels. The heart of her husband trusts in her, and he will have no lack of gain. She does him good and not evil all the days of her life." If that doesn't look and sound like the set-up to a proposal, I don't know what is. But, luckily for Jeremy, he was playing a little trick on me and the box was filled with lifesavers. The second clue said to go have lunch where the sailboats come in and the card read, "...She is like merchant ships, she brings her food from afar...". He gave me a glass sailboat (as a bigger and better gift), and we ate here: 

I was beginning to catch on that we were on a Proverbs 31 based scavenger hunt and that the proposal would come at the end. There were a lot of verses, so I was relieved that we would have the whole day to spend together before what I assumed would be the Big Question (though I was really very sure what the answer to the Big Question would be). Jeremy was so smooth with giving me directions and never acting stressed about where we were going or if we were going to make the next location on time--I really couldn't believe how well he had it planned out. The next card said, "...With her earnings, she plants a vineyard and her lamp does not go out at night...". We went to the San Antonio Winery, which seems like a cool place, but we're not really wine-drinkers and there was supposed to be live jazz, but it ended up just being a big guy on a keyboard singing awkwardly to us. My gift was candles. 

The next card said (in part) "...she extends her hand to the needy. She is not afraid of the snow...". My gift was snowboarding lessons in a snow globe. We went to the Union Rescue Mission on Skid Row and served the homeless together. 

Next was "She makes coverings for herself; her clothing is fine linen and purple. Her husband is known in the gates as he sits among the elders of the land...". Jeremy had me drive up into the hills of Hollywood, into a neighborhood of hillside mansions and houses. I had no idea what his plan was. He had me stop in front of a house and gave me my next gift, a cold-weather sleeping bag. Then he handed me a key and pointed to a gate.

We had connections through our friend in Tucson, Psalm, to the private gardens in the backyard of someone's home that are set up as an artist's haven...you have to have a key to get in and you are not allowed to take pictures.  Psalm's aunt had lived around the corner and his family was given a key when she passed away because the owners had planted a tree there in her honor.  We watched the sun set over LA and signed our names together in the guest book.  It was so surreal!

Then we were on to dinner. The clue read "It is near the Union Rescue Mission, but this time others will serve us." The card had these verses: "Strength and dignity are her clothing and she smiles at the future. She opens her mouth in wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue. She looks well to the ways of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness." (Sort of cool how the two verses that mention food in the passage are at the beginning and near the end--spaced apart for lunch and dinner). He gave me a shirt and we ate here (right in the center of downtown--and there was a bride and groom taking pictures on the steps across the street while we ate).

It seemed that we both could sense the significance of the final stop on our scavenger hunt, and we lingered over dinner long after they had cleared our plates and taken the bill.  We finally left and drove for a long time...and ended up here (but it was dark, so we couldn't see the view).

Jeremy said many lovely things and there were verses and a card and a flashlight and he was on his knee...and there was a ring and I said yes!

We jumped into wedding planning, and I sure had fun telling and retelling our engagement story when I got back to NAU for my senior year and our last semester there together before Jeremy graduated.

When I fell in love with Jeremy, I had never seen his romantic side...in fact, it took me by surprise! He blew me away with his proposal, and also with my birthday a month later...it involved dinner cooked on his truck in the woods at the ruins of an old stone house with candles and wildflowers and lightning and dancing (and even a young man in a suit who parked the car as our valet, then came around and greeted us as the host, then seated us, then came back in and introduced himself as the waiter and then helped prepare the food...and I think, looking back at the pictures, helped tow Jeremy's truck when we realized it had been parked in a hole. I don't even know if we tipped him, come to think of it!).

Oh, and my apartment was filled with friends for a surprise party when we got back!

The semester was filled with enjoying Flagstaff and friends, mourning the loss of my roommate, Sarah Warren in a car accident, dancing (in the overalls again!), and Jeremy's graduation.

The spring semester was far less fun with stressful wedding planning, student teaching, and living apart because Jeremy had graduated and was living in Southern CA. But we made it...and at my graduation I sat with 3 classmates who were also getting married within the next month and we clearly had more important things to talk about than to listen to the keynote speaker.

Two weeks until May 28th...the wedding!