~ The Proposal ~

It was a Tuesday. The Tuesday before Christmas to be exact. The night before we had chatted it up with my brother and my two lovely roommates. We were all cuddled up on the couch and I was ranting and raving about how we had to do outfit changes the next day for Kyle’s family Christmas gathering. I didn’t get it. Why did we have to wear one outfit during the day and have to change for dinner?!?! This was Kyle’s family. Everyone brings their own respective dogs over and we all lounge around and just hang out. This was weird.

Kyle spent that night tossing and turning. This was unusual and normally wouldn’t be an issue but since we were back in the states and staying in the guest room of my house (awesome) and sleeping on a twin bed (double awesome) I couldn’t help but notice.

Tuesday morning arrives and little miss organized over here is getting the presents ready for the next two days worth of Christmas gatherings we were attending. My parents are divorced so Christmas is always a fun filled time with running all over Michigan trying to get family time in. Tuesday and Wednesday were with his parents, Thursday with my mom, Friday with my dad and then later at my aunt’s house….it’s a lot.

As I’m filtering through the gifts, Kyle just looks over at me and tells me not to worry about the presents. Not worry about the presents! “But honey, these have to go with us and we need to get the car loaded.” I think he is amused by me at this point because I’m just trying to get a move on because he had me on some crazy time schedule that day. Also weird. We “had” to leave by 11am…..and then his phone rang and he was talking to someone confirming that we would be somewhere….(This point is still pre-freak out for me as I’m completely gullible and oblivious to whats going on).

Finally, he tells me we are not going to his parents house that day which is why I didn’t need to worry about the presents. Then it hit me. (This is where I “get it” and start freaking out) OMG!!! Is he proposing?!?!? Seriously!?!?! I’m going to be engaged today!?!?!? Really??? I totally wasn’t expecting this…not today anyway. I thought for sure he wouldn’t propose until the spring or summer. This is my last day of being a single lady!?!? I was trying to finish getting ready and my head just kept spinning with freak out thoughts and excitement.

Then I wanted to cry. Really? This was going to happen today? How AWESOME! Then I realized I couldn’t cry because I didn’t want him to know that I suspected he might propose. So I pulled it together and off we went on our surprise day. First stop was Campus Martius in Downtown Detroit.

Hiding my excitement proved to be a difficult task. I hadn’t been out of the car for more than 4 ½ minutes before I spilled my mug of coffee all over myself. Nice. This was spill # 1 of the day. Ice skating was super duper fun! There was an ice rink set up by our apartment in Japan and we had meant to go and never got the chance before we left so Campus Martius was a perfect choice to start our day! Every time he would leave me I freaked out a little. I kept wondering if he was off to do something to propose…and then I had a really hard time not touching his pant pockets or coat pockets or looking in his bag when he opened it for his camera gear. Generally, we hold hands and put them in his coat pocket so we stay warm so avoiding him to a degree was kind of difficult!

Off to the next surprise – A night at the Westin Book Cadillac. If you haven’t been – GO! It’s awesome. We had a room on the top floor with gorgeous views of the city, the water and the bridge. We didn’t have  much time in the room before our next venture of the day. As I was still nervous and freaking out a little, I decided I would put on some lipstick. Kyle is amused by me once again and tells me I won’t need lipstick. Applying the lipstick was part of my dual effort to (1) calm my nerves and (2) ummm…he was going to propose so I wanted to look good!!!

He told me how silly I was going to feel applying lipstick but I really didn’t care…until we got to the spa and I realized I really didn’t need lipstick…silly Franny…I was relieved when they offered us a glass of wine and jumped all over that in a heart beat!!! So did Kyle. We were dressed in white robes and there I go again bringing on spill #2 of the day. Wine all over my robe! I’m so ridiculously smooth. Thankfully, it was white.

We had a couples massage which was a D-R-E-A-M. I heard the two ladies whispering to one another once the massage was near finished and once again, I was freaking out…did they know Kyle’s secret plan? Were they in on it too? Did he want to throw me off by proposing to me after we had a massage because I wouldn’t expect it??

No ring yet. After the massage we cleaned up and dressed up for dinner at Roast. Also super duper yummy if you’ve never been…I was kind of OK through dinner despite my having to run to the restroom every 35 seconds. Kyle is not the type to propose at the dinner table but since I knew it would be coming shortly thereafter, the nerves flared up again. I somehow managed to drop all of my silverware through dinner since I was so jittery. I can usually pull off some level of class but not this night…

Afterwards, we headed up to the room to lounge around in the bathrobes provided by the hotel. We ordered dessert (brownie sundae!) and Kyle surprised me with a bottle of champagne to top it off. We finished dessert and toasted to our love … then he asked. He said he brought me all this way to ask me to be his wife. After feeling thankful he had asked, I was also relieved because my nerves were shot by that point!!! It was such a special time for us and I love thinking of the moment and replaying it over and over in my head. I couldn’t believe he was my “F!” It was so strange to say the “F” word so we just kept say the “F” word in reference to the “F” word. We had to practice a few times as we found ourselves entering a new world as one another’s fiance’.

 

 

 

We all love a good love story! Tell us about your engagement!!!

~ My Love… ~

 

I never knew I could love someone so much until I met Kyle…I never knew I wouldn’t get sick of someone either until I met Kyle. I know…such a romantic.

We actually met by chance when I was 22. We hung around the same group of people and spent several New Year’s Eve’s together bringing in the new and saying “adieu” to the not so good  (we never kissed though!). I always thought he was kind of cute and wondered about him a little from time to time. He was never the type to parade women around so I never really knew what his story was. I had asked some of our mutual friends about it because he was just so cute and I knew he was one of the “good guys” out there.

Then came a time where I remember friends telling me that his company may be shipping him off to Japan for work. A few of us were going to dinner one night and we were meeting up at my place. Kyle was the first to show up. We chatted a little about the prospect of him leaving for Japan and I remember telling him what a FANTASTIC idea it was since he wasn’t tied down in a relationship, kids, etc. Who knew I’d end up here with him…didn’t see that one coming!!!

Our relationship started to develop a few months before he left for Japan. We went out occasionally as “more than friends” which was a little awkward at first since we had been friends for a few years already. Do we kiss…do we not?!? How do we talk about “us” in a way that would refer to “us” as not on a friend level anymore. Well, it was awkward for me. I think he may have had intentions for us as “more than friends” already which is actually super adorable and all a part of his secret plan to do cute things to make me fall in love with him. It worked!

I had struggled through a difficult period at that point in my life and thought the timing for a relationship was a little far fetched. I was going through a period of emotional turmoil and felt like a puppy that had been struck by its owner so venturing out for love was DEFINITELY not in my plans. I didn’t want to get close to anyone and stayed very closed off for a long time. He stuck by me though and was nothing less than the epitome of supportive and loving. I think I realized he was perfect when he told me that he was always going to be nice to me and one day I would wake up and know that he was telling me the truth and I would realize he is not going anywhere. Awww….I love him! It always comes when you’re least expecting it…doesn’t it??? You hear people say it and then one day you wake up and realize it just happened.

And so we began. We spent the next several months having a blast…concerts, dinner, bars, fireworks, friends, snuggling on the couch…it was awesome! Before we knew it, it was time for him to go to Japan…errr… So much for it being a good idea because he didn’t have ties…errrr again…

And so he was off. We spent mornings and evenings talking on the phone and discovered the beauty of Skype so we could see one another too. After a few visits home and one trip myself to Japan we decided we needed to make this relationship work either with him home or me in Japan with him….well, if you read the 411 of this blog, you’ve got our love story!

Who doesn’t love a good love story!?!? When did you know your guy was the one???